Windows 10 brings a lot of new features to the table. It also reworks a lot of the old ones to the state they should’ve been in at the launch of Windows 8. Old favourites such as AeroSnapping have been expanded, allowing you to organise your workspace a little easier, and finally we have the fabled ‘Task View’ button, allowing us to see all open applications at once – something that Apple users have had for years. There’s also command prompt now having copy and paste, and, of course, the hallowed DirectX 12 making its debut. But what other interesting tidbits has Microsoft given us to make our lives that little bit better?
1 SWITCH TO TABLET MODE
Windows 10 introduces a tablet mode, enabling touch office and a UI reminiscent of Windows 8. This should be activated by default during install on tablets, but for two-in-one laptops, you may need to jump between the two on the fly. To do this, open the Start menu and select ‘Settings’, then ‘System’. Here you’ll find the vast majority of your options for display, storage and power features, as well as the ‘Tablet Mode’ section. You can enable Tablet Mode and tell Windows how you want it to behave on sign in and mode switching.
2 AEROSNAPPING
Snapping programs to the sides of the screen was a feature introduced in Windows 7. In Windows 10, you can now snap applications to each corner, as well as to the sides, by left-clicking and dragging the top bar into a corner. You will also see a visual representation of how much screen space the application will take up. This makes it much easier to multi-task from multiple documents at any given time, especially now that 27-inch monitors, and bigger, are becoming more common.
3 CREATING A SECURE BACKUP
You’ll need around 120GB, or more, of excess storage on a separate partition to create a secure backup of your PC’s OS and important documents each week. Go to ‘Settings’ and select ‘Update & Security’, then click on ‘Back-up’ in the left-hand window. Click on the ‘+’ button and select the partition or drive you wish to use. Once done, select ‘more options’, then ‘See advanced settings’. Now click ‘System Image Backup’ in the bottom left-hand corner, and click ‘Set up Back-up’ on the righthand side of the screen. Highlight the drive you want to use for your backup and click ‘Next’, then ‘Let Windows Choose’. Hit ‘Next’ again. You can now set up the schedule, then press ‘Save settings and run backup’ and you’re done.
4 CORTANA ON CALL
When signed into your Microsoft account, you can use Cortana for all sorts of things, from searching the internet for answers, to setting calendar reminders or even sending emails. To get going, all you have to do is say “Hey Cortana” (making sure your mic or webcam is enabled) or type Cortana into the search bar at the bottom left-hand corner of your screen. To do this, you’ll need to sign into a Microsoft account.
5 ORGANISE MAIL ACCOUNTS INTO ONE
Mail has received a fresh new look as well, and keeping your emails all in one place is now considerably easier than it once was. Click the ‘Mail’ icon in your Start window, select ‘Add account’, select your email service and fill in the details. You can do this multiple times to increase the amount of email addresses you can have synced to the application. Once finished, select ‘Done’ and all your emails will be in one place.
6 UNINSTALLING THE OLD WINDOWS
So, are you positive that Windows 10 is your new home? Not bothered about going back? Well, you should probably remove those old operating systems clogging up your SSD. To uninstall the old bag of bones from your PC, click the Start menu, type ‘disk clean up’ and open the ‘Disk Clean Up’ application. Select which drive you have your previous editions installed on (most likely ‘C:’), press ‘OK’ and let Windows scan the drive. Scroll down the open window and tick ‘Previous Windows Installation(s)’ tab, select ‘Clean up system files’ and you’re done.