TIPS TO HELP YOU MASTER WINDOWS TEN

NEW RIBBON MENU IN FILE EXPLORER

Much like recent versions of Microsoft Office, the new File Explorer

uses what is called a Ribbon menu. When you click one of the

menu options near the top of the screen (File, Home, Share,

or View), this new menu will appear.

MAXIMIZE ANY WINDOW 

First, if you want to quickly maximize any window, just click and

hold the title bar, then drag it all the way to the top edge of your

screen. As soon as you let go of your mouse, the window

will be maximized.

LIVE TILES IN THE START MENU 

If you’ve used Windows 8, then you know all about Live Tiles, the

interactive and updated “icons” used to display information like

weather, news, and more. Well now they’re contained in the Start menu.

LIBRARIES MENU IN FILE EXPLORER

The old Libraries feature is nowhere in sight, but it isn’t gone.

Simply go to the View ribbon menu then click the “Navigation Pane”

option. From here, select the “Show Libraries” entry and it’ll

be back in the left-side pane.

INSTALL IT FOR FREE 

The greatest thing about Windows 10 is that it is 100 percent free.

All you have to do is upgrade and you’re ready to go.

GET BACK PRECIOUS HARD DRIVE SPACE 

When you upgrade from an older version of Windows to Windows 10,

a good chunk of your disk space is used to keep old system information

on hand, in case you decide to revert back. But if you value disk

space over easy rollbacks, you can reclaim around 20 GB

simply by removing these old files.

ENABLE DARK MODE SYSTEM-WIDE

The Edge browser comes with a Dark Mode, which can also be

applied to other menus and apps. Very simply, in the search bar,

just type in “regedit” without the quotes and click on the

disintegrating cube icon to launch the Registry Editor. Depending

on your security settings, User Account Control might prompt you

for permission. If so, simply click on “Yes.” On the left sidebar is

the directory structure. For the following, simply click on the

chevron next to the directory name to expand it and navigate down

the hierarchy. On the right pane, should be an empty area,

right-click and choose “New,” then “DWORD (32-bit) Value.” 

You should now see a new entry on the right pane called

“New Value #1” highlighted in blue. Rename the highlighted

field to “AppsUseLightTheme,” and you’ll now see a new entry in

the right pane called “AppsUseLightTheme” with a default value

set to 0. Just log out and log back in and you’re ready.

ENABLE CORTANA AND VOICE SEARCH 

Start by clicking the search box right next to the Start button in your

taskbar then click the Cortana icon in the bottom-left corner of the

pop-up, which looks like a circle just above the Windows logo.

Accept the agreement and Cortana will be ready to go, but keep

in mind that you’ll still need to activate the Voice Search Hotword.