Unlike the good old Start menu in Windows 7, the Start menu in Windows 10 do not come with an easy option to add the Run command. Many users prefer to have a clickable item to open the Run dialog. Personally, I love and always use Win + R keyboard shortcut, but for mouse and touchpad users who really miss the Run item in Windows 10's Start Menu, here is a very simple way to get something similar to Windows 7's Run command.
Category: Windows 10
How to see names and values of environment variables in Windows 10
Environment variables in an operating system are values that contain information about the system environment, and the currently logged in user. They existed in OSes before Windows as well, such as MS-DOS. Applications or services can use the information defined by environment variables to determine various things about the OS, for example, to detect the number of processes, the currently logged in user's name, the folder path to the current user's profile or the temporary files directory. In this article, we will see how to view environment variables defined in Windows 10 and their values for the current user and the system variables.
CLSID (GUID) shell location list in Windows 10
There are lots of shell locations in Windows 10, that you can access via shell:::{GUID} commands from the "Run" dialog. They are also known as "Shell Folders". With each version of Windows, many new shell locations are added. Here is the list of CLSID (GUID) shell locations available in Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
How to configure language settings in Windows 10
If you upgraded to Windows 10 directly from Windows 7, its new language options can look strange to you. Like Windows 8, Windows 10 comes with a "re-imagined" Language settings UI in the Control Panel. The most notable changes have been made to the way users switch input languages and to the Language Bar. Even some power users have been having issues with configuring language settings and have been asking me for help when they moved to Windows 10. So, today I will share several tips to make your life with configuring languages on Windows 10 easier.
Unlock the hidden display off timeout for the Lock screen in Windows 10
Since Windows 8, Microsoft has added a Lock Screen feature to Windows in addition to the Logon screen where you type the password. In Windows 10 also, the Lock Screen is an additional screen which is displayed with a fancy background and some useful information like clock and date. It appears before you can pick a user account to sign in. When you lock your computer, again you will see the Lock screen. When the PC is locked, the normal display off timeout value has no effect on it and you cannot specify the timeout value after which the screen will turn off while you are on the Lock screen. Turns out, there is a hidden registry setting for this and enabling it even turns it on in the Power Options control panel GUI - the same window where you specify other power related timeouts. Let me show you how.
How to check if your PC can run Windows 10 Hyper-V
Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 come with Client Hyper-V so you can run a supported guest operating system inside a Virtual Machine. Hyper-V is Microsoft's native hypervisor for Windows. It was originally developed for Windows Server 2008 and then ported to Windows client OS. It has improved over time and is present in the latest Windows 10 release as well. To use Hyper-V, your PC should meet certain requirements. Here is how to quickly find if your PC can run Hyper-V.
How to disable Windows Ink in Windows 10
Windows 10 Anniversary Update includes a new Windows Ink feature. It allows tablet users who have a pen or a stylus to write on their devices as on paper. If pen support by the device is recongized by Windows 10, it automatically shows the Windows Ink button on the taskbar near the notification area (system tray). If you don't find Windows Ink useful, here is how you can disable it in Windows 10.
See names and values of environment variables for a process in Windows 10
Environment variables in an operating system are values that contain information about the system environment, and the currently logged in user. They existed in OSes before Windows as well, such as MS-DOS. Applications or services can use the information defined by environment variables to determine various things about the OS, for example, to detect the number of processes, the currently logged in user's name, the folder path to the current user's profile or the temporary files directory. In this article, we will see how to view environment variables defined for a specific process in Windows 10.
Remove Cast to Device from Context Menu in Windows 10
Cast to Device is a feature Windows 10 got from previous Windows releases. Earlier known as Play To, it allows the user to stream media content from your Windows 10 device to another receiver device with Miracast or DLNA support. Explorer provides a context menu item called Cast to Device for folders and media files. If you found no use for this feature, you might want to get rid of the context menu command. Here is how it can be done.
Add Bash Context Menu in Windows 10
Windows 10 version 1607 "Anniversary Update" comes with a new feature called "Bash on Ubuntu". It provides the Linux command line shell "bash" for Windows via a native implementation which runs faster than a virtual machine with Linux installed. It allows running console Linux apps too. If you use it frequently, you might find it useful to have a special context menu command "Open Bash Here" that opens the Bash console in the desired folder with one click. Here is how you can add it.
