In the currently released Technical Preview build of Windows 10, Microsoft has implemented the Start menu and the Start screen separately, and you are able to choose between them using Taskbar properties. This requires you to sign out and log in back to your account, which can be a bit annoying. Every time you log out, you lose your open apps and files. Let's see how to avoid this and switch between the Start menu and the Start screen without logging out.
Category: Windows 10
All ways to open Control Panel in Windows 10
Control Panel as we know it today, has been in Windows since Windows 95. It houses all the Windows settings in one place. As with previous versions of Windows, in Windows 10, Control Panel is a special virtual folder. You can open Control Panel to change the appearance of your Desktop, Start menu, update hardware drivers, manage scheduled tasks and do many other things. In this article, I would like to review all the ways to open Control Panel in Windows 10, so you can pick the most convenient method which works the fastest for you.
Enable or Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 (Microsoft Defender)
How to Enable or Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 (Microsoft Defender)
Microsoft Defender, also known as Windows Defender, is the default antivirus app shipped with Windows 10. Earlier versions of Windows like Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Vista also had it but it was less efficient previously as it only scanned spyware and adware. In Windows 8 and Windows 10, Defender is based on the Microsoft Security Essentials app which offers better protection by adding full blown protection against all kinds of malware.
Open command prompt fullscreen in Windows 10
In previous versions of Windows, you had the ability to enter fullscreen mode for the command prompt. Windows XP was the last version where this worked. In Windows Vista, Microsoft removed the fullscreen mode leaving us with a small black window. Recently, I covered that in Windows 10, the command prompt has been improved significantly by adding lots of new features. Now, with build 9879 of Windows 10, Microsoft has restored the ability to go fullscreen for the command prompt. Let's see how.
All ways to open the command prompt in Windows 10
In my articles, I often refer to command line tools and console utilities. Previously, I wrote how to open an elevated command prompt in Windows 10, but today I would like to share with you all the ways to open a regular command prompt.
Windows 10 features new text to speech voices for Narrator and Cortana
New versions of Windows often add new text-to-speech voices. Windows Vista added Anna which was retained up to Windows 7. Windows 8 also had new voices, David, Zira and Hazel. Windows 10 features a set of additional voices in Technical Preview. In the current build 9879 of Windows 10, enthusiasts have discovered the following new voices in the US English version : Microsoft Mark Mobile and Microsoft Eva Mobile, and a special test voice designed for Cortana. The older Windows 8 voices are also present. It is possible to unlock the "Eva" voice and check it out if you're interested. Here is how.
Get free disk space back after upgrading to Windows 10
If you installed Windows 10 over a previous Windows version like Windows 8 or Windows 7, you might have noticed that free disk space on your disk drive was considerably reduced. This is nothing new. For modern versions of Windows it is the default behavior. When you do an in-place upgrade from a previous version of Windows, setup saves a lot of files from the earlier installed OS during the upgrade and fills your hard drive with files that you might never need again if your upgrade is successful. The reason setup saves these files is so that if something goes wrong during setup, it can safely rollback to the earlier version of Windows. However, if your upgrade was successful and you've got everything working perfectly, then there's no need to keep these files. You can reclaim all the wasted disk space by following these simple instructions.
Windows 10 adds system compression to Disk cleanup
Disk Cleanup is an essential Windows system tool which allows you to delete various unnecessary files created by the OS to save space on your disk drive. By default, it works in a simpler mode which allows you to delete only the files related to your current user account. You can switch it to the extended mode, which allows you to delete more unused files such as the ones used by Windows Updates, or service packs and so on. In Windows 10, the extended mode was updated to add one more feature. Now it provides a System compression option. Let's explore what it is about.
Enable hidden secret Search box in Windows 10 build 9879
The latest Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879 allows you to turn the search icon in the taskbar into a search box. This feature is disabled by default, but here is how you can unlock it and get an idea of what is planned for future builds of Windows 10. The search box in the Taskbar is a nice idea. In fact, with Windows Search for XP, you had a similar search box in the taskbar. Read the rest of the article to learn how to switch between the search icon and the search box in the taskbar on Windows 10.
Windows 10 setup.exe command line switches
The Windows 10 Setup program, or setup.exe which is part of the installation media, supports a set of command line arguments. Using those arguments, you can modify the behavior of Windows installation. In this article we will review command line switches available for setup.exe in Windows 10.
