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.
Category: Windows 10
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.
Move notification toasts to top or bottom of the screen in Windows 10
In Windows 10, all kinds of notifications were replaced with Windows 8-like toasts which appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. Regardless of the event for which the notification is being shown e.g. AutoPlay, driver installation or new email - you will only see the Metro-like toast notifications. While we recently covered how to restore balloon notifications, many people prefer toast notifications, but would like to see them in the top right corner of the screen instead of bottom right. Here is how they can be moved to the bottom or to the top.
Enable secret hidden Continuum UI (new Start screen) in Windows 10 TP3
As you might have noticed from screenshots circulating on the Internet, Windows 10 Technical Preview 3 (Build 9879) comes with a secret, hidden Start Screen feature, known as the Continuum UI. In this article, we will enable it with a simple registry tweak. Continuum is the improved version of Metro. It's about seamlessly switching between the touch UI and the mouse/keyboard centric UI depending on which peripherals are attached to your PC/tablet and whether it is docked or undocked.
Pin any folder or disk drive to the Home location in Windows 10
In this article we will see how to add any desired location to the Home folder in Windows 10. You can pin there any folder you want, a disk drive or This PC. It is quite simple and possible now thanks to the updated File Explorer app in Windows 10 Build 9879, which made the Home location more useful. Let's see how it can be done.
Enable or disable the Administrator account in Windows 10
The "Administrator" account is still present in Windows 10. Starting with Windows XP it is hidden from the login screen by default and starting with Vista it is disabled. Additionally, in Windows 10, even when you create a new admin-level account, it still requires UAC elevation. The default account named "Administrator" remains disabled and hidden. However, if you start Windows 10 in Safe Mode then it will be enabled and accessible. You can unhide and enable the Administrator account if you want to.
How to add or remove startup apps in Windows 10
The more apps you install on your computer, the longer it will take to start up Windows. This is because many apps load at startup and slow down the boot process. The longer that list gets, the slower your OS loads after a restart or shutdown. In this article, we will review some basic ways to manage startup apps in Windows 10 so your OS remains more responsive. This article is also applicable to Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.
Install Windows 10 using UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface)
If your new computer came with UEFI instead of the legacy BIOS, you are able to get a significantly faster boot time of your Windows OS. UEFI is designed to initialize the hardware faster and then delegate the boot process to the OS. To enjoy the benefits of UEFI, you need to install Windows correctly in UEFI mode. Here is what you need to do for Windows 10.
