Along with a new Start menu, Windows 10 introduces a new way to access the troubleshooting and recovery environment. It can be useful if your OS does not work properly, or does not boot at all. In this article, I would like to share the new way to access the recovery environment and reboot Windows 10 to access troubleshooting options.
Category: Windows 10
Speed up the startup of desktop apps in Windows 10
Since Windows Vista, Microsoft has been trying to improve Windows startup after you log on so that startup programs don't open all at once when the system is still loading its processes. Windows Vista had a "Startup Delay" feature. In Windows 10, when the OS is started, it delays the loading of apps from the Startup folder, especially when the Start screen is enabled. This behavior was implemented by Microsoft in Windows 8 as it was a tablet-oriented OS. You can reduce this startup delay for desktop apps with a simple Registry tweak.
Enable the hidden Aero Lite theme in Windows 10
Similar to Windows 8, the brand new Windows 10 comes with a secret hidden Aero Lite theme, which can be enabled with just a simple text file. It changes the appearance of windows, the taskbar and also the new Start menu. Here are the steps you need to perform to enable the Aero Lite theme in Windows 10.
New Exit Explorer option in Windows 10 allows you to restart the Explorer shell properly
Windows 10 comes with a new secret option to exit the Explorer shell properly. Instead of writing a whole new post, I decided to update my awesome tutorial "How to properly restart the Explorer shell in Windows" with new information about that option. A restart of the Explorer shell is helpful after you make registry tweaks and or when you change new Windows settings which don't take effect unless you restart the shell. If you plan to stay abreast of the developments in the latest version of Windows and keep it under your control, I recommend checking out the article.
How to make the taskbar opaque in Windows 10
Like Windows 8, Windows 10 has a transparent taskbar and does not allow you to disable the transparency for some reason. Many users, including myself, are not happy with the transparent taskbar and prefer to have it opaque. Here is how to get it in your Windows 10.
Disable window shadows in Windows 10
Compared to the small and subtle shadows behind open windows in Windows 8, Windows 10 has really huge and prominent shadows. Many users do not like this new effect of Desktop Window Manager and would like to get rid of shadows. Thankfully, it is easy to do so. Microsoft has added an option to disable it. Let's take a closer look on how to disable shadows.
New hotkeys in Windows 10
Hotkeys are very important to improve the usability and productivity of software. They save your time. Every Windows user is probably familiar with at least the Win key shortcut keys. Windows 10, the new OS from Microsoft, features an updated Start menu, virtual desktops and some more GUI updates. Besides these changes, it comes with a set of new hotkeys, which I would like to share in this article.
How to pin any app to the left side of the Start menu in Windows 10
Pinning apps to the Start menu in Windows 10 can be really confusing even for power users. Unlike in previous versions of Windows, the "Pin to Start" command in the Start menu pins the selected item to the right side of the Start menu! The left side can also be used for pinning apps like in Windows 7, however, it is not obvious how to add apps there exactly. While you can customize the left area using the Taskbar Properties dialog, or drag an icon from the frequently used app list, you cannot pin apps to the left from the "All apps" list, because when you open All apps in Start menu, the top left area will dissapear, and you just have no place left to drag icons! Here are two workarounds I discovered to resolve this issue.
How to customize the Start list in Windows 10
The new Start Menu in Windows 10 is different compared to the good old Start menus from older releases of Windows. It now combines Live tiles for Modern apps, shows Modern apps in the All apps list and even allows you to resize it. It has a special area called the Start list in the top left corner which allows you to have one or more pinned locations above frequent apps. Here is how to customize the list.
