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.
Category: 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.
Create Desktop shortcuts for Modern apps in Windows 10 with drag and drop
With Windows 10, you no longer need to perform any tricks with the AppsFolder to open Modern apps. There is now a native way to create shortcuts on the Desktop for any Store app you have installed on your PC. This trick is possible thanks to the new Start menu, which is more flexible and powerful than the Start screen in Windows 8.1. In this article, I would like to show you how you can do it.
How to switch to Start screen instead of Start menu and vice versa in Windows 10
Windows 10 features two options to launch apps - it now has both, a Start screen and the Start menu. While the Start menu was the most anticipated change of Windows 10 for many users, there is a group of users who are comfortable with the Start screen and just do not want to switch back. Thankfully, Windows 10 provides you an appropriate option to satisfy both categories of users. Just follow the simple instructions in this article.
Make Windows 10 Start menu look like Windows 7 Start menu
The Windows 10 Start Menu is a redesign of the original Start Menu. It is not the Start Menu which we are used to seeing in Windows 7. It includes live tiles from the Start screen and eliminates the useful system and personal folders which used to be 1-click away. The Start Menu may look a bit cluttered out-of-the-box to some users. If you are not happy with its default look, here is good news for you - you can customize and tweak it by removing all the unnecessary items easily. Follow this tutorial to make Windows 10 Start menu look like Windows 7 Start menu.
Get modern Internet Explorer back in Windows 10
If you have installed Windows 10 Technical Preview, you will find that the modern (Metro) version of Internet Explorer is not there. For some reason, the touch friendly IE is missing in the public build. If you used to run modern IE or plan to test Windows 10 with a touch screen device, you might be interested in reviving it. Here is how to do it.
