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.
Download Modern IE Launcher for Windows 10
Modern IE Launcher for Windows 10.
Modern IE Launcher allows you to launch the modern version of Internet Explorer in Windows 10 which is disabled in Technical Preview of Windows 10 by default.
Unzip and run the ModernIE.exe file to launch the touch friendly IE.
How to install Windows 10 from a bootable USB stick
The days of burning operating system ISO images to a disc are long gone, today most PCs can boot from USB so it's just easier to update and more convenient to install Windows from a USB flash drive. Another good reason to install in this way is the installation speed, which is significantly faster than optical drive setup. Many modern devices do not come with an optical drive. Let's see how to transfer Windows 10 setup to a bootable USB stick. If you are running Windows 8 at this moment, then no third party software is required, but in Windows 7 you need some tool like 7-Zip archiver to extract the Windows 10 ISO file contents.
Here are Windows 10 Technical Preview direct download links
Microsoft has released the technical preview of the upcoming Windows 10 OS for pre-release testing, evaluation and feedback. It is not necessary to enumerate all its features here, as all of us are reading news and know about Start menu, virtual desktops and so on. If you have a Windows 7-compatible PC, you can install Windows 10 there, it should run smoothly. Although Tech Preview is designed for PC experts who are comfortable downloading unfinished software, you might be interested in testing it right now. Here are Windows 10 Technical Preview direct download links for ISO images.
Cursor Commander: install and manage cursors with one click
Cursors do not change very often in Windows. There was a major update to the default cursors with the release of Windows Vista. It featured new mouse pointers in Aero style. Users who love customizing their OS might be bored to see the same set of cursors in all recent versions of Windows. Even Windows 8 which was a drastic UI change only had slight modifications to Vista's cursors. To change cursors, you need to download them, extract the files and apply them manually with the Mouse Control Panel. I decided to simplify cursor customization and released a freeware app, Cursor Commander. Let's take a closer look at what it can do for you.
