Windows 10 Personalization - Windows 10 Troubleshooting …Windows 10 Personalization - Windows 10...

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Windows 10 Personalization - Windows 10 Troubleshooting Guide https://www.solvusoft.com/en/windows-10-troubleshooting-guide/chapter4/[1/24/2019 1:06:36 PM] Troubleshooting Guide | Chapter 4 Next Chapter Previous Chapter T Chapter 4: Windows 10 Personalization Start Button Tablet Mode Create and Edit Themes Start Button he Desktop view in Windows 10 features the Start button in the lower-left corner. Click the Start button and you'll see the new Start menu with its hybrid approach. On the left, the familiar menu column appears with shortcuts to your applications and settings. On the right, a screen full of tiles to Windows apps displays so you can access key Windows apps right from the menu. However, this button has an additional purpose – just right-click on it (or press and hold) and an extended options menu will appear. Here you will have quick access to various utility tools such as the File Explorer, Search tool, Run tool, the Command Prompt and Power Options. At the very bottom, you will also see the option to shut down or sign out Navigation

Transcript of Windows 10 Personalization - Windows 10 Troubleshooting …Windows 10 Personalization - Windows 10...

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Troubleshooting Guide | Chapter 4

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

T

Chapter 4: Windows 10Personalization

Start ButtonTablet ModeCreate and Edit Themes

Start Button

he Desktop view in Windows 10 features the Start button in the lower-left corner.

Click the Start button and you'll see the new Start menu with its hybrid approach.

On the left, the familiar menu column appears with

shortcuts to your applications and settings. On the right, a

screen full of tiles to Windows apps displays so you can

access key Windows apps right from the menu.

However, this button has an additional purpose – just right-click on it (or press and hold)

and an extended options menu will appear. Here you will have quick access to various

utility tools such as the File Explorer, Search tool, Run tool, the Command Prompt and

Power Options. At the very bottom, you will also see the option to shut down or sign out

Navigation

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which should be a lot more intuitive.

The menu is not exactly very user-friendly, but despite this, a lot of PC users will probably

be using it a lot as it's very handy. Windows 10 is full of new (yet hidden) tricks and

shortcuts. You can learn a lot about them by reviewing the new Windows 10 keyboard

shortcuts.

You can also change the Start menu into a full screen Start menuthat looks like a Start screen, but offers access to the Taskbar andyour Desktop.

Just open Settings and choose the Personalization option. Go to the Start subheading

and turn on Use Start full screen.

Start Menu Customization

The Start button in Windows 10 can be customized in different ways. Let's say you want to

change or personalize some aspects of the Start menu. Here's where your right mouse

button comes into play. For example, you want to add Settings as a tile on the right side of

the menu. Press the Start button and right-click the link for Settings and click Pin to Start.A tile for Settings appears on the right. If you want to remove it, you can find it the tile in the

Start menu, right-click and choose Unpin from Start.

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Maybe you want to add Settings to the taskbar instead. Right-click the link for Settings,

hover over More and click Pin to Taskbar. If you want to remove it, you can find Settings

on your Taskbar, right-click and choose Unpin from Start.

Let's say you want to manage certain apps. Right-click any app, and you'll typically see

three options: Pin to Start (or Unpin from Start if the app is already set up as a tile), Moreand Uninstall. Hover over More and you’ll see additional options: Pin to taskbar (or Unpin

from taskbar if the app is already there), Run as administrator and Open file location.

Simply click on the option you want.

Let's say you want to manage the tiles that appear on the right side of the menu. Right-click

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a specific tile, and a menu pops up with certain choices: Unpin from Start, More and

Resize. Hover over More and you’ll see additional options: Pin to taskbar (or Unpin from

taskbar if the app is already there), Run as administrator, Open file location, turn Livetile on (or turn Live tile off, depending on the current setting), Rate and review and

Share. If you hover over Resize you will see size options: small, medium, wide and large.

Most apps will also have an Uninstall option. Again, simply click on the option you want.

Since the initial launch, Microsoft updated Windows 10 Live tiles so they now make more

sense. Instead of just being able to see a bit of information on the Live tile, you can now

follow up on it. Live tiles are now chaseable. This means if you see something like a news

story on a Live tile, you will go directly to that news item when you click the Tile instead of

simply opening the homepage of an app.

By customizing the left column and the right column, you can easily control how much you

want to stick with the standard Start menu and how much you want to tap into the tiled

Start screen portion.

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Taskbar

The taskbar has been an integral part of the Windows operating system for quite some time

now. Windows 10 follows up on that tradition and allows you to do some interesting things

with it. You can go and use it as is once you upgrade to Windows 10, but you can also

tinker around with it.

This is how the standard taskbar looks:

There are certain things you can change about it. Right-click the taskbar and a menu will

open:

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Toolbars allows you to add toolbars to the taskbar. There are already some you can pick

from such as Address, Links and Desktop but you can also add new toolbars by clicking

New toolbar.

Under Cortana, you can pick how you want to display Cortana on the taskbar. Hidden will

completely remove the search bar function from your taskbar. Show Cortana icon will

shrink it to a small circle which is a representation of Cortana which saves a lot of space if

you want to pin more apps to your taskbar. Show search box is the default option and it

will display a search box which you can click and write in.

The next options are all based on the choice of displaying something or not. You need to

check them if you want them to display and uncheck if you do not want them on your

taskbar. Show task view button, Show Windows Ink Workspace button and Showtouch keyboard button. If you need space, it is wise to remove these, especially if you do

not use them.

The next options change what is displayed on your

monitor or rather how it is displayed. Cascadewindows, Show windows stacked, Show windowsside by side and Show the desktop all rearrange your

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windows in a way that best suits you or completely

moves them out of your way if you want to access the

desktop.

Lock the taskbar is a useful option if you ever

accidentally drag the bar. This is useful, especially for gamers that play in windowed mode

as it can result in some really bad gaming moments. This is best kept locked. You can

resize the taskbar at any time by unchecking this option and checking it again when you

feel the taskbar is the right size.

Settings offers a variety of options that might be very useful depending on how you use

your device. Again, you have the option to lock the taskbar as mentioned before. You can

choose to automatically hide the taskbar in desktop or tablet mode if you feel you need that

bit more space on your screen when working.

Small taskbar icons also significantly improve your experience. You’ve seen the default

taskbar earlier, and this is how it looks with small taskbar icons and the Cortana icon:

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The icons are small which leads to the taskbar being smaller as well. Cortana saves a bit of

space and you have a seemingly endless taskbar to pin app icons onto.

Peek to preview allows you to hover over icons on your

taskbar and see information in those apps in a small window.

Hover over that window and it will maximize the app as long

as you hover over the window. This is helpful if you need to

check something, but do not want to Alt + Tab or change to

that window. You can also enable this for the Show desktop

button that rests on the right-end side of your taskbar. When

you move the mouse away, your windows return to their previous state. You can also click

this area to automatically minimize all your windows. Click the area again to restore your

windows. You can also use the Windows + D to do the same thing as clicking the Show

desktop button.

Show badges on taskbar buttons will allow your app icons to show certain information on

the icon such as the number of unread emails you have or notifications from social media

apps. This option will not work if you have Small taskbar icons turned on.

You can also choose which icons can appear on the taskbars. Click on the Select whichicons appear on the taskbar and all app icons that have the option to be shown there will

have an On/Off slider next to them. Disabling the icon does not disable the app or its

functionality. Another option is to turn the Always show all icons in the notification area on

or off so you do not have to enable every single one manually. By default, it is not turned

on.

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Click or tap Turn system icons on or off to remove or add them to the taskbar. By default,

they are all displayed on the taskbar or in the hidden part of the icons. These are: Clock,

Volume, Network, Power, Input Indicator, Location, Action Center, Touch Keyboard and

Windows Ink Workspace. You can turn them on or off by moving the slider.

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You can also move the taskbar on your screen. Under Taskbar location on screen pick the

one you are most comfortable with: Bottom, Top, Left or Right. Combine taskbar button can

help you save space. Always, hide labels will only show app icons. When taskbar is fullwill show the names of the icons on them as long as the taskbar has more space,

otherwise, it will switch into hiding labels. Never will always show the labels and will stack

additional apps once you reach the maximum allowed on your taskbar.

Lastly, you can adjust taskbar visibility on multiple displays. You can turn it On or Off.

Turning it off will not allow you to interact with the taskbar on the other display, only on your

primary. The Show taskbar buttons on the menu has three options:

All taskbars. When you select this setting, the taskbar will be the same onevery display. Each display’s taskbar will show all open windows, nomatter which display they’re open on.

Main taskbar and taskbar where window is open. When you select thissetting, the taskbar on your primary display will always show all openwindows from all displays. Each additional display’s taskbar will only showwindows open on that display.

Taskbar where window is open. When you select this setting, eachdisplay—including your primary display—gets its own independent taskbar.Open windows are only shown on the taskbar on the display on which thewindow is open.

Combine buttons on other taskbars works much like the same option covered earlier

with labels on icons. You can have one option set for your primary display and a different

option set for your other displays.

Action Center

New in Windows 10 is the Action Center, a unified place for all system notifications and

quick access to various settings. It can be found in a slide-out pane that appears at the

press of an icon in the taskbar. It’s a nice addition to Windows, and it’s highly customizable.

Action Center Customization

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Open Settings, click System, and then Notifications & actions. Under the Quick

actions heading, you’ll notice four boxes, each representing one of the four actions that

remain visible at all times. Click on Add or remove quick actions to enable more quick

action buttons and you can rearrange the boxes and choose which actions will get one of

the coveted four slots. You can also choose to “Expand” it so all icons you choose are

shown or “Collapse” to show only four.

The Action Center allows you to quickly access Tablet mode, Network, Note, All settings,

Airplane mode, Location, Quiet hours, Brightness, Bluetooth, VPN, Battery Saver, Project,

Connect and Wi-Fi. You should start using these as they really allow you to quickly change

settings that usually take several steps.

Under the Notifications subheading on the same Settings page, you’ll find a handful of

general options that you can toggle on and off:

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Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows: When this isswitched on, Windows 10 will occasionally serve up tips and tricks throughits notifications feature. If you aren’t an experienced Windows user, youmay find these useful; if you’re more knowledgeable, you may find theseannoying.

Get notifications from apps and other senders: When turned on, you’llreceive notifications from apps installed on your PC.

Show notifications on the lock screen: This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but if you would rather not have prying eyes see that you’vereceived notifications while you were away from your desk, you’ll want toturn this one off.

Show alarms, reminders, and incoming VOIP calls on the lockscreen: If you’re concerned about privacy, you may want to turn this off.However, you may also find it convenient to see your appointmentreminders at a glance.

Hide notifications when I’m duplicating my screen: When turned on,Windows 10 will prevent notifications from appearing onscreen whileyou’re giving a PowerPoint presentation. You might want to turn this oneon.

Would you rather not get an alert every single time you get an email message? You’ll be

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happy to know that you can switch off notifications on a per-app basis. While at Settings >System > Notifications & actions, scroll down to the “Show notifications from these apps”

subheading.

To silence all notifications from a particular app, toggle the switch for that app to the “off”

position. If you would like to receive some kinds of notifications from an app—for example,

you’re ok with the notification banners but would rather not have an alert sound play—click

the name of the app in question. Next, toggle the settings on the resulting screen as you

please. You can disable or enable notification banners and sounds, or decide not to show

any notifications for a certain app. Some apps, such as Twitter's Windows app, offer more

granular options over what sort of actions generate a notification.

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W

After a while, you might accumulate quite

the collection of notifications in your PC’s

Action Center. Clearing them out is as

easy, though.

Open Action Center by clicking the Action

Center icon in the system tray — it

resembles a speech bubble. From here,

you can delete individual notifications,

clear out an entire section, or delete all

notifications.

To delete individual notifications, mouse

over the notification you want to get rid of,

and click the “X” button that appears. If

you would like to clear out an entire

section, mouse over the section heading, then click the “X” button.

Finally, if you want to delete all notifications, click Clear all in theupper right corner of the Action Center pane.

Tablet Mode in Windows 10

indows 8’s full-screen Start screen was one of the most contentious parts of the

operating system, ditching the tried and true desktop Start menu in favor of

something more mobile-friendly — and alien to longtime PC users. Windows 10

walked back Windows 8’s sins by reintroducing the Start menu and cramming Windows

Store apps into proper desktops windows, but not everyone will appreciate the change.

Fortunately, Microsoft’s new operating system still packs a

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Tablet Mode that functions like a slightly tweaked Start screen,

replete with Live Tiles and Windows apps that expand to fill

your display. You can enter it by selecting the Tablet Mode

button in Windows 10's new Action Center — or go even

further if you never want to spend time on the traditional

desktop.

Whether you’re a Windows tablet user or simply found that the

Start screen grew on you over time, Microsoft made sure to keep this feature alive in

Windows 10. Besides showing you how to turn Tablet Mode on and keep it, we'll cover a

few more interesting personalization functions in this guide.

If you are still running Windows 7 or 8.1, then there is no need towait any longer and you should upgrade to Windows 10, as theprocess is fairly easy and quick.

Booting to Desktop or Tablet mode in Windows 10

Windows 10 allows you to boot into Tablet Mode with Start screen or the Desktop. The

Continuum feature allows Windows 10 to switch between the Desktop and tablet mode

seamlessly. For PC users who are used to older versions of Windows, the most logical

action is to boot straight into Desktop. This will be set as your default option, but it is easy

to change it to Tablet Mode with Start screen and here’s how:

Open Action center and click on Tablet mode (see below). This will change your interface

from the Desktop to Tablet mode and you can click it again to return to the Desktop. This is

one way to manually change your interface.

Another way is to open Settings and click on Devices and then choose Tablet mode (see

below). Just choose the On option for Tablet mode. You can follow the same path if you

want to make the change automatic on boot.

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In the Tablet mode tab you can customize your boot settings (see below):

a. To boot to Tablet mode select “Automatically switch to tablet mode”. The next time you

sign into your PC, you will immediately go to tablet mode.

b. To change it back to boot to Desktop select “Go to the desktop”. The next time you sign

into your PC, you will immediately go to the Desktop.

c. To boot to what you used last select “Remember what I used last”.

Customize your boot settings or turn Tablet mode on/off manually.

Understanding and Customizing the Start Screen or FullScreen Start Menu in Windows 10

The Start screen is not the default screen in

Windows 10 unless you change your settings

so that you boot to Start screen. You can also

turn on the Tablet mode if you want to

experience a Start screen as if you were using

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a tablet, or you can skip Tablet mode and use

a full screen Start menu, but with access to a

Taskbar and Desktop for PC users. Unless you

have experience with Windows 8 and Start screen, you might want to stick to the Desktop

and default Start menu. In case you've decided to give Start screen a try, we'll help you out.

In this guide, we’ll help you understand and customize the Start screen or full screen Start

menu in Windows 10 as well as provide some advanced tips for a more productive

workflow.

Add or Remove Apps from the Start Screen

Adding applications to the Start screen (represented as tiles) or removing them is very

easy. Microsoft prefers to call the process “pinning”, but it shouldn’t be confused with the

process of pinning apps to the taskbar which is visible only via the Desktop.

To pin (add) apps to the Start screen do the following:

From the Start screen, you can click the All apps menu icon that is situated in the

upper left corner of the screen with a list of all your available apps. Browse through it

and find the app that you want to pin.

Tap or right-click on the app to select it.

Now just tap or click on the Pin to Start option.

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To unpin (remove) apps from the Start screen do the following:

Open the Start screen and locate the app that you want to unpin.

Press and hold (or right-click) the app tile.

Tap or click on the Unpin from Start option.

Organize the Tiles and Tile Groups on the Start Screen

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Since the Start screen is a central hub for your apps and social accounts, it was designed

to be highly modular and customizable. You can do just about anything you want – choose

apps, resize tiles and move everything wherever you want. Generally, you probably want to

organize the Start screen so that your most important apps and Windows tools are always

accessible. We’ll go over all the things you can do directly on the Start screen.

You can move tiles on the Start screen:

While in the Start screen, press and hold (or click and hold with the mouse) the tile

you want to move.

Windows will respond to your input and set the tile to be “draggable”. The animation

that highlights the tile will show you that the tile is selected and ready to be moved.

Drag the tile across the Start screen and place it where

you want.

You can resize tiles on the Start screen:

From the Start screen, press and hold (or right-click) the

tile you want to resize.

Tap or click on the Resize option in the bottom bar.

Choose the size you want (Small, Medium, Wide or Large).

You can also create your own groups of tiles:

Once in the Start screen, press and hold all of the tiles you want to group together. If

you're using a mouse, you'll have to move every app individually.

With all of the tiles selected or each one chosen individually, you can now drag them

to an open space. Once you see a column appear behind them, release the tiles. This

is enough to create a group; however, you can still customize it.

The current group will be unnamed so you should tap or click on the area that says

Name group above the tile group to rename it.

Now that you’ve created a couple of groups, you can also move a group oftiles:

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From the Start screen, you can press and hold or left-click the name of the group to

move it around.

Change the Background Image

There are two different types of backgrounds in Windows 10 and they’re spread across

three different screens: the Lock screen, the Start screen and the Desktop.

To change the background on the Desktop and Start screen do the following:

Open Settings.

Click or tap on the Personalize section.

Here you’ll have access to various visual settings and you can choose your

background image, background color and the accent color.

Among the options, you will find the

Background option. Tap or click on it and you

will be offered with some choices.

You will be shown a preview of how your

desktop will look with the changes you're

making. Under it, you can choose if your

background is a Slideshow, Picture or Solidcolor.

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Slideshow will ask you to choose albums for your slideshow. Click Browse to find the folder

with images you want to use on your background. You can pick how often the images

change, if they shuffle, disable slideshow while on battery power and how they fit on the

screen – Fill, Center, Tile etc.

Picture will ask you to choose a picture for your background. You can either pick one of the

images presented there or Browse for a specific one. You can also choose how it fits on

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the screen.

Solid color will offer you an array of colors to cover your whole background. You can only

choose from specific colors and cannot adjust them to your own liking.

The Start screen’s background will automatically link to the Desktop’s background image

path. As such, every time you change the Desktop’s background it will immediately reflect

on the Start screen as well.

To change the background on the Lock screen do the following:

Open Settings.

Tap or click on the Personalization section. Choose Lock screen. You can pick

either Windows spotlight, a Picture or a Slideshow.

The new lock screen feature, which Microsoft calls the Windows Spotlight, will not only

show you beautiful images from Bing, but also images of Windows devices running certain

apps for example. You can choose to ‘like’ or ‘not like’ the lock screen images so you can

curate the types of images which will be displayed on your lock screen. So for example, if

over time, you’ve ‘liked’ images of nature, you’ll start seeing more images of nature show

up on your lock screen, the same goes with pictures of kittens.

Picture will ask you to choose a picture for your background. You can either pick one of the

images presented there or Browse for a specific one.

Slideshow will ask you to choose albums for your slideshow. Click Add a folder to find the

folder with images you want on your background. You can also change Advancedslideshow settings.

Another handy thing about the Lock screen is that you can

choose apps to show their detailed or quick status before you

even login to the Desktop or Start screen. You can add your

time, date or email settings for starters, which are shown by

default. However, you can choose to edit those and add other

apps as well. In other words, you can see if you have emails,

what the time is or if you have scheduled appointments from

the Lock screen.

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T

How to Create and Edit Themes inWindows 10

hemes are just one of the personalization methods that are available in Windows 10

and they allow you to enjoy better user

experience on your Desktop screen.

You can choose pre-built themes or edit them,

as well as create your own custom ones. In this

guide we’ll show you how to get started with

theme creation in Windows 10 and how to

share them with others. If you’re looking for

customization settings related to the Start

screen, you can take a look at our guide about customizing the Start Screen.

Using Themes in Windows 10

A theme is a combination of backgrounds, color palettes,

sound effects and screen savers. The last two are optional,

but often included with most pre-built themes. You can,

however, customize each theme and turn screensavers off if

you so desire. If you’ve used Windows 7 or 8.1 before, then

the concept and the settings will look very familiar and

intuitive.

To get started with themes in Desktop, open Settings, select Personalization or right-click

on the desktop and choose Personalize. Choose Themes and Theme settings. This will

open the personalization menu for Windows 10 themes.

The themes are divided into four categories:

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My themes – here you will see all of the themes that you’ve personally created,

edited or downloaded from the Internet.

Windows default themes – these are the pre-built themes that come with Windows.

Installed themes – these are also pre-built themes but they were included by a third-

party, possibly the equipment manufacturer.

High contrast themes – these are meant to help with ease of access in Windows by

providing special themes that make the items on the screen easier to distinguish and

use. You can read more about other tools like this one in our ease of access in

Windows 10 guide.

You can select any of the themes and apply it to your Desktop. After it’s been set as the

current theme, you can click on it to edit the things you want to change.

The edited theme will appear as a new one in the My Themessection and your original theme will not be altered.

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Creating and Sharing Themes in Windows 10

You’re not limited to the default themes that come with your

installation of Windows and you are free to create your own.

While we can’t give you any advice regarding the creative

aspect, we can guide you through the technical process. To

create your own theme in Windows 10, do the following:

Right click on the Desktop and open the

Personalization settings. Now let’s handle every element of the theme one-by-one.

If you want to change your background image, go to subheading Background and

change it as we explained previously. You’ll also see the Color subheading. Tap or

click on it to select the color palette for your Start menu tiles and background if one

hasn't been assigned. Choose Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, andtitle bar if you want the same color on those parts of the interface. You can also

make them transparent which is the default option.

You can turn on/off the Automatically pick an accent color from my backgroundoption to let Windows choose the optimal color palette based on your current Desktop

background image. If you wish to change the sound effects, click on the Themessubheading where you will find Advanced sound settings. You will now see a list of

sounds called the Sound Scheme, which allows you to mute sound effects or to

select any of the presets that are installed.

Finally, you can also change the screen saver via the Lock screen > Screen saversettings options.

This theme will now be applied to your PC and will appear under the My Themes category

as an unsaved theme. You can locate it in this directory and click on Save theme. This will

save the theme as a user preset and if you ever change your theme in the future, the

theme you saved will still be available.

In case you want to share this theme with other users, you’ll be happy

to know that the process is easy and automatic. Every theme can be

saved as a .deskthemepack file which is compatible with other PCs

running Windows.

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The process is rather simple – just locate your theme and right-click on it. You’ll see the

option Save theme for sharing. Click on it to save your theme as a .deskthemepack file

and choose the name and directory of the newly exported theme.

Task View and Virtual Desktops

Windows 10 brings a lot of great features to the PC, but one that power users are greeting

with an exasperated “finally” is virtual desktops.

This long-standing productivity powerhouse has long been standard on OS X and Linux

distributions. Windows has actually supported the feature for a while despite not making

virtual desktops available natively, but now the feature is going mainstream as a part of

Windows 10.

Virtual desktops are not a stand-alone feature. Instead, they're built into Windows 10’s new

Task View, which is reminiscent of OS X’s Exposé feature that shows all your open

windows at a glance. Windows has had something similar for years — you’ve seen it if

you’ve ever used the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab to cycle through open programs.

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The Alt + Tab feature, however, disappears as soon as you let go of the keyboard. Task

View takes a different approach by showing all your open windows in a permanent view

that doesn’t disappear until you dismiss it or pick a window to be in the foreground.

Task view

To get to Task View and multiple desktops click the new icon next to the Cortana entry box

on your taskbar or press Windows logo key + Tab.

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As you can see above, it shows all your open windows so you can quickly return to a

specific program or document. This is an extremely helpful feature for those times when

you have tons of windows open at once.

Note to multi-monitor users: Task View will only show what you’ve goton a specific monitor. When you hit the icon, Task View is displayedacross all your monitors to help you find what you’re looking for, butdon’t expect to see all your open windows on one display. If you’rerunning a full screen video on a specific monitor, then you won’t seeTask View on that monitor at all.

Task View, Snap and Quadrants

Windows 10 still supports Snap, a fantastic feature that lets you set a window to take up

half your screen. Windows 10 has also bumped up this functionality with a new feature

called Quadrants that lets you snap programs into a four-rectangle grid on your display.

To use Snap, hit the Windows logo key and then one of the side arrow keys. The two side

keys snap a window to the corresponding half of your display. If you then use the up or

down keys, Quadrants activates and snaps the window to the upper or bottom half of that

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side.

To make Task View more beneficial, it automatically shows up on the empty half of the

screen whenever you use Snap with multiple apps open. So instead of having to set two

separate windows manually, you just snap one window and then Task View lets you pick

the next one to fill in the blank space.

Things aren’t so easy with Quadrants, however. With that layoutyou have to fill in three windows first before you’ll see Task Viewfill in the fourth.

Virtual Desktops

Virtual desktops are a fantastic way to stay organized.

You could, for example, create three virtual desktops. On the first, you can put your current

work project in Microsoft Excel, Word, or Adobe Photoshop. The second desktop is where

you keep all your communication and daily planning stuff, such as calendar, email, and

Skype. Then the third can be for your music player, or distractions for those quick five

minute breaks—like YouTube or a game.

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Windows 10 lets you use a seemingly unlimited number of virtual desktops, but if you’ve

ever used OS X or Linux, don’t expect Microsoft’s take to work the same way. On non-

Windows systems, you’re typically given at least the impression that those desktops are

always there. With Windows, you have to actively create a new desktop, which can take a

few minutes the first time you do it.

To create a new desktop, click on the Task View icon on the taskbar, and then — with the

Task View interface open — click the text link that says "+ New Desktop" in the lower right

corner of the screen or hit the Windows logo key + Control + D. A new desktop appears at

the bottom of the Task View. To close the current desktop, you’re on, it’s Windows logo key

+ Control + F4.

To navigate between them you can choose between Desktop 1 and Desktop 2 or use the

Windows logo key + Control and the left or right arrow keys. If your device has touch

capabilities, you can also switch between virtual desktops by using a four-finger swipe.

From Task View, you can also drag-and-drop open programwindows from the current desktop into a different one, or onto the"+ New Desktop" link to create a new virtual desktop housing thesoftware.

By default, each virtual desktop shows only the active programs and windows for that

particular desktop. If you’d rather know what programs you have open regardless of the

desktop you’re on, you can change this by opening Settings and going to System >

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