this tutorial provides an overview of microsoftwindows 10, and it’s new features. this tutorial covers using windows 10 with a keyboardand mouse. when finished i will link to a tutorial showing how to use windows 10 ona touch device like the microsoft surface. “start menuâ€.the start menu is back. the start menu has been part of windows fromwindows 95 all the way up to windows 7. when windows 8 was introduced it removed the“start menu†completely. it replaced the “start menu†with the “start screenâ€.users complained so much that microsoft returned the “start button†but not the functionality.microsoft has learned its lesson and with windows 10 the “start menu†is back.the windows 10 “start menu†is a hybrid
of the windows 7 start menu and the windows8 start screen. on the left we have a windows 7 style “startmenuâ€. the middle section shows the “most usedâ€and any “recently installed†apps. to show all the apps installed on the systemselect the “all apps†button. all installed apps show in the list in alphabeticalorder. there is a scroll bar on the right of thelist to scroll through the apps. if we scroll down under the “w’s†wewill see some of the entries have down arrows to their right. there are folders that containadditional apps that will expand when selected like the “windows accessoriesâ€.to return to the default start menu, we’ll
select the “back†button.we can select “file explorer†to open the app to browse through the files and folderson this computer. if we select the right arrow we will see the“file explorer†callout menu. here we have some “pinned†file foldershortcuts for the “desktopâ€, “downloadsâ€, “documentsâ€, and “picturesâ€.we can add or remove whatever folders we want from this jumplist.to remove one of the items from the list select the “unpin from this list†button to theright of each item. at the bottom of the jumplist we have “frequentâ€folders such as “musicâ€, and “videosâ€. this list will dynamically change showingthe folders you most commonly open.
selecting any of the folders in the list willopen “file explorer†directly to this folder.“settingsâ€. the “settings†app is a more simplifiedeasy to use version of the old windows “control panelâ€.microsoft is gradually moving as many settings as possible to the new interface so thereis a single user experience across desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones.if you prefer to use the old “control panelâ€, or need a feature not available in the new “settings†app, it is still availablethrough the quick access menu. right-click on the “start buttonâ€, andselect “control panelâ€.
let’s close out of the control panel.from here we can make changes to the “network & internet†connections, personalize thebackground image and colors with “personalizationâ€, setup bluetooth devices, printers, and micewith “devicesâ€, and make changes to the user accounts with “accountsâ€.we will cover the various functions of the “settings†app in later tutorials in moredetail and link to them here. close out of the “settings†app.“powerâ€. selecting “power†will open a callout showing the available power options.from here we can “shut down†the computer, or “restart†it.some devices may have other options like “sleep†and “hibernateâ€.at the top is the name of the currently logged
in account.if we right-click on the account name we will get a menu with several options.at the bottom we can select “sign out†to logout of the current account and log inusing a different account. in the center we can select “lock†tolock the computer with this user logged in. nobody would be able to use the computer withoutputting in the password for this account, or another account on this computer.at the top we can select “change account settingsâ€.this opens the “settings†app on the “accounts†screen.from here we can manage our account, connect to work or school network resources, and managesync settings.
let’s close out of the “change accountsettings†window and open back up the start menu.the right side of the “start menu†has a windows 8 style “start screen†withdynamic tiles. tiles are representations of apps, like wesaw in the “all apps†section of the left side of the keyboard.all app tiles on the right side of the start menu also show up on the left side under “allappsâ€. unlike the icons for apps on the left sideof the keyboard, these are “live tiles†that dynamically change the information theyshow. apps that are set up to use “live tilesâ€can show us app information without having
to open the app.the apps that can use “live tiles†are called windows 10 universal apps. we willcover these in depth more later. the “news†app is showing a slideshowof the latest current news stories and the “weather†app is showing the current weatherconditions. some of the tiles currently just show thename of the app like calendar and mail. after these apps are set up and used, theywill begin showing new constantly updating information.these tiles can be rearranged by selecting and holding on the tile and dragging aroundthe menu. as we add or resize dynamic tiles it willincrease the size of the “start menuâ€
dynamically.the tiles come in 4 available size options. as we can see on the start menu the four availableoptions are small, medium, wide, and large. let’s right-click on the “news†apptile to review this and other options. “resizeâ€. selecting “resize†fromthe menu will open a fly-out menu to select the size“unpin from startâ€. selecting this option will remove the live tile from the start menu.it can be added back again by selecting “all appsâ€, finding the app in the list, andthen drag and drop it back. “turn live tile offâ€. selecting this optionwill turn off the real time updating of information in the tile.“pin to taskbarâ€. selecting this option
would attach the “news†app to the taskbarfor quick access like the “edge†browser and microsoft “storeâ€.“uninstallâ€. selecting “uninstall†will allow us to completely remove the appfrom this computer. any apps you uninstall can be reinstalledin the windows “storeâ€. if you do uninstall a built in app like “newsâ€you can get a complete list of the preinstalled apps by searching for “microsoft corporationâ€.selecting in any of the blank space on the “start†menu will exit the menu withoutmaking any changes. we have the option to change the size of the“start menuâ€. if we hover the mouse over the top edge ofthe “start menu†the mouse icon will change
to a double sided vertical arrow.click and hold and drag up and down to change the size.it can be increased to this size as the maximum and this size as the minimum.if you are someone who fell in love with the “start screen†that replaced the “startmenu†in windows 8, it can be turned back on through the taskbar properties.“windows 10 universal appsâ€. “windows 10 universal apps†is the newname for what microsoft previously referred to as “metro appsâ€, â€modern appsâ€,“windows store appsâ€, and “windows 8 apps†among others.unlike traditional windows applications that only run on the windows desktop, “windows10 universal apps†will run on all windows
10 devices including windows desktop/laptop,windows phone/tablet, and the xbox one. with traditional “windows†applicationswe would typically go to a webpage and download an application and then install it. to simplifythings with universal apps we would install and uninstall through the “microsoft storeâ€.let’s open a universal app like “calculator†by selecting the “start buttonâ€, “allappsâ€, “calculator†. it opens full screen by default in a window.unlike the universal apps in windows 8, “windows 10 universal apps†have controls in thetop right just like traditional windows applications. “closeâ€. the “x†in the top rightof the window will close the app. “minimizeâ€. the left button will minimizethe app to the taskbar. the app will still
be running and can be restored to the previousstate by selecting it from the taskbar. “restoreâ€. the middle button is used torestore the app to a size that does not take up the entire screen.select the “restore†button. we can see the calculator app has reducedit’s size to a small window that is easier to work with.we can now work with “windows 10 universal apps†just like traditional applications,and best of all “calculator†doesn’t need to be fullscreen.most â€windows 10 universal apps†have a menu of available options located in thetop left of the screen. let’s select the “x†in the top rightof the window to exit the app.
“taskbarâ€.let’s review the windows 10 taskbar. the taskbar runs along the bottom of the windowsdesktop, and includes everything from the “start button†on the left to the “clockâ€on the right. “cortanaâ€.just to the right of the start menu is “cortanaâ€. cortana is an intelligent digital assistant.cortana is microsoft's answer to google now and siri.cortana gets its name from the microsoft xbox video game franchise halo that contains afemale artificially intelligent character by the same name.cortana is able to recognize natural spoken language and provide assistance.cortana can search the web, search your computer,
help with calling and texting, calendars andreminders, note taking, alarms, maps and directions, local business questions, weather and flightinformation, weights and measures and currency conversions, stock and finance, and much muchmore. cortana monitors what you do and over timeas she learns she will provide more useful advice and assistance.we can access cortana using our voice if we have a microphone attached to the computer.to use voice search with cortana select the “microphone†button to the right of thetext entry field or say “hey cortanaâ€. to use the keyboard to interact with cortanaselect inside the text entry field where it says “ask me anythingâ€.the default screen will fill with informational
cards containing things like news and weatherinformation. the cards that show up in the feed can bemodified on the “notebook†tab. selecting the down arrow at the bottom ofa card, like the weather card here, will expand the size of the card to show more detailedinformation like the weather for the next five days.the top right of each tile has a menu button represented by three dots.let’s ask “cortana†some questions to get a feel for her capabilities.select inside the entry field again where it say “ask me anythingâ€.“cortana†can provide information about local businesses.“show me chinese restaurants nearbyâ€.
some questions like this will be answeredby searching the web with the new “microsoft edge†browser.with “windows 10†microsoft has replaced the default web browser included with “windowsâ€.previously the default web browser since “windows 95†was “internet explorerâ€.after 20 years “internet explorer†was growing a little long in the tooth.“microsoft†developed the “edge†browser with speed and modern technologies in mind.as we can see in this example “cortana†searches bing and provides detailed reviewsfrom yelp and a local map showing each location. hovering over any of the restaurants listedin the reviews will highlight their location on the map.“cortana†can provide reminders based
upon time, date and location.we could enter commands like “remind me to buy gas when i leave workâ€, “remindme to put out the trash when i get homeâ€, or “the next time i’m at the grocery store,remind me to buy milkâ€. as an example let’s enter the command “remindme at 6pm to watch the local newsâ€. this will open the reminder settings window.we can customize the reminder text, the date, the time and the frequency for the reminderto occur. . if everything is entered correctly select“remindâ€. to review the reminder we just created select“reminders†from the “cortana†menu in the top left of the app.by default it shows “all†of the reminders.
we can also show the reminders sorted by “timeâ€,“place†or “personâ€. to return back to the default “cortanaâ€screen select home from the menu. some questions will be answered directly within“cortanaâ€, like math problems and weight and measure conversions.let’s enter “365 x 24 x 60†to calculate how many minutes in a year.to enter another search term we can either close the “cortana†app and reopen itor select the text and delete. let’s enter “how many kilometers in amileâ€. at launch there are hundreds of useful commandsavailable with new ones being included continuously by microsoft.for a more complete list of “cortanaâ€
commands we can search bing for “cortanacommandsâ€. currently the best list is the first searchresult at techranker.net. “task view†virtual desktops.task view is a new feature in windows 10 that is like virtual desktops that are availablein other operating systems. previously all applications you opened wouldopen on the same desktop. if you are working and playing on the same computer things canget cluttered. task view allows you to create multiple virtual desktops, each with theirown open applications. you could have one virtual desktop running your business applicationslike word and excel, and have another virtual desktop running facebook and twitter. thismakes it easier to separate the two types
of use for the computer, while allowing youto pick right back where you left off. the “task view†button is located on thetaskbar just to the right of “cortanaâ€. so that we are able to see the differencein desktops, let’s make sure that several apps are open. .we can tell that the apps are open by the blue line underneath them.the “file explorer†app is pinned to the taskbar, but it is not running.select the “task view†button. the two open apps are displayed side by side to easilydetermine what is happening on this desktop. we currently only have the single desktopopen, so we only have the option of “new desktopâ€.select the “new desktop†button.
we now have the original desktop tile openon the left, the new 2nd desktop tile in the center, and a tile to add a “new desktopâ€.let’s open the new desktop by selecting “desktop 2â€.for comparison purposes let’s select and open the “calculator†app from the “startmenuâ€. select the “task view†button again toreview the virtual desktops. we can see the currently selected desktopis highlighted with a preview of the content above.there is a small preview of the desktop content in the tile.if we hover the mouse over either of the virtual desktops, we will see a preview of all theopen apps running on that virtual desktop.
to move between the two desktops select the“task view†button and then the virtual desktop.this is a great feature to increase productivity and separate tasks.we can close any of the open virtual desktops by selecting the “x†in the top rightof the desktop preview tile. we currently have 2 apps open in the 1st desktopand 1 in the 2nd desktop. if we close out of the 2nd desktop it doesnot just close out of the apps you had on that desktop. it will move them to the 1stdesktop. we can now see that we have all 3 of our appsopen on “desktop 1â€. select any of the apps to bring it to theforeground to work on it.
close the “calculator†by clicking onthe “x†in the top right corner of the window.“file explorerâ€. “file explorer†is a file management application for microsoftwindows. “file explorer†provides a way to browse and interact with your files.select the “file explorer†item on the “taskbarâ€.“file explorer†opens to a new layout. the default view has “quick access†selectedon the left, which shows the “frequent folders†and “recent files†on the right.the “quick access†items include links to the “desktopâ€, “downloadsâ€, “documentsâ€,“picturesâ€, “musicâ€, and “videosâ€. some of the items in the “quick accessâ€list will always show in the list because
they are pinned.pinned items have a gray pushpin icon next to them.we can see that currently “desktopâ€, “downloadsâ€, “documentsâ€, and “pictures†are pinnedto the quick access list. the unpinned folders will change as you usewindows to show the folders you most commonly access. currently it just shows the defaultsfor “music†and “videosâ€. let’s pin a new folder to the “quick accessâ€menu.. for testing we will expand “this pcâ€, and select “local disk (c:)â€.let’s say we wanted to add the “users†folder. right-click and select “pin to quickaccessâ€. let’s move back to the default screen byselecting the “quick access†menu.
we can now see our new folder “usersâ€listed in the “quick access†menu. to remove an item from the “quick accessâ€we need to right-click and select “unpin from quick accessâ€.“onedriveâ€. onedrive is free online storage from microsoft that comes as part of everymicrosoft account. microsoft says it is like an extra hard drive that is available fromevery device and is safer than using usb flash drives.“onedrive†is integrated directly into windows 10.“onedrive†comes with 15gb of online storage for free accounts.onedrive shows in “file explorer†for quick access to files stored in the cloud.copy your important files here, and they will
be available on all your windows devices.“this pcâ€. expanding “this pc†shows the quick access folders at the top and expandablelinks to the hard drive and cd/dvd drive. “networkâ€. selecting “network†willshow computers connected to the same network as this computer.“file explorer†now has builtin “share†capabilities.scroll up on the left and select “documents†in the “quick access†list.for testing i will use this “testtextdocument.txt†file that i created by selecting it so itis highlighted in blue. more than one file can be shared at a timeby selecting multiple files. selecting the “share†link on the menuwill open the detailed “share†ribbon
menu.we have options here to “email†the file, “zip†the file to compress it and makeit smaller to save space, as well as “burn to disc like a recordable dvd, or “printâ€or “fax†to an installed device. windows 10 has a “share†button on theleft of the “share†ribbon menu. this “share†button allows you to sharea selected item using compatible windows 10 universal apps.selecting the share button will open a panel on the right of the screen showing the itemto be shared and the compatible apps. this is the same as the “share†functionalityin windows 8 with the “charms†bar. the only app we have that is supported andsetup is the “mail†app.
if we had other compatible apps capable ofsharing we would see those listed below like facebook or twitter.select “mailâ€, or another sharing option of your choosing.the “mail†app will open in the right side panel.the “mail†app has been greatly improved since windows 8.select in the body under the attachment. there is a new ribbon interface at the topwith “format†settings like “boldingâ€, “underliningâ€, and other “font formattingâ€as well as “paragraph formatting†options. the “insert†tab allows us to “attachâ€additional files, as well as insert “tablesâ€, “picturesâ€, and “linksâ€.if we decide we didn’t want to send one
of these “attachmentsâ€, they can be removedindividually by selecting the “x†at the top right of the attachment.enter a recipient for the email, and select the “send†button.if we decide that we really don’t want to share the file, we can select the “discardâ€button to exit without sending. “notification areaâ€. the “notificationarea†is located on the right side of the “windows taskbarâ€. the “notificationarea†contains app icons that provide notification and status information.the “notification area†is also known as the “system trayâ€.left clicking an icon will open the notification window for the app, right clicking will opena menu with additional options.
the “notification area†includes thingslike “volumeâ€, network settings, and battery power level.if there are too many icons to fit in the “notification areaâ€, select the up arrowto “show hidden iconsâ€. some apps appear in the system tray to showthat they are running in the background and are not completely closed.“action centerâ€. at the far right side of the “notificationarea†is the “action centerâ€. select the icon to open the “action centerâ€.the top of the “action center†contains notifications from windows and installed apps.some notifications will include updates being installed or new mail.selecting a notification will open the corresponding
app or system window.selecting this new mail notification will open the “mail†app to review the newmessage. selecting the “x†on the right side ofa notification will remove it from the action center.the bottom of the “action center†contains quick launch icons.some launch new windows like “vpn†and “all settingsâ€.others are enabled by touching them, which turns them blue to enable them, like “locationâ€,“quiet hoursâ€, and “airplane modeâ€. just to the right of the “notification areaâ€is the “clockâ€. select the “clock†to open the window.the clock shows the current date and time
at the top, with a calendar of the currentmonth at the bottom. this calendar is for reference, like to checkthe day of the week a particular date falls on. if you want to change the date or timeyou would select “date and time settingsâ€. we can change the month by selecting the upand down arrows to the right of the month. selecting outside the “clock†app willclose it. “show desktopâ€.to test this option make sure there are some apps open.to the right of the “clock†there is a small space on the taskbar.selecting this will temporarily minimize all open windows at the same time.this is useful to be able to quickly find
items on the desktop, and then return backto what you were working on. selecting the far right of the taskbar againwill restore all the windows to their previous locations.“snap assistâ€. “snap assist†helps snap windows to the screen for easier multitasking.if we want to be able to see all three of our windows at the same time we could moveeach window around manually. “snap assist†allows us to snap up to4 windows on the screen quickly and easily. to start, select and hold the title bar downon one of the windows, then drag the window to the middle of either the left or rightside of the screen. when the window touches the side of the screenyou will see a gray outline where the window
will snap when we release the mouse.touching the middle like we have here will result in the window snapping to the lefthalf of the screen. we can also touch the window to the cornersinstead to snap the window to ⼠of the screen. let’s move it back to the middle to snapit to the left side of the screen. upon releasing the window it will snap tothe side of the screen and show the remaining windows on the other side. here we can seethe two remaining apps we had open. selecting either one of these windows willsnap it to fill the space. windows 8 allowed us to have 2 windows snappedlike this. windows 10 adds the ability to have up to 4 windows open.if we want to have two apps open on the right
side of the screen we need to select and holdthe title bar. dragging the window to the top right of thescreen we can see a gray outline showing where the window will snap.we can take the remaining window and snap it to the bottom right by selecting it.some apps might not be able to operate in â¼ screen mode.we can have one of the windows take up the entire screen by selecting the “maximizeâ€button as we are used to, or we can drag the window to the top of the window and release to snap to full screen.thanks to the great new leadership of satya nadella microsoft definitely seems to be movingin the right direction with windows 10. thank you for joining me on this tutorial.if you like the content please support me
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