Fast Start

Your 100-page quick start guide for Windows 10! Smart Brain books are written by William Stanek, who has written numerous bestselling Windows books for Microsoft, O'Reilly and other publishers.

Get this Fast Start guide to learn Windows 10 quickly. Windows 10 is more customizable than any earlier release of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Powerful new features and options combined with traditional favorites allow you to work in new ways. You can perform tasks more efficiently, and you can optimize and customize the operating system in many ways.

Teaching you how to make Windows 10 work the way you want it to is what this book is all about. If you were moving in to a house, apartment, or dorm room, you would want to make the space your own. We do the same with just about everything in our lives, yet surprisingly few people take the time to make their virtual space their own, which can make using a computer a frustrating experience.

One of the ways to make Windows 10 your own is to customize the interface. In any operating system, the interface is everything that connects you to your computer and its basic elements, including the desktop, the menu system, and the taskbar. The way these essential elements look depends on appearance settings. The way they behave depends on customization settings associated with your user account.

Table of Contents

1. Kicking the Tires 7
Using Touchscreens 7
Getting Signed In 8
Entering and Exiting Tablet Mode 10
2. Navigating the Accounts Maze 13
Local and Domain Accounts 13
Accessing Business Networks 14
3. Making the Most of Your Desktop Space 17
Cortana & Search 19
Task View & Changing Desktops 22
4. Meet the New Start Menu 25
New Tricks for an Old Dog 26
More, More, More 27
5. Conquering the Kangaroos 29
Optimizing Interface Performance 29
Mastering Desktop Essentials 32
Stretching the Desktop 37
Ready to Ditch Snap? 41
6. Making the Start Menu Your B*tch 43
Pinning Apps and Using Full-Screen Mode 45
Creating Sections 47
Resizing and Reorganizing Tiles 48
Customizing the Most Used and Recently Added Lists 49
7. Making the Taskbar Dance 51
Putting the Taskbar Where You Want It 51
Customizing Taskbar Appearance 53
Pinning Programs to the Taskbar 55
Using Flip Views and Jump Lists 56
8. Customizing Backgrounds 59
Using Pictures for Backgrounds 61
Using Solid Colors for Backgrounds 62
Using Slideshow Backgrounds 62
9. Customizing Lock Screens 65
Using Pictures on the Lock Screen 67
Using Slideshows on the Lock Screen 67
Configuring Notifications on the Lock Screen 69
10. Customizing User Accounts 71
Changing Account Pictures 71
Changing Account Types 72
Changing and Recovering Your Password 73
11. Exploring Your Computer in New Ways 75
Getting There 75
Getting It Done 77
Managing Access History 80
12. Zeroing in on Apps 83
Getting Your Apps 83
Connecting Your Account to the Store 84
Finding and Installing Your Apps 87
Managing Currently Running Apps, Programs and Processes 89

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