Wednesday s Technology Tips November 2, 2016 A short guide to learning more technology This week s topic: Windows 10 Tips Like it or not, Microsoft is rushing quickly toward Windows 10 as the new standard for a Windows Operating System. Below are a few tips and tricks on how to make better sense of Windows 10. We will try to include additional ones as time goes along. In the meantime, today s newsletter is a whopping 14 pages but I ve included some screen shots of the steps to help make things easier for you. For those of you still on Windows 7 or 8, please ignore these steps for this newsletter but please be aware Windows 10 will likely become the new standard in the world of Windows. That is, until Windows 11 or beyond becomes the latest and greatest Microsoft Operating System. Hopefully that won t be anytime soon but with Microsoft, hey you never know. (1)You may wish to Show File Extensions and Hidden Files By default, Windows 10 frequently makes a lot of file extensions hidden from view. This is probably smart but it isn t as easy to find files when you are looking for them on your computer. Your Powerpoint presentation, for example, will appear as "MonthlyMeeting2016" instead of "MonthlyMeeting2016.pptx". In an effort to protect you from yourself, Microsoft also hides certain operating system files from you by default. But what if you need to find these files or edit them to troubleshoot? And can't you trust yourself not to delete important files? Here's how to show extensions and hidden files in Windows 10.
1. Navigate to the control panel. You can get there by hitting Windows + X and selecting Control Panel 2. Open File Explorer Options. If you don't see the icon for it, change the control panel view (in the upper right corner) to large or small icons.
3. Navigate to the View tab.
4. Toggle "Hidden files and folders" to "Show hidden files, folders and drives." 5. Uncheck "Hide empty drives," "Hide extensions for known file types" and "Hide protected operating system files."
6. Click Yes when warned about unhiding protected files. 7. Click Ok. (2) You may wish to change your default browser. If you upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8, you'll notice that Microsoft Edge is now your default browser, even if Chrome or Firefox was your default before. If you are a Chrome or Firefox user, you'll want to change your default right away. 1. Navigate to settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Select Default apps from the left pane. 4. Click the Microsoft Edge icon under the "Web browser" header.
5. Select the browser you want as your new default (ex: Chrome). Remember you must install the Chrome or Firefox browser for it to show up in this list.
Now you should have your default web browser for all your internet surfing. It s as easy as that. (3) You might want to consider deleting the Windows.old folder If you upgraded from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, the installation program keeps a copy of your previous version of Windows around in case you want to roll back. However, those files, which reside on the C drive in a folder called Windows.old, take up 15 to 16GB of disk space or more. If you plan to stay with Windows 10 you should consider deleting these old archived files. Here s how to do that. 1. Navigate to the control panel. You can get there by hitting Windows + X and selecting control panel. 2. Open Administrative Tools.
3. Launch Disk Cleanup. 4. Click Ok, making sure that the C drive is selected.
5. Click Clean up System Files. 6. Click Ok again.
7 Check all the boxes on the "Files to delete" menu, especially "Previous Windows Installations" and "Temporary Windows Installation Files." Click Ok. 8. Click Delete Files. It will take a few minutes to compl
9. Click Yes to confirm. It will take a couple of minutes to complete the deletion process. But you will be glad you did delete some additional space on your desktop or laptop PC. Now you can fill this space with the latest Coldplay CD music or pictures of this upcoming meal at Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy these newsletters. We always invite feedback, suggestions, quotes, jokes, or anything related to Technology. Please feel free to send feedback to me at overstreetj@coffeecounty.k12.al.us. Who knows your name may appear in lights or at the very latest in black and white or color with your suggestions? Consider it an opportunity to shine and stand tall. Be one of the few. The proud. A contributor to the newsletter!! Now off to some quotes