Computer Tutorials for Beginners

Windows 10 Privacy Settings,Part 2 - In the previous section, we looked at some privacy settings. The screen we were on was this one: The  Camera  and  Microphone  pages in the image above (on the left) can be switched off entirely, or you can specify that only certain apps use them. Again, you do this with toggle switches. For example, you may want the Camera and Microphone on for programs like Skype but not for, say, Excel. Speech, inking & typing  may be on by default. If so, you'll see a screen like this one: If the grey button at the top says "Stop getting to know me" then Microsoft may be collecting data about you whenever you use the Speech option for the Cortana search engine, or type something into the search box. It's only doing this to improve its results, though, and not for some nefarious purpose. However, clicking the grey button will prevent the data being sent. The button will then say "Get to know me": Account Info...

Windows 10 Privacy Settings  - Windows 10 has been criticised for sending too much information about you and your computer back to Microsoft. You can prevent most of this by tweaking your privacy settings. The first thing to do is to bring up the settings screen. You can either click the Start menu and click on the settings icon on the left: Or press the Windows key then the letter   i   on your keyboard. When you see the Settings screen, scroll down and click on the   Privacy   item: The privacy screen will then look like this (these are the defaults): The idea is, you click on item from the list on the left to see the settings available on the right. The first one on the left is General, and you can see the   General   Settings on the right, in the image above. Let's go through these and see what they mean. You can then decide whether to switch them on or off. Let apps use my advertising ID for experience across apps. Suppose ...

Windows 10 Taskbar Notification Area  - The notification area is on the right-hand side of the taskbar, and looks something like this: You can tweak what goes in to your notification area. On the Settings page, click the link that says "Select which icons appear on the taskbar": You'll then see this screen: This is a list of items you can switch on or off by clicking the toggle switches. For example, if you don't want the clock in the Notification area, click where it says On. The toggle switch will then say Off, and the clock will disappear from your Notification area in the bottom right.

Windows 10 Taskbar Settings - If you already have the Settings screen displayed, click on the   Taskbar   item on the left: If you can't see a settings screen, you can bring it up by clicking on the   Settings   item on the Start menu (bottom left of your desktop screen): When you click on Settings, the screen may look like this at first: Click on the   Personalisation   item to go to the settings screen. Then click the Taskbar item on the left: Most of the items on the Taskbar list are toggle switches. So, for example, if you want to automatically hide the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, click the toggle to turn this item on: If you look at the bottom item in the image above, you'll see an option to "Use Peek to preview the desktop … ". This is what we turned on to get a preview of running apps. Click on the toggle switch to turn this item on, and it will turn blue. If you want to squeeze more items onto your taskbar, toggle ...

The Windows 10 Taskbar  - The Taskbar is the strip that runs at the bottom of your screen. Here, as well as the Start Menu and the Cortana search box, you will find a list of your currently running programs, and any quick-launch programs you have added. The taskbar looks like this: If you use a program a lot, you can add it to the taskbar as a quick-launch icon. To start the program, you can then click its icon on the taskbar instead of searching for it on the start menu. To add a program to the Quick Launch area, you can right click the program in the start menu. You'll then another menu appear. This one: Select   More   from the menu above, then   Pin to taskbar   from the submenu. You'll then a new icon appear on the taskbar. In the image below, we've pinned a piece of software called NetBeans to the task bar (the blue cube on the end): Notice that when a piece of software is open, it is highlighted more than the others that are pinned to th...

Windows 10 Start Menu Tiles  - Half of the Windows 10 start menu is taken up with tiles. Some of these are static tiles, and some are live. The live tiles can tell you things like the weather, the news, or even give you posts from your Twitter account. How to add tiles to the start menu If there's a program you use a lot, you might want to add it to the Start Menu as a Tile. To do this, right click a program from the middle section. In the image below, we want Notepad as a Tile, so we've right-clicked it: Once you right-click an item, you'll see a menu appear: Select "Pin to Start" from the menu. The program then appears as a Tile on the Start menu: To launch this program, we can now just click its Tile on the Start Menu. How to Remove a Tile from the Windows 10 Start Menu To remove a Tile from the menu, right click the Tile. From the menu that appears, select Unpin from Start: The Tile will then be removed from the Start Menu. ...

Cortana Voice Search  - If you have voice switched on, you can speak your search term. To start with speech search, click the microphone symbol to the right of the search box: You'll then see a panel open up: As the popup says, you need to let Cortana get used to the way you speak. Click the Settings button to launch the following screen: If you're going to be using speech, then make sure the toggle switch at the top is On. Once you have switched the microphone toggle to on, you'll see apps below that you can allow or disallow from having access to speech. Once you have switched the Microphone to On, the popup should now look like this: Click the   Sure   button to confirm that you want to use Speech. If something goes wrong, then you may see a message like this one, telling you that Cortana can't hear you: Click where it says "Tap here to make sure Cortana can hear you". Windows will then try to diagnose the problem: The messag...

Search With Cortana  - If you can't find a file or a program on your computer, you can use the Cortana search box at the bottom of Windows 10. You can even use the search box to open up programs, if you use voice search. You can simply click inside of the box and type whatever you're searching for. In the image below we're searching for Windows 10: Notice the various categories: Best Match, Settings, Web, Store. These categories help you narrow down your search. Click the   More   arrow at the top to see more categories: So, for example, if you were searching for an image, you could click the Photos category to narrow down your search. Cortana would then only search for images. Click the X in the top right to go back to the first list of categories. If you have a look at the top of the first list, you'll see three icons: These are shortcuts to search the Web, search the Documents folder on your computer, and search for Apps. Click one of these, if ...