7 methods I arrange Home windows 11 for a greater expertise

Once you choose up a brand new Windows 11 laptop or carry out a contemporary set up of Home windows 11 on your PC, it isn’t fully good proper out of the field. Whereas Microsoft has packed plenty of nice options into Home windows 11, making it work higher for you requires just a few easy changes that, over time, will make utilizing it extra fulfilling and productive.

Whether or not it is adjusting the look of Home windows 11 or making just a few adjustments to the taskbar and Start Menu, listed below are seven methods I arrange Home windows 11 for the very best consumer expertise. All these changes take lower than a couple of minutes to finish and do not require the set up of any third-party software program, making them fast and straightforward to do to have Home windows 11 working higher for you very quickly.

7

Customise the look of Home windows 11

Allow darkish mode and alter the colours of Home windows

I exploit Home windows 11 on each my laptop computer and desktop PC for work, and if I’ve to stare at my PC all day, I would like it to look interesting. Fortuitously, with Home windows 11, Microsoft has included a wealth of customization choices to assist personalize the appear and feel of Home windows to your liking. After all, the basic choices can be found, resembling altering your desktop background, however there are additionally just a few distinctive methods to make Home windows extra private.

To customise the looks of Home windows 11, go to Settings > Personalization. From there, you may see an inventory of varied choices, together with altering your background and the colours of Home windows. The primary setting I at all times change is to modify Home windows to darkish mode as an alternative of sunshine to save lots of my eyes. This may be discovered underneath Colours > Select your mode > Darkish. In that very same shade menu, you can too disable the translucent impact on Home windows and choose an accent shade of your alternative to use to the taskbar and Begin Menu.

I additionally prefer to personalize the lock display, which you are able to do underneath Settings > Personalization > Lock display. There, you possibly can set your individual background for it, or depart it as Home windows Highlight, which randomly selects completely different landscapes world wide to function your lock display once you register to your PC.

I like to recommend exploring all of the completely different customization choices underneath Personalization, as there are quite a few decisions to fine-tune Home windows’ look to your desire.

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Making urgent the Home windows key value it

Persevering with with the theme of personalizing Home windows to your liking, editing the Start Menu is one other suggestion I like to recommend. Once you first arrange Home windows 11, not one of the apps you have put in are pinned to the Begin Menu, and the default look is cluttered with suggestions for information or applications you have lately opened. Should you open tons of various information a day, as I do, then the suggestions within the Begin Menu aren’t notably useful.

Fortuitously, you possibly can alter the Begin Menu to show extra pinned apps as an alternative of suggestions. To do that, go to Settings > Personalization > Begin and choose Extra Pins as an alternative of the Default possibility. To pin put in applications to your Begin Menu, merely seek for them, right-click them, and choose Pin to Begin. I’ve all of the apps I exploit most frequently right here, which I do not essentially want on my taskbar, resembling Photoshop and sport launchers apart from Steam, like Xbox and Epic Video games. Pinning applications to the Begin Menu is a handy technique to open them shortly, relatively than having to seek for them every time or use a desktop icon. It makes urgent the Home windows Key value it.

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5

Repair the taskbar

You alter it again to the way it used to look in earlier Home windows variations

Subsequent, personalizing your taskbar is one other technique to improve your Home windows 11 expertise. By default, Microsoft pins just a few apps to it, such because the Home windows Retailer and Microsoft Edge. Should you’re like me and by no means use Edge or the Home windows Retailer, unpinning them can unencumber house on your taskbar and make it look much less cluttered.

I like to recommend pinning the apps you employ most incessantly to your taskbar. For me, these embrace File Explorer, Chrome, Steam, Slack, Spotify, and Discord. This ensures that the apps I depend on essentially the most are at all times entrance and middle. To pin an app to your taskbar, seek for it or, whereas it is open, right-click on it and choose Pin to taskbar.

Should you’re coming to Home windows 11 from Windows 10 and have been utilizing Home windows for a very long time, you may discover that the taskbar is now centralized as an alternative of being positioned to the left, because it at all times has been. Should you don’t love Home windows 11’s macOS-like centralized taskbar, you possibly can revert its alignment to the left, like in Home windows 10, 7, XP, and earlier variations. To do that, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, and alter the Alignment to Left as an alternative of Middle. There’s additionally an possibility underneath the Alignment settings to mechanically cover the taskbar in the event you choose to cover it when it isn’t in use.

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4

Allow Clipboard historical past

Simply discover any hyperlink or textual content you have copied

Copying and pasting is among the mostly used options on any PC. Nonetheless, conserving monitor of all of the hyperlinks or textual content you have copied can typically turn into overwhelming in the event you’re sending lots of them all through the day. That is why Clipboard historical past is among the finest options you possibly can allow on Home windows 11. It is not turned on by default, however once you activate it, it retains monitor of the whole lot you have copied to your PC’s clipboard. Should you’re looking for a hyperlink you copied earlier or a bit of textual content, you possibly can discuss with Clipboard historical past to shortly find it.

To allow Clipboard historical past, go to Settings > System > Clipboard > Clipboard historical past. As soon as activated, to carry up your Clipboard historical past, merely press the Home windows Key + V. You may then be capable of see all of the hyperlinks you have lately copied. You’ll be able to pin completely different objects to your Clipboard historical past for straightforward entry. You’ll be able to clear your Clipboard historical past anytime by merely clicking the Clear all button.

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3

Scale back the variety of startup apps

Have Home windows 11 boot smoother

Should you’ve simply arrange Home windows 11 and put in quite a lot of apps, there is a good probability that a few of them have mechanically determined to start out everytime you boot up your PC. Whereas most Home windows PCs now include speedy stable state drives (SSDs), some older machines nonetheless use arduous disk drives (HDDs), and having too many apps begin without delay can decelerate Home windows throughout startup.

To make Home windows boot quicker and smoother, you possibly can scale back the variety of apps that open mechanically at startup. To do that, open Job Supervisor by looking for it within the search bar or by concurrently urgent Ctrl+Shift+Esc. Then, choose Startup apps from the menu on the left. You may see all of the apps that begin with Home windows, and you may right-click and disable startup for any apps you do not want operating when Home windows boots up. I at all times disable Copilot and Xbox, as I do not want them operating on a regular basis or at bootup. Even when you’ve got an SSD, I like to recommend doing this, because it frees up your PC’s assets by not having apps run within the background unnecessarily.

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2

Unlock cupboard space

Clear up your storage gadget for future wants

Should you’ve simply upgraded to Home windows 11 from Home windows 10, now’s nearly as good a time as ever to contemplate cleansing up your PC’s cupboard space. In case your Home windows 11 set up is operating on an HDD, this step is essential as a result of in case your HDD is sort of full, it could actually expertise slowdowns that negatively impression efficiency.

To view all of the applications you could have put in and uninstall any you do not want, go to Settings > Apps > Put in Apps. Should you spot any apps you not require, you possibly can click on the three dots on the precise to uninstall them. Even when you’ve got an SSD, I feel it is value doing this, as a result of even a virtually full SSD can decelerate, and it is at all times good to have free house out there for future wants.

Should you’re on a brand new Home windows 11 PC, I nonetheless advocate doing this as effectively, because it’s an incredible alternative to take a look at any of the pre-installed apps included with Home windows, and uninstall any you do not want. The primary app I at all times uninstall on any new Home windows 11 PC is Copilot, as a result of I do not need or want any of Microsoft’s AI options.

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1

Swap your default browser

Sorry not sorry Microsoft Edge

Lastly, the very last thing I like to recommend when establishing Home windows 11 to boost your expertise is to vary your default browser, if you have not already. By default, Microsoft units Microsoft Edge because the default browser, and whereas it has made enhancements to Edge over the previous few years, I nonetheless discover it’s inferior to Chrome or Firefox. Within the case of Google Chrome, I like having it synced throughout all my gadgets, whether or not or not it’s my Home windows PC, MacBook, or iPad.

To alter your default browser, guarantee you could have your most well-liked browser put in. Then, navigate to Apps > Default Apps > Google Chrome (or your chosen browser like Firefox) and click on Set default. As soon as that is performed, any hyperlinks you click on will open within the browser you have chosen as an alternative of Microsoft Edge.

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