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To customize the Taskbar on Windows 11, right-click the “Taskbar” and select “Taskbar settings,” change the settings for “Taskbar items,” “System tray icons,” “Other system tray icons,” and “Taskbar behaviors.” Windows 11 has a new Taskbar experience, which may look similar to the one on Windows 10 , but it’s not as functional anymore. For starters, items are now aligned to the center instead of the left, and the search box has been replaced with a button....

Windows 11 includes unnecessary apps and services even after a clean install. You can debloat the operating system using scripts, third-party tools, Group Policy, or during setup. Native options in newer versions reduce bloat without PowerShell or external tools. The term “debloat” refers to the process of removing unnecessary apps and services from Windows 11 (in this case) that you may not need, find invasive, or that would otherwise waste system resources....

On Windows 10, if you’ve been using Microsoft Azure to backup your files in the cloud , the day may come when you no longer need the data because you moved to a new computer and created a new backup, or because you’re just decommissioning the device. Whatever the reason it might be, Azure makes it relatively simple to delete no longer needed backups to reduce cost and keep things organize....

Although on Windows 10, many apps can match the system color scheme, Microsoft Teams won’t automatically switch to the color scheme when enabling the dark mode. The reason is that you need to enable dark mode on Teams manually using the app settings. In this guide , you will learn the steps to switch from the light to dark theme on Microsoft Teams on Windows 10 . Enable dark mode on Microsoft Teams To enable dark mode on Teams, use these steps:...

Windows 11 build 23493 comes with the addition of a new Home page experience for the Settings app, but if it’s not available on your installation, use these instructions to enable it. Microsoft is bringing back the “Home” page to the Settings app with interactive cards representing various device and account-related settings grouped based on how you access the settings. Initially, the page can show up to seven cards, including Recommended settings, Cloud storage, Account recovery, Personalization, Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Bluetooth devices, but the company plans to add even more cards in future releases....

On Windows 11 22H2 , you can now enable an early preview of Suggested actions expected to arrive in October with the upcoming “moment” update . “Suggested actions” is a feature that brings up an inline menu to create a calendar event or make a phone call when you copy a date, time, or phone number to the clipboard. For example, if you copy a phone number, the flyout would suggest making the call with Microsoft Teams or other apps....

On Windows 11 or 10, sometimes, you may need to see the history of tasks you created to confirm they’re working correctly, but only to find out that nothing has been recorded by default in the history tab. Only the “Last Run Time” information is available in the console. If you want to log the task events on Windows 11 (or even on Windows 10 ), the Task Scheduler includes an option to enable history manually (but for all tasks)....

On Windows 11 , you can open and extract archive formats, such as RAR, 7z, and GZ, and in this guide, you will learn two ways to complete this task. Files with “.rar,” “.7z,” “.gz,” “.tar.gz.” extensions are containers created using Unix-based archival applications, which you may find on Linux and macOS systems. Usually, they are used for backups and archival, including distributing applications over the internet. Windows 11 includes native support to extract “....

Recently a post showed up on the internet detailing how a changing a Windows 10 registry key allows to see unreleased versions of the operating system and choose how fast users can download those bits. As it turns out there is nothing good that will come out of it. A new Tweet from Microsoft’s Gabriel Aul, in charge of the Windows Insider Program, he points out that performing the registry tweak in Windows 10 Technical Preview will actually prevent the system to receive any future builds....

Google is known for always upgrading its Nexus phones and tablets with a new version of Android before any other device. However, the roll out of a new update can take weeks or months to reach everyone — even with Nexus devices. It takes a significant amount of time because updates always release on stages to allow the company to halt the rollout, so if something happens only a small number of users get affected....

To install optional features on Windows 11, open Settings > System > Optional features , click “View features,” select the feature, click “Next,” and “Install.” Alternatively, open Settings > System > Optional features > More Windows Features , choose the feature, and click “Install.” You also have the option to install optional features through PowerShell and Command Prompt using the DISM and the Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature commands. UPDATED 10/28/2024: On Windows 11 , “Optional Features” are components that are not essential to operate the system, but they can add extra functionalities....

UPDATED 3/7/2025: If you plan to install Windows 11, you can create a custom partition instead of letting the setup to use the entire hard drive space, and in this guide, we’ll show you how. Although you can change the size of a partition at any time, if you plan to set up a dual-boot system or want to store your files in a separate space, you can create a custom partition for Windows 11 and apps during the installation process....

Although preview builds of Windows 11 are available for supported and unsupported hardware, the early builds of the next version of the OS are only available for devices that do not meet the minimum requirements for testers who have been part of the Windows Insider Program before June 24, 2021. If you never tested previews of Windows, you will need a computer that meets the minimum system requirements with a TPM 2....

To add a password to a PDF document, open Word > File > Export , select “Create PDF/XPS Document,” and click “Create PDF/XPS,” click “Options,” check “Encrypt the document with a password,” click “OK,” create a password for the PDF, and click “Publish.” Whether you use Windows 11 (or 10), you can use Microsoft Word to secure a PDF document with a password without the need for third-party software, such as Adobe Acrobat....

To remove the Linux entry from File Explorer, open the Registry Editor, create the {B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6} key, set the System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD to 0 , and restart the computer. On Windows 11 , it’s possible to remove the “Linux” entry from the navigation pane on File Explorer, but it requires you to modify the Registry, and in this guide, I’ll explain how to complete this configuration. The “Linux” option on the left pane has been designed to give you easy access to the distribution files from the Windows 11 interface without having to launch the WSL console....

To safely remove Linux from a dual-boot setup using Windows 11 (or 10), you must first access WinRE to start the device in the UEFI firmware settings and change the boot manager from Linux to Windows. The next step is to boot into Windows, delete the partition containing the Linux installation, and either extend or create a new partition using the unallocated space. The third step is to delete the Linux boot manager from the Windows system partition and then remove the Linux Grub entry from the UEFI firmware....

To reset the “Hosts” file on Windows 11, open Notepad as an administrator. Copy and paste the original settings. Create a backup of the previous file. Save the new Hosts file in the “%WinDir%\System32\Drivers\etc” location. On Windows 11 , if you made changes to the “Hosts” file, you can quickly reset it to its default settings to resolve Domain Name System (DNS) problems caused by editing this file. The Hosts file resides in the “%WinDir%\System32\Drivers\etc” path and allows you to map domain or host names to IP addresses....

Snap in Windows 10 has been improved with a number of new tweaks such as Snap Assist, which will automatically suggests which apps to snap next to the side of the screen, you can snap up to four windows in one display, and now when you resize a spanned window, you can have the operating system simultaneously resize the adjacent window. If you have been using the Snap feature in Windows 10 , you probably came across the scenario where you have snapped two apps, each using 50 percent of the screen real estate, but sometimes you may want to resize one of the windows, when you’ll notice that you’ll also have to manually resize the adjacent window as well....

If you recently upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 , you can use the recovery settings to quickly rollback to the previous version without losing your data. However, there is a caveat. The option is only available during the first ten days after upgrading to Windows 10 . After ten days, the system will delete the previous installation files, making it impossible to roll back to Windows 7 using the recovery option....

To run a full virus scan on Windows 10, open Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Scan options , select “Full scan,” and click “Scan now.” Alternatively, you can use Command Prompt and PowerShell commands to run a malware scan on your computer. UPDATED 1/7/2025: On Windows 10, Microsoft Defender Antivirus automatically checks and scans your computer for threats such as viruses, spyware, ransomware, rootkits, and other malware and hackers....