Windows 10 - Useful Features
The aim of this article is to save you time by avoiding unnecessary clicks.
SNIP & SKETCH
This feature helps you to Capture, mark up, and share any part of your screen.
If you recall the early Windows 10 releases from 2015 to 2018, you may have skipped this feature, which wasn't available to the general public until more than three years after the launch of Windows 10. (Specifically, version 1809.) And it's steadily improved since the first edition.
You'd be surprised how useful it is to be able to capture and share all or part of your computer. Why not tweet a screenshot? Check it out. To assist friends in finding you, why not copy a portion of a map? Without a doubt. Document something heinous that was shared on social media? Unfortunately, yes.
Unlike MacOS, which hides this feature behind some completely mysterious keyboard shortcuts, Windows 10 puts it in one spot. To enter screenshot mode, press Windows key + Shift + S. From the toolbar, select your desired capture option (full screen, window, rectangle, or freeform) and press Enter. After that, you can crop, edit, annotate, paste, print, copy, or share your capture by opening the app.
The keyboard shortcut isn't even necessary to recall. You can open Action Center by clicking or tapping on the Screen Snip option. Is it possible to make it easier? Rename PrtScrn as the hotkey that opens Snip & Sketch in the Snip & Sketch Settings menu.
This app, by the way, is a replacement for the now-defunct Snipping Tool app. If you're familiar with that software and prefer to work with Snip & Sketch in the same way, simply open the Snip & Sketch app and launch a screen grab from the toolbar.
TOUCHPAD SHORTCUTS
You can do a lot more with a Precision Touchpad than just point and click.
If you recall, on a Windows PC, trackpads used to be a pain. They sucked like the most efficient bilge pump on the planet.
Then came the Precision Touchpad, and these pointing devices went from simple to oh-so-sophisticated. Today, some people cross a laptop off their buying list if it lacks a Precision Touchpad.
Fortunately, the majority of modern Windows 10 PCs have caught up. Go to Settings > Computers > Touchpad and check at the top of the page to see if your Windows 10 laptop has a Precision Touchpad. You're good to go if you see the message "Your PC has a precision touchpad."
On the same tab, you can see and edit all of Windows 10's built-in shortcuts. Three- and four-finger gestures are included in the default settings, allowing you to quickly move between applications and desktops. It's worthwhile to devote some time to studying these shortcuts. In the long term, you'll be compensated handsomely.
My personal preference is the three-finger swipe, which allows you to move into and out of Task View with a swipe up or down (much like Alt+Tab). Right-clicking can be done with a two-finger tap, and gestures can be redefined to suit your needs. You might want to rename those gestures to control your audio source and volume if you don't use multiple desktops.
You can do a lot more with a Precision Touchpad than just point and click.
If you recall, on a Windows PC, trackpads used to be a pain. They sucked like the most efficient bilge pump on the planet.
Then came the Precision Touchpad, and these pointing devices went from simple to oh-so-sophisticated. Today, some people cross a laptop off their buying list if it lacks a Precision Touchpad.
Fortunately, the majority of modern Windows 10 PCs have caught up. Go to Settings > Computers > Touchpad and check at the top of the page to see if your Windows 10 laptop has a Precision Touchpad. You're good to go if you see the message "Your PC has a precision touchpad."
On the same tab, you can see and edit all of Windows 10's built-in shortcuts. Three- and four-finger gestures are included in the default settings, allowing you to quickly move between applications and desktops. It's worthwhile to devote some time to studying these shortcuts. In the long term, you'll be compensated handsomely.
My personal preference is the three-finger swipe, which allows you to move into and out of Task View with a swipe up or down (much like Alt+Tab). Right-clicking can be done with a two-finger tap, and gestures can be redefined to suit your needs. You might want to rename those gestures to control your audio source and volume if you don't use multiple desktops.
CLIPBOARD HISTORY
This featire is self explanatory.
Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V are shortcut keys. You've already memorized these two, which copy a list to the Windows Clipboard and paste it into a target app, even if you don't know any other keyboard shortcuts.
For years, the Clipboard was stubbornly stupid, just remembering one thing at a time. The contents of the previous Clipboard were displaced by whatever you copied in most recently, necessitating some tedious window-switching gymnastics to copy a group of objects from one location to another.
With the inclusion of the Clipboard History feature in version 1809, much of that has changed. This tool saves the last 25 items copied to the Clipboard so you can reuse them even though they aren't the most recent. You can also sync clipboard contents between Windows devices and pin items to the list (for example, boilerplate text or a logo).
Just press Windows key + V to access Clipboard History. That's a useful keyboard shortcut to note.
BATTERY REPORT
This feature lets you examine your laptop battery and provides useful information about the usage patterns.
When you're on the go, how long does your laptop last on battery power? I'm not referring to the constantly changing estimates of remaining battery life that you get when operating, but rather actual observed consumption.
Do you know how much energy your battery has right now? How does the current value compare to your laptop's initial design specs?
It's incredible that all of these vital pieces of knowledge are kept so well hidden. Thankfully, Windows 10 makes it possible to get answers to both questions in a report that is very easy to read. The only drawback is that the report must be produced using a very obscure command-line option. For example:
This featire is self explanatory.
Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V are shortcut keys. You've already memorized these two, which copy a list to the Windows Clipboard and paste it into a target app, even if you don't know any other keyboard shortcuts.
For years, the Clipboard was stubbornly stupid, just remembering one thing at a time. The contents of the previous Clipboard were displaced by whatever you copied in most recently, necessitating some tedious window-switching gymnastics to copy a group of objects from one location to another.
With the inclusion of the Clipboard History feature in version 1809, much of that has changed. This tool saves the last 25 items copied to the Clipboard so you can reuse them even though they aren't the most recent. You can also sync clipboard contents between Windows devices and pin items to the list (for example, boilerplate text or a logo).
Just press Windows key + V to access Clipboard History. That's a useful keyboard shortcut to note.
BATTERY REPORT
This feature lets you examine your laptop battery and provides useful information about the usage patterns.
When you're on the go, how long does your laptop last on battery power? I'm not referring to the constantly changing estimates of remaining battery life that you get when operating, but rather actual observed consumption.
Do you know how much energy your battery has right now? How does the current value compare to your laptop's initial design specs?
It's incredible that all of these vital pieces of knowledge are kept so well hidden. Thankfully, Windows 10 makes it possible to get answers to both questions in a report that is very easy to read. The only drawback is that the report must be produced using a very obscure command-line option. For example:
Select Command Prompt (Admin) from the Start menu and accept the User Account Control prompt. (Open a PowerShell [Admin] session and type cmd and press Enter if you see a PowerShell menu item where Command Prompt normally appears)
Other one, is to type cd percent userprofile percent Documents and click Enter to go to your personal Documents folder on the command line.
Another choice is to type powercfg /batteryreport and hit Enter. A status report will confirm that you've saved the report as an HTML file to the current folder.
Double-click the saved Battery-report.html file in your Documents folder in File Explorer. It's jam-packed with comprehensive historical data on battery use, including a comparison of the battery's design capacity to its current capacity. Based on historical performance, the Battery Life Estimates table at the bottom shows you the range of battery life you can expect from each charge.
Hopefully, the information provided above will assist you in completing the task quickly and efficiently without the use of excessive clisks and taps.
Another choice is to type powercfg /batteryreport and hit Enter. A status report will confirm that you've saved the report as an HTML file to the current folder.
Double-click the saved Battery-report.html file in your Documents folder in File Explorer. It's jam-packed with comprehensive historical data on battery use, including a comparison of the battery's design capacity to its current capacity. Based on historical performance, the Battery Life Estimates table at the bottom shows you the range of battery life you can expect from each charge.
Hopefully, the information provided above will assist you in completing the task quickly and efficiently without the use of excessive clisks and taps.
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