tech tip # 26 configuring Windows 10

Dear Colleagues,

By now you are probably all getting somewhat used to Windows 10 (it is quite a change from Windows 7 which came out in 2009!), but there are a few things that you may want to do to customize your personal Windows 10 settings.

Personalize

If you right-click on your desktop and choose “personalize”, you can adjust quite a few things about how things look, including the background image, the lock screen image. Under the “lock screen” item, you can adjust the screen timeout settings as well as the screen saver settings.

Taskbar

If you have a program that you use often, you may want to “pin it to the taskbar” so that it is readily available. To do this you can right click on the program icon in the start menu and choose “pin to taskbar”.

Launching programs

In general, one of the easiest ways to launch a program is to type the program’s name into the search bar. This is often faster than scrolling through the list of available programs. (once you find that favourite program, add it to your taskbar!)

Logging out, shutting down and restarting

If you forget to log out of your computer and it “locks”, then there is no way for anyone else to log in without restarting the machine. Windows enterprise does not allow multiple users at the same time. The person who needs to log into that computer has to either “restart” the computer, or shut down and then power up. Surprisingly it is usually faster to so the latter rather than restart. Please get in the habit of logging off when you leave your computer. Also, please remember to leave your computer on (logged out) when you leave so that updates to software can be performed.

SMUS Windows 10 FAQ

Chris Kloosterman sent out an email in late August with a link to the “Frequently Asked Questions” about windows 10.  In case you have misplaced the link it is here: https://secure.smus.ca/wiki/index.php?title=SMUS_Windows_10_FAQ

At the moment this FAQ includes topics such as: logging out, setting your default browser, setting the right program for PDF files, and much more

If you need help figuring any of this out, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the ed tech specialists on your campus. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers

Mike

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

	.