How to Customize Windows 10 and Fix Minor Inconveniences
Windows 10 addresses many of the problems left over from Windows 8, but it also has a few of its own – however small. Here’s how to tweak several new features of the OS and fix minor features.
If you’re not sure what Windows 10 has to offer, be sure to check out our roundup of its best new features and see if this update is right for you . You will most likely be able to get it for free as well .
Personally, I really like Windows 10. I upgraded my desktop to Windows 8.1 and my laptop to Windows 7 and both worked without a hitch. Most of the old little problems I lived with in Windows 8 have been resolved. Of course, as with any OS, there are a few things that can be fixed.
Fix your new start menu
The Start menu has become one of the most controversial issues for Windows 8, which has completely removed it in favor of the start screen of a modern user interface. Some people liked the new interface; many hated it. Microsoft brought the menu back to Windows 8.1 and redesigned it for Windows 10. And that’s … pretty good.
In Windows 10, the Start menu is much smoother. It’s fast, all your apps are on the menu, and the search is really good. However, for many, the new live tile presentation in the right column of the Start menu is meaningless. I don’t actually use any modern apps, so for the most part it’s just a waste of space, and I suspect a lot of people think the same way.
Fortunately, most Windows 8 desktop Start menu apps work fine with Windows 10 as well . Our favorite app, Start8, has been updated to Start10 (although this is a paid update, unfortunately). If you prefer the free version, Classic Shell still works great. If you prefer the Start menu with the Windows 7 Start menu features, any of these applications can bring you back to it. And don’t worry. The new search feature will still work.
If you don’t want to use an additional app, there are a few other things you can do to customize the Windows 10 Start menu to your liking:
- Adjust the size of the Live Tile area by dragging the right edge of the Start menu when it is open. You can make up to four columns wide. You can also drag the top edge to resize the entire menu.
- Open the Start menu in full screen mode by going to Settings> Personalization> Start and turning on the Use full screen switch. This is very similar to using the Windows 8 Start screen.
- Right-click any live tile and select Disable Live Tile to make it a regular tile.
- Unpin all tiles on the right side of the Start Menu (right-click and select Unpin From ) to create a one-column Start Menu with no Live Tiles.
With the right settings, there’s no reason why you can’t fall in love with the new Start Menu.
Change your default file associations
During the upgrade to Windows 10, many of my default programs were reset, although I told Windows not to. For example, he went ahead and linked all of his image files to the built-in Photos app, although I cleared the checkbox during installation. The fix is easy enough, but inconvenient.
If you find that the default programs have changed, you can change them in two ways:
- Change the default program for one extension on the fly. Right-click the file, choose Open With, and click Choose Another Application . This allows you to choose an application to open that file. Select the Always use this app option to permanently associate the program with the extension.
- Change the program to open some or all of the available extensions. In the search box, search for and open default programs . This opens the window shown above. Select a program on the left to see its current connections. You can set the program as the default for all types of files that it can open, or you can select specific file types and protocols with which you want to associate the program.
Remove the search bar and task view button from the taskbar
The new search bar on the Windows taskbar can be pretty handy, but it takes up quite a bit of space on the taskbar. In addition, you can search without it. Even if the search bar is hidden, you can press the Windows key and start typing to perform the same search. To hide the search bar, right-click anywhere on the taskbar and select Search (or, if you’ve enabled Cortana, Cortana ). Select Show Search Icon (or Show Cortana Icon ) to remove the search box itself and just show the icon you can click to open Cortana, or select Hidden to remove them entirely from the taskbar.
On the same taskbar context menu, uncheck Show Task View Button to remove this button from the taskbar. You can still get the same task view by pressing Windows + Tab.
Remove “Quick Access” from File Explorer
Quick Access is a new area in Explorer that replaces the Favorites section in Windows 8. The video above from Windows Central is a pretty good summary of this feature. Quick Access can actually be pretty handy and might not sound annoying to some, but if you don’t want all your recently used folders to clutter up File Explorer, you have several options.
First, you can change the default view of File Explorer from Quick Access to this PC. Just open File Explorer and go to View> Options and under the General tab change Open File Explorer To to This PC. Conveniently!
If you want to get rid of shortcuts entirely, the process is a little more complicated. You can read about it in full on Windows Central . This requires a couple of steps, a couple of which require making changes to the registry, so if that doesn’t bother you, you might not want to. If you want to give up quick access, create a system restore point or take a quick registry backup and do so.
Change the colors of a boring title bar
While Windows 10 doesn’t let you change the default title bar color for windows from the default white, you can change them with a little hacking.
As Into Windows points out (and click this link for full instructions), all you have to do is make some text edits to a couple of style files so that Windows uses the accent color (a value you can change) for the title bar. After making your changes, you can change the accent color any time you want to change the color of the title bar. Do that, just go to Personalization> Colors, turn off Automatically select accent color on my background, and pick any color you like.
Disable Windows 10 updates
Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs updates without your intervention. Overall, this is probably a good thing considering how many people are bad at updating information. However, this policy can cause problems, especially if Windows downloads driver updates that are ultimately causing you problems.
If you prefer to control which updates are installed, you can prevent certain updates from being installed using the process reported by Gizmodo . The downside is that this is a pretty tricky workaround. You will need to download a troubleshooting tool from Microsoft that allows you to view and hide pending updates. Once hidden, Windows will not automatically install these updates until you display them.
We know most of you are just getting started with Windows 10. If you notice any annoyances that we missed, be sure to let us know below. Whether you found a fix or not, we’d love to hear about it. And maybe we can even help.