Whether you’ve been utilizing Windows 11 for some time now otherwise you’re simply getting began with a brand new Windows 11 PC, there are some helpful new options that you just may need missed. Here are ten nice ones try to be utilizing.
Quick Settings Menu
One of the nicest new options of Windows 11 is the Quick Settings menu, which lets you shortly change system quantity, brightness, Wi-Fi settings, energy choices, and extra. It replaces the Action Center from Windows 10.
To use it, press Windows+A in your keyboard or click on the quantity and Wi-Fi icons in the correct nook of the taskbar. When it pops up, you’ll see quite a lot of buttons that allow you to management points of your PC. You can customise the menu by clicking the pencil icon within the lower-right nook of the menu.
New Snap Menu
Snap—which helps you to shortly resize home windows to predefined areas of the display with out overlapping—isn’t a brand new function to Windows 11. But the helpful Snap menu is. It lets you choose from six totally different window layouts with good diagrams for reference. To use it, hover over the Maximize button (the sq. within the higher proper nook of a window’s title bar beside the “X”), then click on the part of the structure you’d like to make use of. The window will immediately snap into place. Pretty good!
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Windows Terminal
Windows Terminal was out there for Windows 10, nevertheless it comes with Windows 11 built-in, and it’s a good way to entry the command line. In reality, you’ll be able to swap between Windows EnergyShell, Command Prompt, Azure Cloud Shell, and even Ubuntu Linux when you have the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) put in. To use Windows Terminal, seek for it within the Start menu, or right-click the Start button and choose “Windows Terminal” within the menu that seems.
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New Themes and Wallpapers
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Windows 11 contains a number of lovely new themes and over a dozen new wallpapers to select from. The wallpapers give your PC a cool, modern look, and the themes allow you to shortly swap between types relying in your temper.
To change your desktop background, press Windows+i (to open Windows Settings) and navigate to Personalization > Background. To change themes, open Settings and navigate to Personalization > Themes. Click the thumbnail of the theme you need, and it’ll swap immediately.
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Centered Taskbar Icons
You’ve most likely observed that Windows 11 positions the Start button and app icons in the middle of the activitybar by default—an enormous change from Windows 10 (though you can nonetheless align them to the left if you desire). This central structure feels good on contact display units, however we’re additionally stunned at how helpful it feels in desktop mode as properly—particularly on ultrawide shows (what you want is true within the middle of the display). So in case you instantly aligned your taskbar icons to the left if you began utilizing Windows 11, give centered icons a strive—you may get pleasure from it.
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Virtual Desktops with Unique Wallpapers
Unlike Windows 10, Windows 11 lets you assign customized desktop wallpapers to every digital desktop. This makes it helpful to shortly visually decide which desktop you’re working with. To assign a wallpaper, swap to the digital desktop, right-click the desktop and choose “Personalize.” Then choose “Background,” and you may change your wallpaper there.
And in case you don’t find out about digital desktops, it is best to use these as properly. Click the duty view icon within the taskbar (two overlapping squares) and click on the plus (“+”) button labeled “New Desktop.” You can swap between desktops in activity view at any time by clicking the totally different desktop thumbnail icons.
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New Notepad
Windows 11 now features a new model of the Notepad textual content file editor (and glorious fast note-taker) that matches the system theme with rounded corners. It additionally contains an choice to both function in darkish mode or swap between gentle and darkish mode routinely based mostly on the system theme (click on the gear icon within the upper-right nook of the Notepad window to alter these settings). Best of all, you’ll be able to nonetheless press F5 to get an on the spot time/date stamp, which is our favourite function.
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Microsoft Teams
If your enterprise or group makes use of Microsoft Teams to coordinate and talk with one another, you’ll be delighted to know that Teams is deeply built-in into Windows 11 due to a Chat function which you’ll entry by clicking the purple phrase bubble icon in your taskbar. You can even use Teams for collaboration, calendar sharing, and video chats as properly, so it may be an important productiveness device.
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Nearby Sharing
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This one is a little bit of a cheat, since it’s in Windows 10 as properly, however so few individuals find out about Nearby Sharing that it seems like a brand new function. It allows you to wirelessly switch recordsdata between two Windows machines utilizing Bluetooth in an analogous option to AirDrop on a Mac. To use Nearby Sharing, you’ll must allow it in Settings > System > Nearby Sharing. Then you’ll be able to right-click any file in File Explorer, choose the Share icon, and choose the vacation spot PC within the menu. The receiving machine must have Nearby Sharing enabled as properly.
RELATED: “AirDrop” for Windows: How to Use Nearby Sharing in Windows 11
Run Android Apps
Thanks to the Amazon Appstore, which is accessible free of charge within the Microsoft Store, now you can run Android apps on Windows 11 in case your PC helps {hardware} virtualization. To achieve this, open the Microsoft Store (seek for it in Start), then set up the Amazon Appstore, and also you’ll be guided by a course of of putting in the Windows Subsystem for Android. After restarting, the Amazon Appstore will open routinely. Sign in with an Amazon account, and you may obtain and use Android apps. Have enjoyable!
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