Technology News, Tips, Tutorials & Techniques

I remember the first time I saw a Microsoft Windows 7 commercial on TV a few years ago, where the guy who was using the computer “snapped” an open window so it took up only half a screen. And then he snapped another window and the two windows were divided equally. I said “Wow” and wondered how he did that. Little did I know at the time that his snapping was a new feature in Windows. I tried and tried in my current version to no avail. By the time I upgraded, I forgot all about the feature.

The good news is, you can still snap windows into location with Windows 10. And in addition to that, you can use a new feature called Snap Assist. I’ll explain all about this in the sections below.

In today’s post, I’m going to explain exactly how to snap an open window in Windows 10 so it’s organized to a specific area of your screen. Then, I’ll show you how you can snap multiple windows using Snap Assist. These features are extremely helpful and can save tons of time over the long haul, so it’s definitely worth it to read through this post in its entirety.

Maximizing & Reducing

The very first and most simple way to test the snap feature is to open a window to your desktop. Once the window is open (in my case, it’s a folder, but it can be anything), click up in the title bar of the window and drag it to the top of the desktop. When you do this, you’ll see a small and brief blue circle appear. You’ll also see a faded white box take up the entire area of the desktop. When you let go, the regularly sized window will become maximized.

To undo this and to return to the previous window size, simply reverse what you did. Click and drag the window down from the top of the screen, let go and it will automatically shrink back down.

Side to Side

Another really fun way to organize your window is to drag it to the left or the right of the desktop in the same fashion you did above. Drag the window off the screen to the left and let go. You’ll find that the window is now maximized, but only taking up the left half of the screen. The same is true for the right side. You even get the same ghost window before you let go. Take a look at the screenshot below to see what that looks like (look at the faded white square in the blue area).

Again, to undo what you just did, click and drag the window back out to the center of the desktop.

If you’d like to snap a window to any corner of the screen, drag the window to the side you’d like it to end up and drag either up or down. In my case, I dragged the window to the left side and dragged up, without letting go. Once I did let go, the window only took up 25% of the desktop and was positioned in the upper left corner.

Using Snap Assist for Multiple Windows

What I demonstrated above was fine for one single window. The true power of snapping can be found when used when you’re working with multiple windows. Let’s give this a try to see what happens.

I currently have four windows active. I’m writing in WordPress in Google Chrome, I have Microsoft Edge open for a Gmail account, I have my demo folder open and I have Photoshop active to gather the screenshots for this post. If I go ahead and snap the demo folder to the left side, that will maximize to that side only as it did above. This time, however, the remaining active windows (even though they’re minimized down in the taskbar) will turn into large thumbnails in the empty half of the desktop. It looks like this:

Of course, this is only half of the screen. The other half is taken up by the demo folder.

If I click on one of the thumbnails, that application will grow to take up the entire half of the screen. Now that’s pretty cool. It’s also really helpful when you’re working in Microsoft Excel or Calc and you need to see many numbers at once. I can also imagine having two twin windows open being helpful when you’re typing on one with data from the other. Side by side is a life saver in these situations.

Three Windows Open at Once

Check this out. Let’s say that I want two windows to take up the left half of the screen and one to take up the right half. How would I do that? Well, If I dragged one window to the upper left corner and let go and then dragged another to the lower left corner and let go, I’d have two equally sized windows stacked on top of one another. I’d also have the thumbnails of the other active application on the right side, sort of like I had above. It would look like this:

Now, if I merely clicked on one of those thumbnails, that window would expand to take up the entire half, giving me three windows opened and displayed simultaneously.

Snap Assist Keyboard Shortcuts

What’s really neat is that you don’t have to do all of this snapping with your mouse. There are built in keyboard shortcuts to help out. I’ll list some of them below.

If I press the Windows key in addition to the Right or Left arrow keys, the top active window will snap to the corresponding side. If I continue to hold down the Windows key and press the Up or Down arrow keys, the window will shrink to one corner. And if I continue holding the Windows key even more and press the Left or Right arrow key again, the quarter size window will jump to the other side.

If I hold the Windows key and press the Up arrow, the active window will maximize. If I press the Windows key and the Down arrow key when a window is maximized, the window will reduce to regular size. If I press the Down arrow key again, the window will minimize.

When using the keyboard shortcuts, you’ll realize that they’re sort of related. They use the Windows key and the arrow keys. If you play around for a while, you’ll learn all about them. They aren’t difficult to pick up at all.

I hope I introduced the Snap and Snap Assist features to you clearly. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave them in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Every single day, nefarious creatures create wicked worms and viruses that are capable of infecting computers, phones and tablets. The effects of these viruses and worms are widespread. Some simply sit there and record your data and send it off to a foreign land, while others completely take over your device and make it do weird things. Whatever the effect is really doesn’t matter at this point. What does matter is that your operating systems and apps are up to date. This is the first line of defense for the devices you own.

In today’s post, I’m going to explain how to go about checking if your Android operating system is up to date, how to update it if it isn’t and how to turn on “Auto Update” so you don’t have to think about this task ever again. I’ll also talk about how to check and update your apps as well. Both of these tasks are rather simple, but sort of a challenge to uncover the very first time. I’ll walk you through in a very clear way.

Updating the Android Operating System

Like I just mentioned, I’ll first cover how to update the operating system. While many phones and tablets are set up differently, the instructions for this are generally the same. I’ll be using my Samsung tablet as a demo device, so please follow along and choose the similar and corresponding buttons and actions for your device.

I’ll start off on my home screen. From there, I’ll click the Settings app. I just happened to place this app on this screen, so if you don’t have your here, click the Apps button and access it from there.

After I enter the Settings area, I’ll click on the General tab up in the top menu row. Then, I’ll scroll to the bottom of the left column and select About Device.

Then, in the right “About Device” column, I’ll click on Software Update, which will bring me to the operating system update section.

Now, this is the section where all the magic happens. In the right column, if you click on the Update Now text, you’ll instruct the device to check for current operating system updates. In my case, this area is telling me that it just checked for updates a few days ago. Since this was so recent, I’ll leave things alone. If it said six months ago, I’d definitely want to check again. Once again, my table is up to date, so I don’t need to do anything here.

On the next line is the Auto Update area. This is fairly self-explanatory in that if you check the box off, your device will take care of checking for updates all by itself. I suggest you check this box off. There’s no reason to be concerning yourself with this since it’s so easy to have it done automatically.

Updating the Apps on your Android Device

That was pretty easy. The nice thing is, updating the apps is just as easy. All it takes is a few clicks and things will be as good as new.

To begin, I’ll start on my home screen again. Please refer to the very first screen shot in this post. The only difference is this time I’ll click the Apps icon in the lower right corner. This will bring me to the Apps page.

Once there, I’ll click on the Google Play Store icon.

This will bring me into the Play Store.

Once there, I’ll click the small menu icon that’s located at the left side of the top search bar. This will open the menu.

Now, I’ll click on My Apps & Games, which will bring me to a page that displays everything that’s currently installed on my tablet.

Here’s the way this area works. All apps are listed. The top-most ones are the ones that need updating. If there are any that need updating, they’ll be listed under the Updates heading and will have a smaller Update link to the right of the app title. If no apps require an update, this section won’t be available and you’ll just see an area called Recently Updated, where everything will be listed.

To update the apps, you have two choices. You can do it one at a time by clicking the link included near each app title or you can update everything at the same time. To make things easy, I just update everything by clicking the Update All button. It’s that easy.

As a final note, I do want to mention that some apps have the option of self-updating. If it’s something you use often and that’s important to you, you may want to go ahead with that option. To change this setting, you’ll need to click on each app in the Apps & Games area and set it from there. There’s a small menu in the upper right corner that includes a check box. Next to the check box it says Auto-Update. Makes sure that’s checked off.

Well, there you go. I hope I explained how to go about updating your Android operating system as well as how to update your apps. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know in the comment section below. Thanks for reading!

Keyboard shortcuts are strange things. They seem complicated and difficult to remember, but once you use one, you seem to never forget it. And you’ll use it forever. That’s what I’ve discovered, anyway. In my day to day routine, I use keyboard shortcuts all the time. They make life faster. Just the way they’re supposed to.

I definitely have a few favorites. Copy and paste are two of them. If I’m in the mood, I’ll throw cut into the mix. There are others, which I’ll get to below. For now, I’d like to tell you why I’m writing this post.

Years and years ago, I worked for a cluster of radio stations in New York. The office my cube was in was inhabited by radio sales people. If you’ve ever seen sales people try to operate computers, you’ll most likely agree that they need some help in that department. I can remember, as clear as day, one guy I was friendly with double-clicking on every single link he ever tried to access. I continuously told him that he didn’t need to double-click and that a single click was fine. Nevertheless, he would double click all day long.

During my tenure at the stations, I came to realize how little the average user actually knew about how to operate a computer. I was asked, on a daily basis, how to print things, how to operate Microsoft Word, how to use email and about many other things. For me, these tasks were simple – for them, they’d spend hours trying to figure things out.

Keyboard shortcuts are perceived as operations best left for more advanced users. I’m not sure why this is. As I mentioned above, they’re fast and easy. Everyone should use them and if they did, they’d probably wonder why they ever feared them in the first place. Trust me when I say this – the regular red-blooded American knows very little about the computer in front of them, which is a shame because Microsoft has made things more simple and more intuitive than ever.

In today’s post, I’ll cover some very simple keyboard shortcuts for Windows 10. I’ll give you the shortcut and next to it, I’ll tell you what it does. Since I’m not going to tell you everything, I’ll share a link to Microsoft’s page that lists the entire array. On that page, you can even go back in time to access the shortcuts for previous versions of Windows.

The Keyboard

Before I get to the shortcuts, I figured I’d show you which keys are used for the lion’s share of them. Although there is Shift, the function keys and others, you’ll primarily use the Ctrl, Alt and Windows keys for most shortcuts. I’ve circled them on the keyboard below.

Image courtesy of Steam Powered.

My Favorite Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

Below is a list of the shortcuts I’ve come to rely on through the years. If you have particular favorites that you’d like to share, please add them in the comment section below. Also, please remember that many of these shortcuts work in other applications, such as Photoshop, so I’d suggest you give them a try there too.

General Shortcuts

Ctrl+X – Cut the selected item
Ctrl+C – Copy the selected item
Ctrl+V – Paste the selected item
Ctrl+Z – Undo an action
Windows+L – Lock your PC
F5 – Refresh the active window
Alt+Page Up – Move up one screen
Alt+Page Down – Move down one screen
Ctrl+A – Select all items in a document or window
Ctrl+D – Delete the selected item and move it to the Recycle Bin
Ctrl+Y – Redo an action

Windows Key Shortcuts

Windows – Open or close Start
Windows+A – Open Action center
Windows+D – Display and hide the desktop
Windows+E – Open File Explorer
Windows+I – Open Settings

Virtual Desktops

Windows+Tab – Open Task view
Windows+Ctrl+D – Add a virtual desktop
Windows+Ctrl+Right arrow – Switch between virtual desktops on the right
Windows+Ctrl+Left arrow – Switch between virtual desktops on the left
Windows+Ctrl+F4 – Close the virtual desktop you’re using

The Full List

It’s funny. As I was writing the list above, I realized that I use many more shortcuts than I remembered. By far, the ones I use the most are displayed at the top, but the others are just as handy. If you’re interested in seeing the full list of keyboard shortcuts for Windows 10, along with previous versions of Windows, click here. It’s the mother lode.

Last year, I purchased a new Dell computer that had Windows 10 installed on it. The reason I bought the PC was two-fold. First, I needed a new one. I knew I was going to launch this blog, so I wanted something that would have the ability to handle all of the applications I would install. The laptop I cared so deeply for had pretty much worn out its welcome. It was getting old and was woefully under powered.

Second, Windows 10 had been released into the wild. I had experience with Windows 8 and I vowed never to purchase a computer with that installed on it. As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, we do have a laptop that came with Windows 8 and the reddening of my face during and after its use was no coincidence. To this day, I shudder to think about it. Luckily, that laptop magically upgraded itself to Windows 10 one day while we weren’t looking. Life had been good since.

I’d like to talk about browsers in this post. I’m primarily a Google Chrome user, but take advantage of Firefox every so often. Both applications have some really great features when it comes to coding. Because of this, I don’t really go near Internet Explorer or Edge all too often. I do use Edge every day for work emails, but that’s about it. And the only reason I use it there is because I can’t be logged into two Gmail accounts at the same time in Chrome. I just use Edge because it’s a separate browser. The thing is, the more and more I check it out when logging into Gmail and the more and more I read about it, the more and more I like it. But that’s not really what this post is about.

With the release of Windows 10 and of Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer has taken a back seat, which is a shame because from what I read, it still has a rather large fan base. Even though Edge is the up-and-comer and has tons of great new features, there are still those who prefer to use Explorer. In the marketing world, these users are referred to as laggards, or those who choose to stay behind.

Many of the users who prefer to use Explorer had their computers updated to Windows 10 from an earlier version. With this update came the hiding of the Explorer icon. Until the most recent Windows update, Explorer wasn’t accessible via the Start menu. I recently had Windows 10 upgraded to the most recent version and discovered that it now has, indeed, been added to the Start menu. So, in this post, I’ll show you two methods for accessing and launching Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Method #1 – The Start Menu

If you click the Start menu in the lower left corner of your desktop or the Windows Key on your keyboard, the Start menu will appear. From there, scroll the left column down until you see the Windows Accessories drop-down. Click that and you should see the Internet Explorer icon.

Just click that icon and Explorer will open. In the screenshot below, you can see the MSN homepage.

Method #2 – Use Cortana

If you head down to the bottom left portion of your desktop and begin to type “Internet Explorer” into the Cortana search bar, you’ll see a list of results. In my case, I only had to type the first part of the phrase to see the Explorer result.

Simply click the appropriate result and Explorer will open once again.

I know this was a brief post, but it’s something that’s been on my mind for a while. I recently had a conversation with a friend about the topic of the new version of Windows and I figured I’d write about this before I forgot. If you have anything to add, please leave a note in the comment section below. Thanks!

I’m so excited to share this great Windows 10 tip with you. I’ve been waiting for something like this for a very long time. If you’re an organization freak like I am, I think you’ll enjoy reading what I have to write below.

In today’s post, I’ll be talking about some very handy features that Windows 10 offers in the way of accessibility and organization. Now, when I say “accessibility,” I’m not necessarily talking about assisting those with disabilities. What I am referring to is how the majority of people can use various methods for accessing the areas of Windows they use the most. More specifically, I’ll cover one feature that’s been released in previous versions of Windows and another feature that was just released with Windows 10. They are both really, really great, so please read on below.

Alt + Tab

You know what’s a real pain in the neck? I’ll tell you. Minimizing and maximizing all the various folders and applications I use all day. Seriously. During any given moment, I have a minimum of 4 applications open and two folders. Remembering where all these things are is a hassle. Not so much the applications because I can fairly quickly click their shortcut icons in the taskbar at the bottom of my desktop, but more so the folders. When I have more than one folder open, they stack on top of one another in the taskbar and I never know which is which. I fumble for a while trying to sort things out, to say the least.

Check this out. If I have multiple applications and folders open and then click Alt+Tab on my keyboard, this is what happens:

If you can’t see them clearly, these are smaller versions of what I have actively running on my PC. In the screen capture above, you can see I have 2 applications, 2 browsers and 2 folder windows open. If you look closer, you can see that the first one in the list, the upper left, is highlighted. This is an application called Adobe Bridge. It’s highlighted because once I let go of the Alt+Tab keys on my keyboard, Bridge will be launched on my desktop. I’ll become my working application.

To cycle through all the windows in this view, I would simply continue to hold down the Alt key and press the Tab key multiple times. Each time I press Tab, the next window in this view will be highlighted. The way this helps users is it gives them the ability to use a keyboard shortcut to get a larger view of their working environment and to quickly and easily access and launch whatever it is they want to work on.

There is one problem, however. If you’ve used this feature for any length of time, you surely know the frustration of accidentally letting go of one of the keys. More specifically, the Alt key. Once you do that, you lose the view and have to start over. It’s not exactly meant for the more patient users among us.

Task View

There is a better way. If you’re running Windows 10 and look down to your taskbar, you’ll see an icon that looks like a square with two ears. If you roll over this icon, the ears will get larger and the words Task View will appear.

If I click on this icon, this is what I’ll see:

This sort of looks like the previous view, doesn’t it? There are a few difference that I’ll go over below.

The best part about this new feature is that I can use my mouse to click the Task View icon and then I can click on which window I’d like to open. Similarly, I could click the Task View icon with my mouse and then cycle through each window with the left and right arrows on my keyboard. When I’m ready to open a window, I would just click Enter. And what’s even neater, I could use the up and down arrows on my keyboard to move between levels of windows that are open. Give it a try, it’s pretty cool. The best part is, you don’t need to be holding down any keys for this feature to be visible. Once you click the Task View icon, the smaller windows appear indefinitely.

Virtual Desktops

This is the one feature that I’m most excited about. It’s called Virtual Desktops and it’s a great way to organize your desktop.

If I click the Task View icon again, I’ll see a small + symbol with the words New Desktop in the lower right corner of my screen.

If I click this area, this is what I’ll see:

Now, I have two small popups in the lower part of my screen. One is called Desktop 1 and the other is called Desktop 2. They’re both considered virtual desktops and the idea goes like this – currently, I’m working with 2 applications, 2 browsers and 2 folders. If I was working with more, I’d require a further level of organization, which this would be even better for. Think of these virtual desktops sort of as folders. You can move similar things into each folder.

So, if I roll over and hover on Desktop 1, all the current windows would appear on my desktop. If I wanted to separate out the folder windows from the rest of what I’m running, I could click and drag each folder window into Desktop 2. If wanted to parse things even further, I could click the New Desktop words once more and create Desktop 3 (and on and on). Then, I could drag, say, the browsers to that new desktop. Here, I’ll do what I just mentioned to show you how it would look.

Now, if I click on the Task View icon in the taskbar, I’ll see these three virtual desktops. Depending on what I’d like to do, I’d click on any one of the three. This is super for organizing all those open windows you use every day.

When you work inside a desktop, only those windows will appear in the taskbar. Personally, I’m now use to seeing open applications, browsers and folders in the taskbar with the line under them, it’s kind of tough to get used to. It does help though because hiding the windows open in other virtual desktops helps keep things even more organized.

If you’d like to hasten your pace while working with virtual desktops, you can use a keyboard shortcut to slide between desktops. If you press Ctrl+The Windows Key and then the left or right arrows, you can flip between each desktop.

Alt+Tab (Again)

A quick note regarding the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut I mentioned earlier in this post. If you’re working inside one virtual desktop and decide to use the Alt+Tab shortcut, you’ll only be able to move between the windows open in that particular desktop, as opposed to all open windows on your computer. I just wanted to get that out there, so keep that in mind.

Changing That Setting

If you’d like to move between all available windows while using the Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut, you’ll need to change one setting. If you head into Settings > System > Multitasking and look down towards the bottom of the window, you’ll see a drop-down box that says Pressing Alt + Tab Shows Windows That are Open On with the two choices of Only the Desktop I’m Using or All Desktops. You’d select All Desktops.

Deleting a Virtual Desktop

Deleting a virtual desktop is just as easy as creating one. All you need to do is roll over the small virtual desktop window that you’d like to delete and click on the X that appears. That will remove that virtual desktop and will merge the windows that you had in it into another one. You can delete all of them in this fashion until none are left.

Well, there it is. Another method for organizing yourself in Windows 10. I’m very happy with this version of Windows because of its smoothness, reliability and its features. This feature is a good one. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section below. I’d be happy to reply. Thanks!

I’ve owned a lot of cameras in my day and never have I held something in my hand wondering what to do with it. I’m not sure if this is the general feeling about GoPros out there, but I’d say they are not very intuitive. I recognize that one of the primary appeals of this type of device is the small and compact size, but sometimes, I think I’m just balancing a little gray brick on my palm, twirling it around like it’s a toy.

GoPro cameras have revolutionized the capturing of video in a way this planet has never seen. They offer very few moving parts, they can capture incredible footage under water and their battery life can, at times, last only around one hour. Well, I guess that last one isn’t really a great feature, but I felt like mentioning it since this post is about charging the GoPro battery.

Overall, I really do love these cameras. I see more video filmed on GoPro cameras than any other type of camera. I never thought I’d see the day when a 13 year old kid could take video from the side of his skateboard, upload it to Youtube and make a living. That sort of thing makes me a little annoyed that I was born so long ago. Boy, if I had these types of electronics back in the day.

This post is about charging the battery on, pretty much, the whole like of GoPro cameras. While you may think this is a simple thing to do (and it is), there are a few things you should know. Especially when it comes to the last method – so be sure you read that one. I’ll go through them one by one below.

By the way, if you’re interested in how long a GoPro battery lasts, check out these specs:

HD HERO2, HD HERO Original, and HD HERO 960 Battery Life

HERO3 Camera Battery-life

HERO4 Camera Battery-life

As you can see, there are definitely a lot of variables that can have a profound effect on battery life. This is why it’s so important to learn about the various methods for charging – so you don’t get caught being “drained.”

USB Cord From Camera to Computer

This is the most simple method and probably the most popular for charging the battery. All you need to do is attach the included USB cord to the port on the back of the camera and then to whatever type of computer you use. The computer will send out current, which will, in turn, charge the battery.

If your camera is on and you’re charging it, you’ll see some data on the front screen as well as the small battery icon blinking and displaying the level of charge. If the camera is off while it’s charging, you won’t see any of that, but what you will see is the orange light on the front of the camera illuminated. That light will turn off when the camera is fully charged, so that’s a handy indicator.

The GoPro BacPac

This is an interesting method for charging a battery. If you decide to purchase the BacPac to extend the battery life of your camera, you should be aware that the BacPac will also have an effect on the battery that’s inside the camera. While it won’t give it a full charge, it can help during precarious situations.

The thing is, when batteries are connected to one another, they pass their respective charges between each other. This is sort of like the glass half full or empty question. Does the battery with less of a charge drain the one with more of a charge or does the battery with a greater charge fill the one with less of a charge? I’m not sure it really matters. Let’s just say that if you have a dead GoPro battery and your friend has a full BacPac attached to his camera and the two of you are out in the woods together shooting film, you can take a break and attach the BacPac to your camera for a little while and steal some of the charge. It’s worth trying out.

The Wall Charger

By now, everyone on earth has seen a cell phone wall or car charger. They’re all over the place. Even GoPro sells something like this that enables us to charge our GoPro cameras if we don’t feel like tying up the ports on our computers or if we don’t have a computer handy. And the really cool thing about the wall charger that GoPro sells is that it has two USB ports available, so if we have two cameras or if we’re with a friend, we can charge twice as fast.

I want to offer you a word of warning regarding wall chargers. This is important if you don’t want to damage either the BacPac, the built in battery or both. GoPro cameras require a charge of 5V and 1A. That’s 5 volts and 1 amp. This is the specification that the chargers offer that GoPro sells. If I were to pick up any old charger and plug it in, I may be causing myself a headache. Let’s take a quick look on Amazon for this type of charger.

The iClever BoostCube offers a charge rate of 4.8A at 24W. If you understand how electricity works, you know that amps x volts equal watts. So, 24 watts divided by 4.8 amps equals 5 volts. If you were to use this charger, you’d be overcharging the GoPro camera. It may work, but I’m not sure how long the battery’s life would be.

Let’s find another example. The RAVPower Dual USB Wall Charger offers a 2.4A charge at 24 watts. If we do the same calculation for this one, we’d end up with 10 volts. That’s too many volts (and amps). Remember, volts equal the measure of electric potential and amps equal the rate of flow for that electricity. It’s critical that these rates and measurements to compatible with the piece of equipment you’re using.

Interested in what GoPro has to say about chargers? Check this out:

Recommended Chargers

I know this post may seem simple, but I really wanted to get it out there because many of us plug stuff into anything. With the prices of some of the GoPro products, I wouldn’t want to see anyone fry a battery and ruin a camera.

If you have any questions, please let me know down in the comment section. Thanks!

In today’s post, I’d like to do a bit of exploration. I want to compare the days of yesteryear when Windows contained much of its access to various settings in what’s known at the Control Panel to today’s version of Windows that contains many of the same items in what’s called Settings. Even though there’s some overlap between the two areas, I think there’s a definite migration towards one – Settings. In this post, we’ll go over why.

Control Panel

To access the Control Panel in Windows 10, all one needs to do is to right-click on the Start menu and select Control Panel.

When this is done, the Control Panel appears.

I’ll be the first to say this looks very familiar. There are tons and tons of settings here, just like the old days.

Settings

Even though I covered this in a previous post, I’ll go over it again. It’s quick.

To access the Settings window in Windows 10, click the Start menu.

Once that’s done, the Settings window will appear.

Moving Towards Unification

Do you remember Windows 8? I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to punch something so bad as when I was using that operating system. Luckily, I didn’t have it on my working PC – I was still using Windows 7. My lady, however, had a new laptop that had Windows 8 installed on it. I would periodically need to back up her files and when I would sit down and begin working, my face would turn red. I don’t know who was behind that user interface, but I’ll tell you, it wasn’t a good idea. I’m not alone in thinking this either, because Microsoft dumped it.

To this day, I wonder where certain options are located in the Windows operating system. I’ve never had much luck with remembering the many places they may be hiding. How do I change screen resolution? Or perhaps mouse speed? What about where to connect a Bluetooth device? For the longest time, they’ve been scattered throughout a variety of locales. Especially in Windows 8. I don’t even want to talk about that anymore.

With the introduction of Windows 10, we can see an effort to unify the controls that change the settings in Windows to one location. That’s the Settings window. Beware – the unification isn’t finished yet, as we’ll see later in this post. But it has begun, which is great.

Comparing Settings to Control Panel

Let’s take a quick look at a few menus. First, I’ll show you the Network and Internet area in the Control Panel and then I’ll show you the Network & Internet area in the Settings window. You tell me which you like better. Especially if you’re working with a smaller monitor or another type of device.

First, I’ll launch the Control Panel and click on Network and Internet. This is what it looks like inside that window.

Next, I’ll launch the Settings window and click on Network & Internet. This is what it looks like inside that window.

Okay – first impressions. Which are do you like better? If these windows were web pages, which would be easier to browse? If I’m correct here, I think we’d all say that the Settings area is more simple and clear. I’ve been using Windows since the 90s and I still have no idea what’s happening inside the Control Panel at times.

Let me ask you a question. If I wanted to change the Wi-Fi settings for my computer in the Settings window, where would I go to do that? Well, that’s pretty simple. Since I’m already in the Wi-Fi window, I’d just click the Manage Wi-Fi Settings link and go from there. If I wasn’t in the Wi-Fi window yet, I’d select it from the left navigation menu. That’s just as easy.

Now, lets move over to the Control Panel. Remember, we’re in the Network and Internet section. If there was ever a place for Wi-Fi settings, this would be it. Refer back to the above screenshot and see if you can find where these settings are located. At the moment, I can’t. Sure, I can guess where they’re located, but it’s not very obvious. This is what happens when you allow programmers to work on UX (user experience design). I know programmers. I’m friends with programmers. Trust me when I say that you never want them working on anything that has to do with the front-end.

By the way, I would have guessed to click the Connect to a Network link in the Control Panel. When I do that, the Wi-Fi area in the Settings window opens up. Interesting.

Not Finished Yet

As I mentioned a few times above, Microsoft isn’t yet finished with unifying and simplifying all of the settings for Windows. This is evidenced by the Related Settings area under many of the links in the Settings windows. To get a better picture of this, let’s check out the same Wi-Fi area.

Basically, if I click any of these links, I’ll be led to the appropriate and related area of the Control Panel. To demonstrate, I’ll click the Change Adapter Options link. Let’s see where I end up.

That’s right. I’m brought to the Network Connections window in the Control Panel.

Final Thoughts

I think the primary difference between the Control Panel and the new Settings area is the simplicity of use and navigational intuitiveness. In the Settings area, things can’t get much more clear. In the Control Panel, well, let’s just say I’m glad to see it begin to disappear. I can equate this effort to classic website redesign. While the first go-round worked and has been established for years, this go-round is highly appreciated. Which is good because computer users are becoming exponentially more diverse. These days, elementary school children as well as grandparents are online and are taking advantage of a wide range of devices. With this diverse range of users, things have got to be more clear than they ever were.

If you’d like to learn more about both the new Settings area as well as the still existing Control Panel in Windows 10, check out these great posts:

Control Panel and Settings: Why are both still UI options in Windows 10? – TechRepublic

The Old-Style Control Panel is Just a Right-Click Away in Windows 10 – SuperSite for Windows

What is Different About the Windows 10 Control Panel, So Far – How-To Geek

Microsoft Will Fully Replace Control Panel with “Settings” in Future Windows 10 Builds – WinBeta

The Difference Between the Control Panel & Settings Menus in Windows 10 – Wonder HowTo

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