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Speaker 1: Today I’m going to show you seven hidden tips and Windows 11 that will help customize and speed up your Windows machine like and subscribe to CNET for more how-to videos. Let’s get started with the most annoying thing about Windows 11. The start button. Windows 11 places the start button in the center of the desktop, which might cause some Windows users to go insane. To move the start button, right click on an empty space on the task bar and select taskbar settings. Scroll down and select taskbar behaviors, and you will see taskbar alignment, which [00:00:30] is set by default to center. Click the dropdown menu and select left. This will move your start button to the far bottom left of the screen where it’s historically lived on previous Windows versions. Next, let’s look at snap layouts. Snap layouts allow you to configure your open windows and apps by snapping them into multiple configurations to make your apps, browsers and other windows more visible.
Speaker 1: You could drag an app or window to the right or left of the screen and it will snap into place. Drag an app or window to the top of [00:01:00] the desktop and you will see four different snap layout configurations. Drop the window or app into one of the boxes and it will snap into place when you drop an app or window into one of the snap boxes. Snap Assist will show you thumbnails for other apps or windows you have open on your pc. You can then choose and select those windows to snap into place where you’d like them to go. When you snap a few windows together, they appear in a group layout on the task bar where you can then close them all as a group. If you hover over the maximize [00:01:30] button inside a window or app, the snap layouts will appear and you could select a different layout and the window or app will snap into that configuration.
Speaker 1: If you find the snap layouts annoying when you’re moving windows and apps around your desktop, you can turn this off or configure it to your liking by opening the settings app and searching for snap windows settings. You can turn them all off or click the dropdown arrow to configure them how you like. The next trick is to hide desktop icons. You can quickly hide desktop icons by right clicking [00:02:00] on the desktop select view, and at the bottom uncheck show desktop icons. All of your desktop icons will disappear giving your desktop a much cleaner look. Here. You can also adjust the size of the icons, select auto arrange icons and align icons to the grid. Next on my list is to add additional clocks. You can add up to two additional clocks if you deal with multiple time zones like I do. CNET has teams in New York and London just to name a few, so it’s helpful to know what time it is so I’m not bugging my coworkers [00:02:30] During off work hours on the bottom right corner, right click on the clock and select Adjust date and time. Scroll down to the bottom of the settings window and select additional clocks. A window will pop up allowing you to select different time zones. Check the box that says Show this clock and choose the city or time zone that you want. You could give the clock its own display name. I’m going to choose Eastern Time for New York, and my third clock will be in London.
Speaker 1: Click apply, [00:03:00] and then, okay, and now when you hover over your clock in the bottom right corner, you will see local time, New York and London or whatever time zones and cities you choose. The next tip I’ll share is how to set startup apps, which will help speed up the startup process of your Windows 11 machine. The less apps that startup, the faster it will start. Open the settings app and choose apps from the list on the left, and then select startup at the bottom or in the setting. Search bar, search startup apps. Here you will see all the apps that start up [00:03:30] when you boot up your machine. If you don’t want certain apps to automatically start up when you turn on your computer, then toggle the switch next to the app to off. If you do want apps to start up, then toggle them to On Windows will show you whether or not an app has a high impact or no impact to your machine when it starts up next to the app name.
Speaker 1: Next on my list is Dark Mode. We all love Dark Mode because it’s easy on the eyes and easy on your battery life. Open the Settings app and select personalization. Select colors and find. [00:04:00] Choose your mode, click the dropdown menu and select Dark. If you select custom, you could choose your default Windows mode and choose your default app mode. Not all Windows will display dark mode, but most of them will. The last thing I want to show you is how to clean up your disc to delete temporary files in older Windows. Update installations. Locate your Windows C Drive in the file explorer or by opening this pc. Highlight the Windows C Drive and inside the Windows Explorer window, select the menu with the three [00:04:30] dots to see more. Here you can clean up, optimize or format the hard drive, select cleanup, and the disc cleanup for Windows C will pop up here.
Speaker 1: You can select temporary internet files, the recycle bin thumbnails, et cetera, on the bottom of the disc cleanup window. Click on cleanup system files and it will quickly scan for older windows, update installations, windows log files, and other junk that’s just sitting on your drive taking up space. Click okay and all that junk will be deleted from your computer. [00:05:00] Those are all my tips for Windows 11. I hope they help improve your experience on your laptop or pc. If you found this video helpful, give us a like and subscribe to C Net’s massive YouTube channel and make sure to check out my related how to videos on how to use Windows Eleven’s. New screen recorder and Microsoft Copilot. Thanks for watching.
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