Windows 10: Desktop and start Menu

Windows 10: Desktop & Start Menu

Back in the day, things we’re a bit more cryptic on how to do things. You just had a command prompt to maneuver around and find the things you wanted or needed. It was unforgiving, if you miss a /, you didn’t get where you wanted to go.

Nowadays, things are much pretty and uniformed. Even other operating systems (Mac, Chrome OS, Linux) have a familiar feel to them. Much prettier settings.

On the same token, they also open up a lot more options on how to do things and where to find things. So let's dig in and explore the Desktop and the start menu.

The Lock Screen

The lock screen, everyone knows what this is, unless you have been living under a rock. But it is your gateway to your computer. Locking it down to keep your files safe from peering eyes.

It now serves a bigger purpose, giving you information at a glance, depending on how you have it set up. You can have it tell you the weather, see what time it is and depending on what apps you have installed, it can give you updates directly from the app.

This is handy if you don’t feel like waking the computer up to get information.

You can unlock the screen in multiple ways:

• ·         Touchscreen: Swipe your finger upwards on the screen.
• ·         Mouse: You can click anywhere on the screen.
• ·         Keyboard: Just press any key on the keyboard.

This will unlock your computer and allow you to enter your password to get back to work or get back your entertainment.

The Login Screen

This is where you get to prove that you are who you say you’re are. Unless of course, you disable this option, which is something you can do also. This isn’t recommended though if you have anything of importance on your computer.

There are multiple ways to unlock your screen:

·         If you have a laptop or tablet with a camera and have intel’s RealSense infrared cameras, you can use facial recognition.

• ·         If you have a fingerprint reader, you can use your fingerprint.
• ·         Draw three lines, taps, or circles on a photo you’ve selected.
• ·         Type in a four-digit PIN number you’ve memorized.
• ·         You can use a standard password.
• ·         Skip it altogether.

We will cover all these in more detail in future posts, as they can all be tutorials on their own.

The Desktop

The all so familiar desktop. We all have grown to love or hate it, but it’s there and hasn’t changed much over the years, but it does have it’s bells and whistles.

If you’re new, it helps to remember the names of items, as this will help you be able to find answers, as most people who help will use the technical terms when helping others. So try to keep a note of the names if you want to truly learn.

Here is an overview of the desktop:

Going over the different sections of the desktop:

• ·         Desktop: this is the main section of the computer. You can have application launchers here and even store files and folders.
• ·         The Start Menu: This is the gateway to everything on your computer. We will go I great detail on this on this post. 
• ·         The Search Box(Cortana): This is where you can search your computer for whatever you’re looking for and also search the internet if it can’t find what you're looking for on your computer.
• ·         Taskbar: This is a quick launcher hub, you can pin folders and applications here that you access frequently. It also has a couple of hidden features we will discuss later.
• ·         The System Tray: this is another hub that shows applications that are running and a quick at a glance view of things that are going on with your computer.

This is just a general overview now; we will go into further detail as we progress through this series.

The Start Menu

The start menu is the gateway to your computer. Your computer is just a big file system. These files work together to tell the computer what it should do at any given point in time. But you don’t really need to worry about all the files that are on your computer. You just need what you need.

That is what your start menu is for, it’s there to show you all your applications and files that are all linked to your profile. In this way, you only see what you need to see and can’t accidentally mess with something your computer really needs.

So, let’s take a look at the start menu and see what it all has to offer. You will see a windows logo on the bottom left. Let’s have you click it and you can then see the start menu in all its glory.

Quick tip though, unless you like wasting time, you can open the start menu with the Windows key on your keyboard, which is much faster.

The start menu has two sections, the left, and the right. We’re going to explore the left first and then move over to the right.

The left side of the start menu looks much the same as it always has throughout the years, but updated to look much nicer.

One thing you can’t do on the left side anymore though is changing the way the left side works. This is all managed by the Operating System itself, this may be a bummer to some, but that is what the right side is for and we will go into more details of this later.

But you can modify some things through the setting through the settings panel.

First, on the list, you will notice on the top left is a hamburger icon(if you don’t see this, you're not on the latest updated version, update your system and come back). If you click this you will get a side menu that pops out revealing more options.

You will see your name first on the list. If you click your name, you will see that you have more options.



You can:

·         Change account settings: this will bring you to a hub that has all your info in it. You can update your picture here, password, login methods and things of that nature. Plus you can add additional accounts to the computer for either family or guests.

·         Lock: this will take you back to the lock screen. This is handy if you’re walking away from your computer and don’t want people to see what you're doing on your screen.

·         Sign out: this will sign you out. All open programs will then shut down and so will all the documents you have been working on. So be sure to save everything before using this option.

Below your name, you will see documents, settings and other options. This is customizable through the setting pane. So, yours may look different if you don’t see what I see.

You would want to go to settings>personalize> then on the left, click start. Inside here is where you find all the start settings and can choose what you want to show within that menu. There will be a link that says, show which folders to show on start, click that and it will give you all your options for the start menu.

You can toggle these on and off, depending on what you would like to see in the start menu, which is nice to have a choice.

Below all the folders are the settings button, we just used this and it is a portal to all your settings on your PC. This is where you can tweak your computer to do the things you like, we will get in more details of this as we move along.

Then comes the power button. We have three options with the power button:

• ·         Sleep: This will save your current stat in memory. So you don’t have to close down and then go to sleep. This saves power and should be the most common way you turn your pc off.
• ·         Shutdown: This will turn your computer completely off and you will lose the progress you had made on your pc. So be sure to save your work. 
• ·         Restart: restart will turn your pc off for a moment then come back on again. This is handy if weird things are happening, and you want to try a quick fix to see if it resolves a problem

Most Used

You may or may not see a section that is called most used. This section will show you your most used applications. Windows will try to remember what you most use and have it ready for you quickly when you come back to work.

Some people may find this handy and some may find annoying or feel like the computer is spying on them. But you can turn this off through settings, it will be settings>personalize>Start and then the option to turn it off will be the most used option.

Recently Added

This is another section that is optional under the start menu settings. This will show the applications you just installed on your computer.

So if you just added a new app, instead of having to try and hunt down an application, you can get a preview of it once you open the start menu.

All Apps

The next section in the center menu is the All apps sections. This is your quick hub for all the applications on your computer.

This will list all your apps alphabetically in order on your PC.

If you want to jump quickly to one of the sections, say W, just click one of the letters and it will open a new window where you can click the letter that the application starts with and it will jump to that section.

Folders

Inside all apps sections, you may notice that it doesn’t just list apps, it lists folder also. If you click these, it will give you more options underneath.

These tend to be two things:

·         Software-company folder: if the software you have comes from multiple companies, all those apps will be under one folder. Sometimes there are manuals within the folders

.

·         Program-group folders: This is another folder designed to trim down the all apps menu. This tends to hold smaller single-purpose applications.

Once again, almost all these settings can be customized under settings>personalize>Start menu. If you travel through there, you can try to turn certain things on and off. And see what it changes, and you can make it to your liking.

The Right Side of the Start Menu

The right side is the newest addition to the start menu. It is much more appealing to the eye, with large or small customizable tiles for all your applications and folders.

You can even use what you call live tiles, these tiles will give you updates of your programs. Depending on what you like that is, as this feature can be turned on or off.

You can even make the start menu larger or smaller depending on what you like. If you bring your mouse cursor to the edge, it will give you the option to slide it larger or smaller.

How to Customize the Right Side

There is much more you can do to customize your start menu. This side is the most customizable section of the start menu.

• ·         You can make the start menu bigger: if you bring your mouse pointer on the right side of the start menu, you can drag the menu to the left or right and up and down to make the section bigger. 
• ·         You can make the start menu fill the screen: If you would like the start menu to fill the screen, it is an option under settings>personalize>Start tab and it has an option to fill the screen. If it is a tablet, this will be done automatically for you.
• ·         Move a tile: You can move a tile to any are you like, just click it and drag it across the screen to a place you would like it. 
• ·         Resize a tile: if you right-click any tile, there will be an option to Resize a tile. Select the size you would like and it will resize the tile to your liking.
• ·         Adding a new tile: If you would like to add a new tile to the start menu, you would find the application in the all apps pan and drag it onto the right side of the screen.
• ·         Turn on or off live tiles: live tiles give you the option to have real-time information be displayed from the application. Sometimes if all the apps have this setting, it can be a bit overwhelming, so you can have the option to turn it off for the ones you don’t want or like. Just right click and select more, the option to turn on and off the live tile will be there.
• ·         Remove a tile: If you would like to remove a tile, you would right-click the tile and there will be an option to remove the tile from start.

Grouping Tiles

You can also keep your times organized in groups; this helps keep everything organized the way you want it.

There are a couple of things you can do to keep everything organized:

• ·         Add a tile to an existing group: You will see that there are groups that are set up already on your start menu. If you slide a tile over the group section, you can place the tile within that group.
• ·         Rename a group: if you click the name of the group, it will give you an option to name that group. Just simply change the name.
• ·         Create a new group: in order to create a new group, just drag a new app in a section without a group and it will give you the option to create a new group. 

Eliminate all the tiles

If you don’t want to use the tiles at all, you can get rid of them altogether. It’s a bit more work than the other instructions, but if you unpin all the tiles from start, you can drag the start menu from the side all the way over to then get rid of the start menu.

Change the color

You can change the color of all the elements, but this will be covered in more detail later.

Turn off ads

Every once in a while, you may see an ad pop up on the start menu. I’m sure most people don’t like the sound of that. You can turn this feature off by going to settings>personalize>Start and there is an option for Occasionally show suggestions in start. Turn this off.

Navigating the Start Menu by Keyboard.

If you’re a keyboard junky, you can navigate the start menu by the keyboard. To open the start menu, press the Windows key on your keyboard. From there, you can use the tab keys to jump to the different sections of the start menu. Then use the arrow keys and enter key to make your selections.

Use the Search Box

One of the most underrated tools that are available on the Start menu. This is the quickest way to find something on your computer.
All you have to do to find something on your computer is know what you're trying to find and type in what you’re looking for and it will find it on your computer.
We will go through more details of this later.

Jump Lists

The jump list is a submenu that tracks what you’re doing, making it easier to jump back into what you were working on. I tend to keep this on, as it comes in handy to quickly open something you’re working on.

The Secret Start Menu

There is a secret menu under the start menu many people don’t know about because it isn’t very clear that it is there. But if you right-click, it opens a menu of many utility tools you use.
We will not go into the details of what everything does on this menu but know that it is there. It’s a handy quick menu to open up Utilities.


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