Here are five tips to help make you a pro at your desk and probably save time or do more.
Windows 10 has some nifty hidden gems that when unlocked are awesome. This can save you time, help you achieve more in a sitting, or get on to finish other things. The little things surely add up to much.
Let’s move right up into it as I share a few things I’ve been using and doing that helps me a lot.
Tip 1: Touchpad Gestures
Scroll: Place two fingers on the touchpad and slide horizontally or vertically. Zoom in or out: Place two fingers on the touchpad and pinch in or stretch out. Right-click: Tap the touchpad with two fingers, or press in the lower-right corner. See all open windows: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe them away from you. Show the desktop: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe them towards yourself. Switch between open windows: Place three fingers on the touchpad and swipe right or left. Open Cortana: Tap three fingers on the touchpad. Open action center: Tap four fingers on the touchpad. Switch virtual desktops: Place four fingers on the touchpad and swipe right or left.
NB: Some of these gestures will only work with precision touchpads, so don’t fret if a move won’t work for you.
Tip 2: Return to past activities in your timeline
With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update you can easily resume what you had been working on. Get back to something you were doing recently by finding it in your timeline. Timeline list your recent activities in a tile mode making it easy to find and jump right into what you had been doing. To open your timeline, select Task View on the taskbar, or press Windows logo key + Tab. Scroll down until you find the thing you want to return to, and then click it to pick up right where you left off.
Tip 3: Use Emojis
Have you been typing an email, document, blog post, etc. and wanted to really express yourself with an emoji? Well, good news. Microsoft has an emoji keyboard but doesn’t pop up till you trigger it.
You can express yourself however and wherever you want. Just press the Windows logo key + period (.) to open an emoji panel and voila you are good to emoji, lol ????.
Tip 4: Stick it to the screen with a Sticky Note
Ever had to write some details down? Maybe a telephone number, an address or name of a person or place? Don’t get off your PC to find a pen or notepad. Just open the sticky note app and note it down.
Go to Start or the Windows Ink Workspace, select Sticky Notes and create reminders for yourself. To make a new note, select Add Note, then use the pen to jot it down or type it down. It’s also interactive and works with your calendar and mail.
Tip 5: Share a file with a Nearby PC
For this, you’ll need to be running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (1803). This update brings with it the nearby sharing feature using Bluetooth or Wifi to transfer files between PCs. You must make sure the nearby sharing feature is turned on at the notifications icons.
Here is an example say you want to share a photo. Open Photos and select the picture you want to share. Select Share, then select the PC you want to share it to. On the other PC, select Save & Open when the notification appears. Et voila, bye, bye to looking for pen drive to transfer files.
Did you know about these tips? Are there others you’ve unlocked? Share with us.
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Twitter for Windows 10 receives a big update that gives users a much-needed experience.
After updating to the latest Windows Update I realized my pinned Twitter apps were not there. I then noticed there’s been an update to it, across all devices. The new look seemed familiar, it looked like what you’ll see in a web browser.
In a series of posts, Twitter and Microsoft announced the update.
“Today we are proud to announce an updated experience through Twitter’s Progressive Web App (PWA). With this new app, we leveraged Microsoft’s support for Progressive Web Apps to bring users a better, faster, and improved experience“. – Twitter
“Twitter’s new Windows app is built on open web standards, powered by the fast and efficient Microsoft Edge engine in Windows 10.” – Microsoft
Using PWA in Twitter for Windows 10
The new app leverages the Progressive Web Apps technology. Progressive Web Apps are apps powered by Web technologies and delivered with Web infrastructure. So they are websites that behave like native apps and can be progressively enhanced on supporting platforms. Earlier this year Microsoft Welcomed Progressive Web Apps to Microsoft Edge and Windows 10 opening up the opportunity to bring more apps to the store.
The new update brings an extended character limit to 280 characters. It also brings the explore tab to find topics relevant to interests and the ability to bookmark Tweets to be read later.
Your device must be running either the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or Windows 10 April 2018 Update to have this update.
We encourage everyone to update the Windows app as soon as you update your OS. Previous versions will no longer be available for download starting today and will no longer be supported starting June 1st.
I’m already missing tabs and having multiple accounts from the previous app. Hopefully, this comes in a future update. Head off to your store, check for updates and install the new update.
What’s your take on the new update? Share with us in the comments. Get interactive on our social channels.
Microsoft releases Windows 10’s next major update in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update.
The free update focuses on helping you save time finding things you’ve been working on and getting back to it. It also helps reduce distractions so you can keep your focus on what really matters and get things done. All of these new features have been in testing by Windows Insiders worldwide. So if you are an insider you will be familiar with some of these. On the other hand if you aren’t then soon the update will be hitting your PC.
Microsoft will be rolling this update slowly starting with newer devices first and then older ones. But if you can’t wait and want it now there’s what you can do. The guys over at Windows Central have put together some of the common problems and fixes you might encounter in a post.
Some of the new features in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update include;
TIMELINE
Returning to past activities in your timeline and continue your recent activities instantly in your timeline.
Select Task View on the taskbar(by start or Cortana) or press Windows logo + Tab keys.
NEAR BY SHARING
Share files with people and devices near you, over wifi and Bluetooth easily.
Open Photos and select the picture you want to share. Select share, then select the PC you want to share it to. On the other PC, select Save & Open when the notification appears.
SEAMLESS SWITCH
Start browsing the web, writing emails, and using apps on your phone, then continue on your PC, instantly.
Add your phone in Windows settings, Phone.
FOCUS ASSIST
Do you remember quiet hours from windows mobile? Then you have an idea what Focus assist is. It helps you kind of zone out on every other thing and finish off a project or work. So it hides distractions while you work.
Turn on focus assist to send notifications directly to action center. Select action center on the taskbar, focus assist.
DICTATION
Microsoft is making speech to text very natural and a thing. Use Windows key + H in a text field in Windows 10 or in an app and start talking. You can now easily take a note with your voice.
On the touch keyboard, select microphone on a physical keyboard, press Windows logo key + H to dictate what’s on your mind.
These are to mention a few. Edge has lots of update. Accessibility updates are also in the mix. Photos, videos, Remix 3D apps have interesting features including 3D and mixed reality.
Windows 10 Preview Build 17083 has been released to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring and Skip ahead option
The latest build comes with some improvements to recently introduced features and a lot of bug fixes. Timeline feature gets some improvements. There’s now an easier way to set up Windows Hello and a fonts page in settings.
The Windows Insider Program allows a user to be one of the first to experience the new ideas and concepts built in the OS. That is, giving feedback through using it, to improve and perfect the experience before it is generally available.
With the new Preview Build 17083, Microsoft answered a request received from feedback to delete timeline activities. So it is easier to delete multiple activities and activities from a day.
From the new improvements, it is now easier to set up Windows Hello. You can easily do this right from the lock screen. Where as at first you had to go to into the settings page for this. You can set up Windows Hello Face, Fingerprint or PIN straight from your lock screen by clicking the Windows Hello tile under Sign-in options.
There are more improvement options, general changes, improvements and bug fixes in this build. There are some few know issues as well. Check them all out here or in the feedback hub.
Also the next Bug Bash will be on February 2nd and will run until February 11th. Have you tried the new features yet?
We detail out some of the new Windows 10 Insider Preview features from the latest builds
Microsoft’s journey of collecting feedback from users to help shape the look and feel of its Windows operating system continues. The latest preview builds released to windows insiders introduce some new features mentioned earlier by CVP Terry Meyerson.
We look at some of these Windows 10 Insider Preview Features.
TIMELINE
Timeline allows a user to quickly resume activities started in the past. It gets you right back to where you left off even if you’ve closed the app or file. The Timeline feature works in the Task View allowing users to quickly scroll back to content they had earlier opened.
The default view of Timeline shows snapshots of the most relevant activities from earlier in the day or a specific past date. A new annotated scrollbar makes it easy to get back to past activities. Browse all your activities from a single day or search for those activities you don’t see in the timeline default view.
Also If you have more than one PC or account, you can use Timeline on all of them. You’ll see the same activities no matter which PC you’re using. And if an activity from one PC used a modern app that you don’t have installed on another PC, Windows will help you install that app. Read more about the feature.
SETS “Sets”
Microsoft introduces “Sets” as an easier way to organize your stuffs and get back to what you were doing. Not exactly like Timeline.
“Many of the most important things we do happen across apps, web sites and PCs — whether that’s writing a report for school, planning a trip, managing a complex project at work — or even flipping back and forth between playing a game and watching a game. In today’s evolving modern workplace, we work on sets of things in fits and starts, often in between other commitments. We spend time setting things up just the way we want them for a project, with all our files, websites, notes and apps at hand —only to be pulled away at the last minute by a call, a meeting or some other interruption that seem to happen throughout our busy days. And, that’s the moment we’re focusing on, that moment when you have everything ready to be worked on but are pulled away. We believe there’s an easier way to organize your stuff and get back to what you were doing.
In the coming weeks in WIP, we will begin releasing a new Windows 10 feature we are calling “Sets” (we’ve not landed on a name yet). With Sets, what belongs together stays together — making it easier and faster to create and be productive. The concept behind this experience is to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files and applications, is connected and available to you in one click. As Office, Windows and Edge become more integrated to create a seamless experience, so you can get back to what’s important and be productive, recapturing that moment, saving time — we believe that’s the true value of Sets. And with Timeline, it’ll be even easier to go back and find the Set you were working on.
Windows Shell Improvements
Bring in new features such as:
Quiet Hours
Helping you stay focused and interrupted so you can be more productive. With Quiet Hours will be able to choose the times when you don’t want to be bothered with Quiet Hours automatic rules. This is just like the quiet hours feature from Windows 10 Mobile.
Allows a Windows 10 PC user to wirelessly share files and URLs to a nearby PCs.
If you play it safe and aren’t in the Windows Insiders Program (WIP) no need to worry. These Insider Preview features will pop up in a major feature update. But if you want to give these and try now, then head over and register to be an insider. What do you think about the latest features, share with us in the forums or comments.
