you think you know everything about Windows uh yeah well think again maggot
we got tips Hot Tips Tech tips 10 tips
for all you Windows power users out there and we're not telling you a thing
until we tell you MSI sponsored this video and we're going to be going
through our tips on their Summit e13 flip Evo their first laptop with Wi-Fi
6E at up to 20 hours of battery life and their Crosshair 15 with up to 11th gen
Intel Core i7 processors and RTX 3060
gpus
everyone knows at least one or two keyboard shortcuts that they use all the
time but whenever you're watching someone else use Windows there's a good
chance that they'll use one that you don't this resource which we'll have
linked down below lists every Windows shortcut but we've got some favorites
Windows print screen saves directly to your screenshots folder Windows e opens
up File Explorer Windows I opens the settings app why they went with I will
never know but it's handy and Windows tab opens up task view just to name a
few did you know that instead of control alt delete you can press Ctrl shift
escape to directly open Task Manager without taking a detour to the lock
screen and did you know that you can create new virtual desktops with Windows
control D and then swap between these desktops with Windows control and the
arrow keys Ah that's actually tip number two whether you lost your second monitor
in that last round of budget cuts or you just plain love min max in your
productivity multiple desktops are a game changer in less than a second I can
go from researching and writing up a report to collaborating with my
colleagues to touching up some photos for the company website that beanie's
looking good Chase lttstore.com and of course those who work hard usually play
hard am I right so the second your lunch break starts or any other break bam you
are instantly playing your favorite game catching up on Reddit and chatting it up
in your favorite Discord server note that the more applications you want to
keep open at a time though the more system memory you'll need so for heavier
users I'd recommend the version of the e13 flip Evo with 32 gigs of lpddr4x
memory now let's customize our desktop whether you like multiple desktops or
just one I'm sure we can all agree that it should look its best now decades ago
the in thing was custom pointers and different sound themes for your Windows
alerts and guess what it's totally still a thing your pointer can change size
color and shape to just about anything and Windows alerts can be swapped on a
per type basis so you will never again be confused about whether a USB device
was plugged in or removed hello Linus
you are quite good at plugging me in another handy feature for the
minimalists out there is the ability to hide desktop icons and the taskbar for
that Ultra Clean look or to save your OLED display from unsightly burn-in for
those of you wanting an even more custom experience check out rain meter it's a
third party app that adds custom widgets like weather clocks or usage meters all
in whatever style you can find one that matches the gaming Aesthetics and RGB of
the Crosshair 15 or something more muted if you prefer you can even make one
yourself speaking of making it yourself we made our own screwdriver and once
it's ready we're gonna have a full video on the process get subscribed so you
don't miss it if you want to customize a bit more but you prefer to stay within
the Microsoft product Suite there are some really cool add-ons in power toys
and Microsoft garage a lot of the functionality of fancy zones which is
one of my personal favorites is built into Windows 11 now but it still offers
an outstanding degree of control over the snapping functionality and
appearance of your Windows awake is helpful if you want to keep your power
and sleep settings but put them on pause for a little while say to ensure that a
render completes overnight and keyboard manager lets you make your own keyboard
shortcuts and remap Keys power rename is
Handy for renaming files in bulk and there are a few others with more in the
works so be sure to check it out and choose the right power toy for you
another handy tool particularly for those of you working from home with
multiple computers is mouse Without Borders which is available through
Microsoft garage with it you can use the same mouse and keyboard for up to four
computers over your network and even copy text and drag and drop files
between them now that our desktop is ready let's talk pins I can't count how
many taskbars I've seen that are still using whatever stock pins Windows comes
with even ones they couldn't possibly use this is Prime real estate guys for
one click shortcuts to whatever apps you use frequently Chrome Discord steam
Excel anything you're pretty much guaranteed to open after restarting your
PC should be pinned and don't feel limited to just left clicking on those
pins many applications have shortcuts in the context menu so you can right click
and launch Steam Big Picture or steamvr directly going from asleep to gaming in
seconds you can open recent Word documents change your status on
Microsoft teams The Works pinning is also super handy in file explorer quick
access at the top will keep your recent files and folders ready for you but for
privacy reasons I prefer to disable this automatic behavior and create my own
pins it's particularly useful if you have a lot of different server paths
that you might have trouble remembering go there once pin the folder and never
search for it again also check this out you can move them around to your heart's
content with a simple drag and drop but Linus you might say I don't want all
those icons cluttering up my pristine taskbar can I just search for them
well I've got good news and I've got bad news the good news is yes the Windows 11
search function is both accurate and responsive I mean yes this is a fast
machine with a high performance SSD but still finally PC users are getting a
taste of what Mac folks have been enjoying for over 15 years with
spotlight the bad news is that if you're not on
Windows 11 it's still terrible it does work for
many installed apps so you can at least stay clutter free by searching for every
app you want to open but I've seen all kinds of undesirable Behavior I mean
look at this I search for Explorer seems like an appropriate keyword to bring up
file explorer and it pulls up Microsoft Edge thanks Windows
guess I'll use my hotkey next time it's also pretty bad for anything file
specific offering useless web results even when you've already downloaded the
file and it's sitting in your local drive so be gone to the depths of Hell
Windows 10 search glory to Windows 11 search our new Xavier tip number seven
your mouse has three buttons well often
more of these days actually but who's keeping track these tips are for the
main three let's start with the Forgotten button that no one pays proper
attention to I mean yes we all know that the middle wheel can scroll up and down
but it's also got a click which is Handy for opening and closing tabs in
third-party applications like Chrome and Firefox oh and here's one of my personal
favorites left-clicking file explorer if you already have a window open just
minimizes and maximizes it over and over again terrible but middle click and Bam
as many new instances of file explorer as you could ever need now most of you
probably use right click all the time but did you know that you can right
click and drag to open up a context menu in file explorer take your zip file for
example right click on it hold that drag it over here and extract directly to
where you've dragged to saving valuable fractions of a second as for our trusty
left click holding shift or alt while
you left click and drag will change how you're highlighting text which can be
particularly useful in word or other text editors you can also double-click
to highlight a word and triple click to highlight an entire paragraph if you're
in a hurry Pro tip by the way modern trackpads like these ones support these
same interactions one fingers left two is right three is Middle click and if
you swipe with all four fingers you can slide over to a second of your multiple
desktops now you know another area where apple is killing it and Microsoft is
catching up is phone integration but at least there's progress these days you
can sync your Android phone to your PC so you can use your favorite mobile apps
and even send SMS messages and make calls from your desktop making a to-do
list in notepad that you want to take with you just transfer it over before
you get up and you're good to go sort of honestly it's still kind of
basic but at least for those of us who are pretty much Tethered to our
computers it's nice to finally be able to come home and put the phone down for
the night now some folks might leave this out but
there is a lot more to task manager these days than just processes and
services particularly the performance Tab and while there are better tools for
monitoring this sort of thing like Hardware info when you need to quickly
check if your memory is running at the right speed or in dual Channel mode or
you need a quick and dirty look into your CPU usage and GPU usage look no
further it's especially useful when you're trying to troubleshoot someone
else's PC without being able to remote in since just about anyone in their dog
can figure out how to open up task manager and navigate through its tabs I
mean good luck trying to get your grandma to install Hardware info and
parse this it's even gotten more and more useful over the years with the
users tab introduced with Windows XP and that that came in handy for me a lot my
mom always used to leave crap open in her instance and my performance would
suck so I'd have to go in and check and I'd see that anyway the services tab
showed up in Windows Vista and more recently we've got GPU usage including
temperatures meaning that now anyone can die diagnose a thermal issue that is
slowing down their games just whatever you do make sure you hit the more
details button that they added with Windows 8.
now I wouldn't really know anything about this but I can imagine that if I
had friends I might run into a situation where their banking app isn't working so
they need access to my computer well fear not it is easy to make what's
known as a kiosk account for guests that only has access to a web browser just
set up another account go to account settings on admin and set up assigned
access if you want to be extra careful you can also encrypt your own files by
right-clicking on the file or folder selecting properties Advanced encrypt
contents to secure data your key is tied to your account password though so this
is really only handy for multiple users sharing a single PC you can always hide
files and folders by the way for a little bit of extra stealth but most
people who are going to be digging around probably already know about show
hidden files on the other hand if you're forever alone like many of us this won't
be a problem unless your computer gets stolen speaking of which backups
Windows's own integrated backup system isn't the best acronis's solution which
we made a sponsored video about recently is absolutely better but anything is
better than what most people do which is nothing Windows has an image backup function
that should be your foundation it's just a bit of a pain to find looking control
panel system and security file history and then click on the small bottom left
system image backup link click setup backup and follow the instructions
either saving it to an extra drive or elsewhere on your network the best way
to use this is to also have a third air gapped or non-network connected copy of
your OS and files on something like an external USB drive so that way you will
basically never have to worry about ransomware or malware again
another perfect example of somehow progress also makes things worse
is Microsoft's compulsive desire to hide useful features that people shouldn't
have to go digging around for for example the old control panel like from
way back in the Windows Vista days is still around it's just hidden under an
all control panel options drop down that is really easy to miss now most average
users shouldn't need most of the stuff that's in here but you're a power user
you need need admin tools power options storage spaces and Device Manager you
need them all in one easy to find location speaking of stuff the average
user wouldn't need another useful Windows feature is the command prompt
but that's actually not the tip did you know that you can change transparency
with Ctrl shift scroll wheel it sure makes inputting lines that you're
copying from a website easy when you're working with limited screen space like
on One of These Fine MSI laptops did I mention MSI sponsored this video thanks
guys we'll have affiliate links to them down below and one last thing about
Windows especially if you're a power user it can end up getting well a little
confused maybe your USB port stopped working or your PC thinks your camera is
in use when it's not whatever the case don't be afraid to just back up your
files and run the included reset tool a clean will fix just about any issue and
unlike the old days it doesn't require you to reinstall your drivers
re-register your product key or any of that junk
you know it's not junk this Segway to our sponsor MSI the experience of using
Windows is great on a modern High Performance Machine like one of these
for productivity the summit e13 flip features unrivaled CPU Computing ability
and same-class laptops seriously up to 28 watts of power in this puppy it's the
first laptop equipped with Wi-Fi 6E with up to 20 hours of battery life with its
70 watt hour battery it's quiet under 35 decibels in Balance mode to Meet World
Health Organization noise guidelines and it supports the MSI pen with support for
MPP 2.0 and it can work as a presentation remote they've also got an
MSI USBC docking station to go with it and for gaming lacrosse hair 15 can be
equipped with up to an 11th gen core i7 processor and RTX 3060 GPU it's got a
brand new chassis design with a kind of tough titanium gray metal style shell to
resemble Weaponry it's got their cooler boost 5 dedicated thermal solution with
two fans and six heat pipes and the heat pipes are thinner than ever allowing it
to fit in this nice compact chassis want more Tech tips maybe check out our video
on how motherboards work turbo nerd Edition that suggestion alone is another
tech tip free of charge