100 Windows 81-90 tips and tricks

 

 

81. Slide down the desktop to shutdown

Head to Windows > System32 and double-click on the slidetoshutdown.exe program. Performing this action from now on will drop in your lock screen image from the top and cover half of your screen.
Just slide the image to the bottom of your screen to shut down your computer.

82. Generate a Battery Report

If you want to keep tabs on your laptops' battery level, launch the Administrative command prompt and type the following command: powercfg -energy -output C:\report.html. The command will analyse the battery status and create a Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report in the root directory of the C: drive.

83. Disable data collection

To prevent your computer from communicating with Microsoft HQ, type 'services' in the Start menu search bar to bring up the Services Management console. Now find and disable the services named 'Diagnostics Tracking Service' and 'dmwappushsvc'. You're done.

84. Improved Registry Editor

If you use the Registry Editor, Windows 10 now lets you navigate the quintessential power user app with ease.
You can now jump between the same entries under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER hives using a special context-menu entry.

85. Create a recovery disc

Plug in a USB drive and head to Start > Settings and type 'recovery' in the Find a setting textbox and select the 'Create a recovery drive' option.
This will launch a wizard which wipes the USB drive and transforms it into a recovery drive.

86. Side load Windows apps

Just like Android, Windows 10 now lets you install Windows apps from other sources besides the Windows Store. To enable this action, simply head over to Start > Settings > Update & security > For developers and click the 'Sideload app' option.

87. Decrease effects

If you are running Windows 10 on a resource strapped machine, you can squeeze more performance by turning down the bling. Head to Control Panel > System and Security > System and click 'Advanced system settings'.
Now click Settings under the Performance section and customise the effects.

88. Create a system image

Head to Start > Settings and type 'file' in the textbox and select the 'File History' tool. Click the 'System Image Backup' link in the lower-left corner to start a wizard; this lets you select the destination drive for storing the backup image.

89. Restart Explorer

To quickly apply changes that require restarting the computer, launch the Task manager by right-clicking on the taskbar.
Click the 'More Details' button and under the 'Processes' tab look for an entry named 'Windows Explorer'. Then right-click on it and select 'Restart'.

90. Change the location of Edge's Downloads folder

To force the Edge browser to use a custom Downloads folder, head to the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\MicrosoftEdge\Main key.
Create a new String named 'Default Download Directory' and set its value to the path of the new folder, such as D:\Downloads.