By now you’re probably quite familiar with Windows
10, even if you waited until the end of the free
upgrade period to start using the new operating
system. We’re also willing to bet that there are things you
don’t like about it, or that you think could be done better
or more like they were in a previous version of Windows.
The good news is that you don’t have to put up with
these niggles, because you can easily tweak Windows 10
to elevate it from a good operating system to a great one.
You won’t need to pay for extra hardware or software, or
(aside from one tweak) mess around in the Registry, either.
In this feature, we reveal the most useful hacks for
improving and customising Windows 10. Over the
following pages, you’ll learn how to change the way
Windows 10 looks and works, disable features you hate
and restore functions that you miss.
RESTORE THE FEATURES YOU MISS
Floating Desktop gadgets were last seen in Windows 7, but you can bring them back by installing 8GadgetPack.
Bring back Desktop Gadgets
Windows 7 lets you place floating
gadgets, such as clocks, calendars,
photos, news feeds and system
monitors, on your Desktop. This feature
was removed from Windows 8 onwards
due to what Microsoft describes as
“serious vulnerabilities”, but lots of
people liked gadgets. If you’re one
of them, you can get the feature
back by installing the third-party
tool 8GadgetPack (8gadgetpack.
net). Despite its name it works
fine with Windows 10, although,
annoyingly, some of the 50+ gadgets
available aren’t compatible with the
Anniversary Update at least until
8GadgetPack itself is updated.
Another alternative is Gadgets
Revived (gadgetsrevived.com).
Download the sidebar and then choose
some gadgets to put in it. You’ll find a
Control Panel option for Gadgets
Revived under ‘Appearance and
Personalisation’, Desktop Gadgets.
Restore the Windows Experience Index
Windows Experience Index, or WEI
for short, is a basic benchmarking
tool in Windows 7 (and Vista) that
rates the performance of your PC
and gives it an overall score out of
10, as well as individual scores for
your computer’s processor, memory,
graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard drive. WEI isn’t the most
informative benchmarking tool around,
but it helps you identify which areas
of your system are the weakest and
would benefit most from an upgrade.
Microsoft dropped WEI from
Windows 8 and later versions, but you can perform the same function by
installing ChrisPC Win Experience Index
4 (www.chris-pc.com). Download the
software and run it to find out how your
system performs – but make sure you
decline the bundled RelevantKnowledge
junk during installation.
Get back Windows Media Center
Microsoft dropped Media
Center from Windows 10,
replacing it with an
optional, expensive and
very basic DVD player.
However, you can restore
this useful software by
installing an unofficial
new release called WMC
for Windows 10. This is
available to download for
free from Google Drive in
32-bit (bit.ly/2dSEFEM)
and 64-bit (bit.ly/2dBkT5J) editions. Because
the WMC files are rather large, Google Drive can’t scan them for malware, so
before you install either version it’s worth checking the download with your
antivirus program or VirusTotal (www.virustotal.com) to make sure it’s not
harbouring anything nasty (both were clean at the time of writing).
Extract the WMC folder to your system drive and open it. Right-click
_TestRights.cmd and choose ‘Run as administrator’. Then right-click Installer.
cmd and select ‘Run as administrator’ again. Exit when prompted. When you
want to run the program, you can either search for ‘Media Center’ or launch it
through Windows Accessories in the Start menu. For easier access, pin WMC to
Start or your taskbar.
CHANGE THE WAY WINDOWS 10 WORKS
Limit Microsoft’s data gathering
Windows 10 spies on its users in two ways. The first is that it collects data about how you use the operating system (how you speak or type, for example) to improve the way Windows responds. However, it also reports ‘telemetry’ data back to Microsoft. This includes details of your hardware, how long you spend using Windows, details of any crashes and other information that could prove useful to the company.
If you don’t like the idea of your data being collected like this, you can limit the amount of telemetry information Windows passes back to Microsoft by clicking Start and opening Settings. Open the Privacy section and scroll down to ‘Feedback & diagnostics’. Here you can set how and when Windows asks you for feedback, and change what device data it sends to Microsoft. This option will probably say ‘Full (Recommended)’ by default. You can’t disable it completely, but you can switch it to Basic, which stops your PC sending diagnostics data and ‘enhanced insights’ about how you use the apps installed on your PC and how stable they are. If you want even greater control, you can use Spybot Anti-Beacon (bit.ly/antibeacon407) to adjust a host of hidden telemetry settings in Windows 10. See our Mini Workshop below to find out how to use the program.
Stop Windows 10 spying on you
As well as addressing Microsoft’s telemetry gathering, you might want to take control of other details Windows 10 records. The Privacy section of Settings contains lots of options that you can enable or disable, but they’re spread over numerous categories. This confusing arrangement makes it much harder to find everything, let alone work out what you should be changing. For total peace of mind, you’ll want to make sure you don’t miss anything important. Thankfully, there are plenty of third-party apps that gather all the privacy settings together, making it easier to find and disable those you don’t like. Try O&O ShutUp10 (bit.ly/2dBlMLA) or Windows 10 Privacy Fixer (bit.ly/2dBmoRl), both of which list all the privacy options from across Windows 10 in one place.
Skip the Windows 10 login screen
If you’re the only person who uses your PC, you can save time by setting it to bypass the Login screen and boot to the Desktop. Open the Start menu and type run. Press Enter, and type netplwiz into the Run box. Click OK and highlight your account. Untick ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’. Click Apply, then enter your password twice and confirm it. To check that it has worked, reboot your PC and it should go straight to the Desktop. If you want to restore the Login screen, repeat the process but tick the ‘Users must enter a username and password to use this computer’ box.
CHANGE THE WAY WINDOWS 10 LOOKS
Customise the Start menu
There are several ways to customise Start in Windows 10, but the easiest is to use Windows’ own settings. Click Start, open Settings then click Personalisation and select Start. From here you can change the number of tiles that appear in Start and toggle ‘suggestions’ (essentially adverts) on or off. You can also show your ‘most used’ and ‘recently added’ apps, and switch between a Start menu and a Start screen. What’s more, you can choose which folders – such as File Explorer, Settings, Downloads Pictures, and Network appear on Start.
If you want to make more advanced changes such as replacing Windows 10’s Start menu with a Windows 7-style version the excellent Classic Shell tool (www.classicshell.net) is ideal. This free program lets you apply dozens of customisations read our Mini Workshop on the right to find out how to use it. Other useful customisation tools include IObit Start Menu 8 (bit.ly/2dBn9cV) which, despite its name, is fully compatible with Windows 10 and the highly sophisticated Start10 (bit.ly/2dBnpJ6), which costs $4.99 (£3.82). A free 30-day trial is available, but make sure you reject the offer to install Fences when installing the software.
Tweak the Windows 10 Taskbar
There are plenty of changes you can make to the Windows 10 taskbar too. To access Windows’ own controls, right-click the taskbar and go to Settings. The window that opens includes options to lock the taskbar, hide it in Desktop or tablet mode, use small taskbar buttons, show badges on buttons (to indicate that you have unread messages, for example) and choose a different location for the bar (left, right, top or bottom). You can also combine taskbar buttons, choose which notifications appear and if you have more than one monitor attached to your PC specify which screens the taskbar appears on.
If you’d like to go further than Windows 10’s options allow, try 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (bit.ly/2dBmvft). This free program was originally designed for Windows 7, but it works with all later versions of Microsoft’s operating system, including Windows 10 Anniversary Update. All the program’s tweaks are presented on a single screen, with categories that include Taskbar Items, Grouping and Combining, and Other. You can use the program to apply a range of advanced hacks, such as hiding the Start and Show Desktop buttons, and reserving empty space on the taskbar.
Enable the dark theme
Windows 10 Anniversary Update comes with a dark theme that completely changes the look of the operating system, including the Start menu and apps. To switch to this smart new theme, click Start and open Settings. Click Personalisation, then click the Colours option on the left. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see an entry that says ‘Choose your app mode’. Change this from Light to Dark, then turn off the options ‘Make Start, taskbar, and action centre transparent’, ‘Show colour on Start, taskbar, and action centre’ and ‘Show colour on title bar’. This change isn’t applied to every program or feature in Windows – some, such as File Explorer, remain in light mode. But it certainly looks stylish.
DISABLE THE FEATURES YOU HATE
Remove Cortana from your PC’s Lock screen
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update puts Cortana on your Lock screen so that you can use the personal assistant without needing to sign into or unlock your PC. If you never use Cortana, this change will seem pointless and perhaps even annoying, but disabling the feature is easy. Just click the Cortana button next to Start, choose Settings and flick the ‘Lock screen’ toggle to Off.
Disable Cortana completely
Microsoft’s personal assistant Cortana is useful for lots of things, such as searching the web, setting reminders, identifying a song that’s playing, performing calculations and checking the weather, but if you have no use for it, or you prefer to search for things in the more traditional way, you can disable the feature. In the Anniversary Update, Microsoft made Cortana much harder to kill by removing the ‘Off’ switch in ‘Cortana and search settings’, but you can disable it anyway using the Group Policy Editor. This is available in the ‘professional’ versions of Windows 10 but not the Home edition.
To curtail Cortana in the professional versions, click Start, type gpedit.msc and hit enter. Navigate to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Search. Locate the Allow Cortana option and double-click it. Select Disabled, then click Apply and OK to turn off the feature. Windows 10 Home users will need to apply a Registry tweak (the only one in this feature!) instead. Click Start, type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search. Right-click Windows Search and select New, Dword (32-bit) Value. Call this AllowCortana, then double-click it. Set its value to 0 and click OK.
Hide the Windows Defender icon Some users who upgrade to the Anniversary Edition report seeing a new icon for Windows Defender appear in the System Tray. If you don’t want it there you can get rid of it in one of two ways. The first is to right-click the.
Uninstall unwanted apps
Windows 10 comes bundled with some apps you’re never likely to use, such as 3D Builder, Groove Music, Candy Crush Soda Saga and Feedback Hub. To remove any you don’t want, go to Start, Settings, System and select ‘Apps & features’ on the left. Select an unwanted app and click the Uninstall button for it. You can remove unwanted apps in bulk by using IObit Uninstaller 6 (bit.ly/2dBoHUk). Select Windows Apps on the left, then click the Windows Apps heading and pick the ones you don’t want. Click Uninstall to remove them all. We’ll be taking a closer look at uninstalling unwanted software in next issue’s cover feature.
Hide the Windows Defender icon
Some users who upgrade to the Anniversary Edition report seeing a new icon for Windows Defender appear in the System Tray. If you don’t want it there you can get rid of it in one of two ways. The first is to right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Click the More Details button, then click the Start-up tab. Select the ‘Windows Defender notification’ entry, click the Disable button and restart your PC (or log off and back on again). When Windows restarts, the icon will be gone. The other option is to click Start and type icons. Click ‘Select which icons appear on the taskbar’ and disable the icon from there.
Remove your empty agenda from the clock
If you click the taskbar clock in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, you’ll see a calendar and daily agenda below that. If you don’t use the calendar app and never schedule events in Windows, the feature serves no purpose, and being reminded of your empty agenda every day may even prove depressing. You can easily banish this element by clicking the ‘Hide agenda’ option in the bottom-right corner, or if you prefer you can remove it entirely.
To do this, click Start, Settings and select Privacy. Click Calendar on the left-hand side and, in the right-hand pane, toggle ‘Let apps access my calendar’ to Off. Now when you click the clock, the agenda will be gone. It’s worth pointing out that some apps, including People, require access to the calendar to work properly, so bear this mind if you use any of them
Pause automatic updates
Windows 10 automatically downloads updates in the background. Thankfully, the Anniversary Update lets you set Active Hours to stop the OS installing updates and restarting your system while you’re busy. Open Start, and click the Settings button, then go to ‘Update & security’ and specify your Active Hours there. You can also pause updates through the Command Prompt. Rightclick the Start button and select ‘Command Prompt (Admin)’. Type net stop wuauserv and press Enter, then type net stop bits, and press Enter again. Finally type net stop dosvc. Press Enter, then close the window. To resume downloads, open Command Prompt (Admin) and type net start wuauserv, and Press Enter. Type net start bits and press Enter again. Finally, type net start dosvc, press Enter and close the window.
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