Last week I answer two questions that I often receive that have easy fixes. First, the Insert Key and Ctrl + 0. I will add to that this week. The Ctrl + the mouse scroll wheel trick will also work to increase and decrease the size of your icons on your desktop. Just click on the desktop first and try it out.
Today a few more.
Sometimes after you do a couple of Windows updates you may notice your hard drive space has decreased. Sometimes significantly depending on the size of your hard drive. I have never noticed this you can run this procedure occasionally as it certainly will not hurt.
After Windows Vista, Microsoft leaves behind the previous version of the OS (Operation System) taking up storage space. Again, sometimes a significant amount possibly in the 12GB – 20GB range. The folder hangs around for about 30 days which will allow you to roll back to the previous OS if you find something wrong with the new one. After that time it should be automatically deleted.
The folder is named, “windows.old” Remove it and other unneeded old files on a regular basis (maybe quarterly) would be a good idea.
Proceed by clicking the Windows Start button and typing, “Disk cleanup.” Open the app and then choose the drive you wish to clean. Most likely the C: drive. Now click the button on the bottom left, “Clean up system files.” It will run for a little while and present you with a choice of items to clean. Of which the top one maybe, “Windows Update Cleanup” which deletes windows.old. I also recommend checking all of the other checkboxes. This will get rid of old items left behind that you no longer need. Click OK and OK one more time to permanently delete all files.
Depending on how much it has to clean it could run a while. I do mine every couple of months and it usually runs less than a minute.
For you more experienced users out there that remember “Safe Mode” in the olden days. If your computer had issues many times booting your PC into Safe Mode and then restarting normally could resolve your problem. Back in the day, you would either press the F8 or Shift + F8 keys when you were starting your computer for Safe Mode. That is gone today…why? Good question and I have no answer; however, you can still get it but differently. There are a couple of ways to Safe Mode in Windows 10 but this is the simplest.
Restart your computer as you normally would BUT first, hold down your left shift key. Tada! I will say that Windows 10 seems more stable and I have not had a need for Safe Mode in the several years I have used that OS.
Finally this week a common question is about all the notifications in Windows 10 from the Notification Bar that pops open on the right when you get a notification. You may also click the button on the far right of your taskbar to open Notifications at any time.
To cut down on some of the worthless ones that may bug you, click the Start Menu button again and this time, type and then click on, “Notifications & actions.”
At the top, you may be tempted to turn off the, Get “Notifications from apps and other senders” button. But first, look down the list of apps that can send you messages. Also, click, “Sort by Name” to see more suggestions. Then simply flip the switch by each one to off or on depending on what you would like to keep getting the notifications from.
As you can see from my settings here I do not care for many notifications. (Click the graphic to see a larger example.)
