Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly - A weekly computer publication featuring tips, tricks, website & freeware picks, answers to your computer questions and more!

Three Easy Time-Saving Tips
Windows 10 (all supported versions)

Sometimes the best Windows tips are the easiest and simplest ones – at least we think so. And today we’re featuring three simple little tips that will save you time.

Tip #1

Let’s say, you are filling out a Web form and you make a mistake -you typed in the incorrect email address or whatever. Instead of backspacing to remove the incorrect address, put your cursor in the form field and press the CTRL key plus the A key and then the Delete Key.

How it works: CTRL + A highlights everything in the form field. The Delete key deletes all the highlighted text.

Tip #2

Now, imagine you’re viewing an exceptionally long web page and you want to go back to the top. Instead of scrolling all the way back up, press the HOME key. If you want to go to the bottom of the page, instead of scrolling all the way down to the bottom, just press the END key. It’s simple, I tells ya!

Tip #3

OK, last one: Here’s a really easy way to highlight a large block of text. Let’s use this tip as an example. While it’s not a “large block” of text, you’ll see how it works. Put your cursor at the beginning of this tip and left-click. Now put it at the bottom of this tip and click while holding down the SHIFT key. Pretty cool, eh?

Don’t misunderstand me, I was not expecting much. I didn’t think this cheap laptop would ever be my main work computer. And I’ll tell you when I first turned it on and saw Chinese writing on a blue Windows background, I was sure I’d be shipping this laptop back to Amazon quickly.

But within a minute or two a language selection dialog appeared, and I chose English (U.S.). Then I was guided through the setup by Cortana telling me what I needed to do -holding my hand all the way. For me it was overkill, but for those without much experience setting up a Windows computer, it would be extremely helpful.

The laptop came with Windows 10 Home, so once I set it up, I went to Windows Update > Windows Insider Program and signed up for the Dev channel so I could download and install Windows 11. And within a couple of hours, my new cheap laptop was running Windows 11. So, I learned that while Windows 11 does have strict requirements, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy a computer that will run it.

Here’s what we can tell you so far…

The new Start menu and taskbar alignment

After all the complaining about the new start menu and the “centered” taskbar, I found that I liked the new Start menu a lot better than I expected I would and much better than the default Windows 10 start menu.

After installing the programs I used most, I was able to drag the program icons around to bring a logical order to my start menu. And having the search bar at the top is a plus. Notice I have browsers, image tools, and word processing and HTML editing apps grouped. This is an improvement over the lengthy list of apps that comprised the start menus in both Windows 7 and Windows 10. No more scrolling to find what you want. If something is not listed in the start menu, you can add it. You can also see “All apps” in a list if you like by clicking on “All apps”

Windows 11’s default taskbar is centered. You cannot choose “small icons” and you cannot move the taskbar to the right-side or the top of the desktop.

But you can shift the centered taskbar to the more traditional left-aligned taskbar and it’s quite easy to do.

To change the taskbar from centered to left-aligned, just right-click on the taskbar, click on Taskbar settings, then click on Taskbar behaviors. Next to Taskbar alignment choose “Left”.

Your old programs will run on Windows 11

Many of you are concerned that your favorite programs won’t run on Windows 11. But you will be surprised. I installed all the programs I need to do my job including the 2011 version of MetaPad and PaintShop Pro 7 which was released in September 2000 – so it’s over two decades old and works well on Windows 11. So, any programs you’re using now on Windows 10 (and even Windows 7) should work on Windows 11.

Do you have an Android Smartphone?

And if you have an Android smartphone, you’ll be able to access it, the pictures on it, even text from it and make and receive calls from your Windows 11 computer by setting up Phone Companion – which is a snap because it uses a QR code for setting it up.

Above: Photos from my Android smartphone on my Windows 11 laptop.

Above: Texting from my Windows 11 laptop using Phone Companion. And Darcy (Eight) laughing at me in a text message. See how she treats me!!!

We’re going to have more on Windows 11 soon. Next time we’ll cover the SUBSTANTIAL changes in File Explorer and the Windows 11 Settings app. And we will take a look at the new Windows 11 widgets too.