Candace wants to know if it's safe to update to Windows 11 24H2
Hi there.  I got a notice to update to Windows 11 version 24H2. Is it now safe to do so? Thanks much.

Our answer
Hi Candace. I'm going to wait until the first of the year before I install it on my main computer. I have it on my spare computer and haven't had any major problems. But there are still some bugs in it and many people are still reporting problems. It is a major update. So, unless you have some reason why you need to update right now, I'd advise you to wait two or three weeks. 

Cheryl wants to get rid of the "Finish setting up your computer" popup on Windows 11
Good morning my computer guru friends. A couple of months ago, when I had to replace my HDD with an SDD, and reinstall everything, I keep getting this screen pop-up.

 

I do not use  "OneDrive" because I can't figure out how to use it and I don't use Microsoft's "Bing" or whatever it's called and I'm not interested in a subscription. Is there a way to get rid of it so it doesn't pop up besides choosing the "remind me in 3 days" option? Thank you. Hope you're having a fantastic weekend. Take care. Cheryl.

 

Our answer

Hi Cheryl. You can get rid of the 'Let's finish setting up your computer" popup by going to Settings > System > Notifications > Additional settings and unchecking the box next to "Suggest ways to get the most out of Windows and finish setting up this device".

 

To avoid more Windows annoyances, you can see I've also unchecked the other option under "Additional settings" as well. I hope this helps you, Cheryl.
---------
Cheryl wrote back: "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. TC. You NEVER fail to come through for me sir. Have a wonderful holiday season. Cheryl"

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Linda W. keeps getting reminders to update her Windows 10 computer to Windows 11
Hi TC & Darcy, I keep getting reminders from Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 11.  Do I want to do that now or wait till it's no longer supported?  Thank you for all your help, you're great.  Linda W.

Our answer
Hi Linda. Thanks! 

Just because you get reminders to upgrade to Windows 11 does not mean your computer supports Windows 11. I know it makes no sense, but Microsoft is pushing Windows 11 on all Windows 10 users whether or not their computers' hardware supports it. So, before you do anything, visit this page -- download PC Health Check and follow the instructions on that page to learn if your Windows 10 PC will run Windows 11.

George wants to know what snippets are
About your article "Three Simple Windows Tips for Everyone", what are 'snippets'?

 

Our answer

Hi George. A screen snippet is another name for a screenshot or screen capture. In other words a picture of what's on your screen or in a window on your screen. It can also be a screenshot of any selected portion of your screen. The image below is a "snippet"...

 

I hope this answers your question, George.

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It’s Easy to Add Christmas Magic to Your Holiday Emails
Windows 10 / Windows 11

These simple tips will help you add Holiday magic to your emails this Holiday season. You can do everything shown in this article with the Emoji panel that comes with Windows 10 and 11. If you’re using Windows 10 an additional download may be required.

Who doesn’t like a little Christmas cheer? Let’s see if we can make your holiday emails a little bit more magical and attention-grabbing!

First, before we get started, this won’t work with all email programs or all social media platforms. But this tip does work in most webmail apps including Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook.com, and Yahoo Mail. It also works in OE Classic. Thunderbird, MS Outlook (current version), the Windows 10 and 11 Mail app, and the new “free Outlook”.

Windows Emoji Pad (as we call it – others call it the Emoji Panel) is an oft-forgotten feature of Windows 10 and 11.  Windows 11’s Emoji Pad (and to some extent Windows 10’s) allows you to easily add Holiday Magic to your emails (and social media posts on some platforms) with just a couple of clicks.

This post was written for Windows 11 and the Windows 11 Emoji Pad — the pictures of the Emoji pad shown here are from Windows 11.

WINDOWS 10 USERS NOTE: If you have Windows 10, you won’t have GIF options. See this page showing how to add GIFs to Windows 10’s Emoji panel.

How to open the Emoji Pad

There are two easy ways to open the Emoji Pad in Windows 11 and 10.

Hold down the Windows key and tap the . (period) key.
— or—
Hold down the Windows key and tap the ; (semi-colon) key.

When the Emoji pad opens, it opens to the Emoji section. Right below the Emoji section, you’ll see the GIF section.

Note: You can search all sections of the Emoji pad by typing your search term in the Search box. Since we’re in the Christmas season now, we typed in Christmas.

Adding Christmas fun and magic to your holiday emails is easy

The Windows 11 Emoji pad has a limited number of Christmas emoji, but a nice selection of animated Christmas gifs. We will use the emoji to add some magic to the subject line and save the gifs for the message body – but can use them any way you wish.

First, you can add emoji from the Emoji pad to the subject line by clicking in the subject line and then clicking the emoji you want to use in the Emoji Pad. Here we used a Santa and a Christmas tree.

Then, go ahead and type your message. You can add an animated gif anywhere in the message body by opening the Emoji Pad, scrolling down to the GIFS section, and clicking on the gif you want to add. There are a lot of gifs, but you’ll have to type CHRISTMAS in the search box to see them all.

When your lucky recipient receives your email they’ll see your cheery emoji in the subject line, your good wishes, and the animated gif in the body of the email… see?

You can use this tip in most email programs as well as in Gmail, Outlook.com, and Hotmail…

This screenshot is from the composition window in Gmail.

And this screenshot is from Hotmail/Outlook.com.

The Windows Emoji pad can help you add some Christmas fun and magic to your holiday emails!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! 

Use These Handy Keyboard Shortcuts with Your Favorite Browser and Give Your Mouse a Break!
For everyone who browses the Web

Keyboard shortcuts are great for those who don’t like using a mouse. They can also save you time. So, we’ve put together this list of browser shortcuts that work with the most popular browsers. So even if you’re a mouse lover, isn’t it time you gave your mouse a break?

These shortcuts work on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and other popular browsers.

* Shift+Escape opens the browser’s task manager. (This shortcut works with Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge)

* Ctrl+B toggles the bookmarks bar on and off.

* Ctrl+L moves your cursor to the address bar.

* Ctrl+K moves your cursor to the browser's address bar.

* Ctrl+T opens a new tab.

* Ctrl+N opens a new window.

* Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab.

* Ctrl+Shift+N opens a new private window (“Incognito Mode" in Chrome (Works on all Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome & Microsoft Edge.)

* Ctrl+Shift+P opens a private window in Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers like Pale Moon.)

* Ctrl+Tab cycles through all open tabs;

* Ctrl+Shift+Tab reverse cycles through all open tabs.

* Ctrl+J opens Downloads.

* Ctrl+W closes the currently open tab.

* Ctrl+R refreshes the current page.

* Ctrl+F5 refreshes the current page.

* Ctrl+H opens the browser’s History.

* Ctrl+1 through 9 switches to a particular open tab position.

* Ctrl++, Ctrl+-, Ctrl+0 Enlarges, reduces, and restores default text sizes.

* Page down button - Scroll down one screen on a webpage.

* Page up button - Scroll up one screen on a webpage.

And did you know…

You can use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll up or down a webpage when browsing, instead of using your mouse. And, if you want to scroll up and down on a particularly long webpage you can click the Page Down button on your keyboard, which will scroll down the page in increments until you reach the bottom of the webpage. You can use the Page Up button to go back up to the top. If you want to go back to the top of the page from anywhere on the page – just hit the “Home” key. And if you are a bottom feeder, like TC, you can get to the bottom of the page quickly from anywhere on the page by pressing the “End” key.

So use these keyboard shortcuts and give your mouse a break – because even a mouse needs rest you know. 

The Windows Key Plus 9 Useful Windows Key Shortcuts
Windows 10 / Windows 11

The Windows key (more correctly called the Windows logo key) is a Windows key shortcut when used in combination with a letter (or symbol or number) on your keyboard.

The Windows key  or Windows logo key looks like this:

For those of you who don’t know, the Windows key is generally located on the bottom row of your keyboard between the Ctrl key and the Alt key. On laptops, it is usually located between the Fn key and the Alt key.

Above: Windows logo key on desktops or all-in-ones.  Below:  Windows logo key on laptops.

Here are some Windows logo key shortcuts we hope you’ll find useful.

1> A quick way to search

Press the Windows logo key + S to open the search box. You can search your computer or the web from Windows Search for people, email, and files in local and shared sites, or from the web.

2> Quickly access Widgets (Windows 11 only)

Press the Windows logo key + W to go right to your widgets board.

3> Take a screenshot

Press the Windows logo key+ Shift + S to capture all or part of your screen or any image, then save and share.

4> Access Clipboard History

Press the Windows logo key + V to save recent copied or cut items on the clipboard so you can paste them into other apps or sync across devices. (Windows Clipboard History must be turned on – see this page to learn more.)

5> Express yourself with Emoji

Press the Windows logo key + period (.) to search for images, symbols, or icons to express emotions or communicate playfully without words. You’ll find kaomoji and GIFs here too! (●’◡’●) 😎🥵😹💂‍♀️👩‍⚖️🍟🍔

6> Speak instead of type

Press the Windows logo key   + H to use speech recognition to convert spoken words into text anywhere on your PC. Requires that you have a microphone and that it is set up and ready to use.

7> Minimize all open apps on your desktop and quickly bring them back again.

Press the Windows logo key + D to quickly minimize all your open apps so you can get to your desktop. Press them again to bring everything back.

8> Quickly lock your screen

Press the Windows logo key + L to quickly lock your screen so others can’t access your PC (assuming you use a password, PIN, etc.

9> Quickly change settings

Press the Windows logo key + A to get to commonly used settings like volume, brightness, and Wi-Fi. Find your Accessibility settings here, too.

One more thing…

If you’re using Windows 11, when you press the Windows logo key plus the period key (.), you can access keyboard symbols, GIFs, and more.

Want more tips, tricks, and information?

We have thousands of Windows tips, tricks, and more on our InfoAve website.

Subscribe to our free InfoAve Daily newsletter.

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Oh! You have so much desktop clutter

We have seen a lot of desktops. And we know that many of you have dozens and dozens of icons on your desktop. All of us have been through that.  As soon as we start using Windows, we realize that the first thing staring us in the face when we start up our computers is the desktop. So it's hard to resist putting everything on the desktop that you use or think you're going to use often. The only problem with that is - eventually your desktop will be covered with icons and you'll find yourself searching through dozens and dozens of icons looking for something.   And we know that it's sacrilege to even try to get you to remove any of those icons. They're there for a reason, right?

Well, if you don't want to remove them, how about organizing them? Create folders on your desktop and drag your icons into the folders.  Let's use an example of photo editors and image viewers. Let's say you have icons for PaintShop Pro, IrfanView, FastStone Capture, Aunt Tilly's Amazing Image Enhancer,  Starglaze Photo Bleater, and  RedEye NoMore.  They're all related to graphics in one way or another. So why not make a folder and call it Graphics Programs and drag all those icons into that folder? Just with one folder, you have cleared 7 icons from your desktop and yet they are still right there when you can find them.

And what about all those website shortcuts you have on your desktop? Make a folder called "Website shortcuts" and drag all of them into that folder.

You get the idea, right?  So just think if you made 6 folders and moved 7 icons into each folder, you'd clear 42 icons from your desktop.  Yet you'd still have easy access to them, because, after all, they are still on your desktop... right?

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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Cloudeight InfoAve Weekly. Thanks so much for your support and for being an InfoAve Weekly subscriber.

Have a great weekend! Happy Holidays!

Darcy & TC
Issue #1105 - December 13, 2024

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