Five Windows 10 Tricks You Should Know

Whether you’re getting ready to move from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 or have been up and running on the new operating system for some time now, there are a ton of great features – some obvious and some not-so-obvious – that can make your experience much better. Here are five features you should add to your arsenal:

1. Access a Start Menu for power users
Windows 10 has a hidden Start Menu that contains some useful tools for Windows power users, such as the task manager, command prompt, device and disk management, and others. To get to this menu, you’ll need to either right click the Windows button or use the Windows key+X shortcut on your keyboard.

2. Identify disk space-hogging apps
A useful feature of both iOS and Android is one within their settings apps that allow you to monitor the amount of disk space apps are taking up. Microsoft has a similar tool in the new Settings app in Windows 10. To find it, go to Settings>System> Storage. You’ll be able to sort by drive and search for specific apps by file name.

3. Minimize all inactive windows at once
The “Show Desktop” function has been around since Windows 95, but up until now there was no way to just minimize all windows except the one you’re looking at. In Windows 10, all you’ll need to do is grab the window by its title bar and give it a shake. All inactive windows minimize.

4. Stop background apps from running
Another mobile OS-borrowed feature is options within Settings to control which apps can run in the background without your consent. While this might not sound like a big deal, it can save you a lot of headaches and wasted data when connecting to a hotspot — and possibly conserve a little battery life too. To choose which apps you’d like to allow to run, go to Settings>Privacy>Background Apps. A list of installed apps can be found here.

5. Print to PDF 
Now in Windows 10, “Print to PDF” is a native option across the entire operating system. You can access this from any print dialog.