Secret menu to background scrolling, top Windows 10 tricks every PC user must know

Windows remains the most popular and user-friendly operating system out there with the company revealing back in 2019 that Windows 10 is already running on more than 900 million devices.

The popularity of the OS was further established by the fact that there have been more new Windows 10 devices in the last 12 months than in any previous years.

A successor to Windows 8.1, the Windows 10 has a number of user-friendly features that makes working on it faster and more convenient. We take a look at some of its lesser known features.

1. Secret Start menu: Windows 10 has a second Start menu that allows accessing features such as Command Prompt, Control Panel and Task manager. One can either access it by pressing Windows key + X, or by right clicking the windows icon/Start button.

2. Take a screenshot: Windows 10 allows users to take screenshots in multiple ways. The easiest way it to press the Windows Key along with Print Screen Key and the image will be saved to the Screenshots folder in Pictures.

In case, users want to capture a partial screen, they can press Windows key+Shift+S to open the Snip and Sketch tool which allows one to click and drag a create a screenshot to save image to the Clipboard.

3. Create event without opening Calendar: One can add events to the Microsoft calendar directly from the Taskbar, without opening at all. Go to the Taskbar and click a time and date box followed by choosing the date when one wants to schedule an event.

A person needs to enter the event name, time and location, followed by save. This would lead to the event appearing in the Calendar across all apps.

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4. Finding out how much space apps are taking: To figure out how much space apps use, one needs to go to Storage under System of Settings and then click on the drive they want to search.

Now, choose apps & games to see a list of apps that are installed on the machine and how much space they take up. A user can delete apps not being used from the list.

5. Minimise windows: Sometimes while working, the windows can get cluttered with too many tabs. Windows 10 allows for users to minimise all windows except the one they are currently working on.

One has to click the title bar of the window they want active and then hold the mouse down and shake the window back and forth quickly. After a couple of quick shakes, all other windows will minimise save the active one.

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6. Enable Focus Assist to cut down distractions: Sometimes while working, one gets constantly bothered by notifications. The Focus option allows users to determine how many notifications they get. One needs to go to Settings, followed by System and then Focus.

This gives users three options:

-- Off: Allows all notifications

-- Priority: You can only opt for a customised list of notifications

-- Alarm: Only alarms and no notifications are allowed

7. Background scrolling: Windows 10 allows users to scroll up and down on any window even if someone is not directly working on them. One can open two programmes and then arrange them in a manner which allows one to hover their mouse on the second window and scroll.

While the feature should be activated by default, if it does not, one needs to go to Settings > Devices > Mouse, and toggle Scroll inactive windows when I hover over them to On.

8. Get rid of ads in Start menu: To enable the feature, one needs to go to Settings, followed by Personalisation and Start. Once there, toggle the setting 'Show suggestions occasionally' to the off position.

9. Shut down background apps: Background apps, though useful often suck the battery and data power dry. To shut down background apps on Windows 10, one needs to first go to the toggle Background apps under Privacy in Settings and turn the toggle 'Let apps run in the background' to Off.

10. File extensions in File Explorer: To see file extensions, one needs to first go to the Search Bar at the bottom of the screen and type File Explorer Options and click on the View Tab in the window that subsequently pops up.

Then uncheck the box that says Hide extensions for known file types followed by Apply and OK to view file extensions for all files.

11. Open items on Taskbar with keyboard shortcuts: In case users have pinned programmes in the Taskbar, they can use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Number Key to open that particular programme. The number key has to correspond to the position of the programme on the Taskbar.