What’s new in the latest versions of Windows?

The Windows operating system is regularly updated. There are new options that allow you to work on your computer more comfortably. Additional features are built into the operating system that make it possible to use the internal properties of the system instead of installing additional applications on the PC. In Windows 10 and Windows 11, along with well-known options, there are many new features that are not shown in the introduction videos, but at the same time are very useful for using them in everyday work on the computer.
Windows 10 dark mode
How to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu
Screen Recording Windows 10
Command Prompt in Windows 10
How to find out how much disk space is left

Windows 10 dark mode

In Windows 10, as well as in other versions of Windows, the light theme is set by default, in which all elements are displayed on a light background. Some users prefer dark mode. The dark theme can be enabled using the registry editor. In earlier versions of Windows 10, this was the only way to enable this theme. How to do it?

1. Use the Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the “Run” window.
2. In the line enter the command regedit.
3. In the registry editor, open the branch HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SOFTWARE.
4. Walk the path Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize\
5. Create a 32-bit DWORD value with a value of zero and a name of AppsUseLightTheme.
6. Close the registry editor, thereby saving the changes.
7. Reboot your computer.

Please note that all manipulations with the registry editor require special attention and caution in order to avoid subsequent failures in the computer.

Newer versions of Windows 10 have added a secure way to set a dark theme using Windows Settings.

1. Click the “Start” button.
2. Open the “Settings” section.
3. Open the “Personalization” section.
4. Open the “Colors” section.
5. Set the color to “Dark” in the “Choose your color” field.

As a result of these actions, the background of the start menu, the options window and the background of some applications will become dark.
Similarly, you can change the dark theme back to light. If you changed the theme color in the Registry Editor, then go into it again and delete the AppsUseLightTheme parameter or change its value to 1.

How to Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu

Windows 10 has made it much more convenient to work with the Start menu. Moreover, each user can adjust this menu to fit their needs. Unfortunately, most often users neglect this feature, while an optimally configured start menu can significantly increase the efficiency of working on a computer. How to change the appearance of the start menu?

• You can change the overall size of the Start menu by simply dragging the menu borders with the mouse.
• To resize a tile in the Start menu, right-click on it, select “Resize”, and choose the size you want.
• In the application list, click on any letter from the application list. In this case, the list of program names will be replaced by letters.
• To add a tile for any application to the Start menu, simply drag and drop it from the list of programs to the menu tiles area.
• To remove a tile, right-click on it and select “Delete”.
• Some tiles constantly change their content. To disable this effect, right-click on such a tile, select Advanced, and then click the “Disable Live Tiles” link.
• If the tiles in the Start menu annoy you, you can right-click to unpin them all and then reduce the size of the Start menu, making it look like the menus of previous versions of Windows.

This is not all the possibilities of modifying the Start menu. Customize it to your preferences, and it will become much more convenient for you to work.

Screen Recording Windows 10

Video recording of what is happening on the computer screen is often used in the creation of training videos. It is very convenient to record the screen in order to fix software errors for subsequent sending of the video to the developer. Often this function is used to record video games. In earlier versions of Windows, users had to use third-party software for this purpose. In Windows 10, this feature is included in the operating system and is called the Xbox Game Bar. Despite the fact that the functionality of this built-in application is limited, most often its capabilities are quite enough. So, how to use this screen capture tool?

1. Click the “Start” button and open the “Settings” section.
2. Open the “Gaming” block.
3. Open the Xbox Game Bar.
4. Set the screen recording function switch to the “On” position.
5. Press the key Windows+G to open the screen capture tool, or click the Start button and open the Xbox Game Bar app from the list of apps.
6. To record a video, click the “Start recording” button in the recording block.
7. In the upper right corner of the screen, you can see the status of the recording and its duration. Here you can stop recording video.

You can add sound to video while recording. To do this, click on the microphone icon in the “Capture” block. At the same time, do not forget to connect a microphone and give access to it in the security settings.
Captured videos are stored in the Video/Record folder. From can be opened directly from the Xbox Game Bar app. To do this, click on the “Show all captures” button in the “Capture” block.

All recordings are stored in mp4 format.

This application has some drawbacks. For example, video editing options are severely limited. It is also impossible to pause the recording.

Command Prompt in Windows 10

Command Prompt functionality has changed significantly in Windows 10. Now you can use the usual keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V in the command line to copy and paste text. There are several ways to run the command line.

1. Press Win+R keys. This will bring up the Run window. Type cmd in it. After clicking OK, a command prompt will open.
2. Use Windows Search. To do this, start typing the phrase “Command Prompt” in the search field. After that, the corresponding application will appear on the right side of the search window, which can be opened with a mouse click.
3. Open in Explorer folder C:\Windows\System32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 depending on which system is installed: 32-bit or 64-bit. In this folder, find the cmd.exe file and run it.

And this is not a complete list of ways to open the command line.

If you often use the console in your work, it is advisable to bring a shortcut to this application on the desktop. To do this, find the cmd.exe application in Explorer, as mentioned above, and right-click on it. Click “Create Shortcut” and bring it to your desktop.

After you start the command line, you can go to the settings for this application.

1. Right-click on the title of the application and open the “Properties” section.
2. On the “Settings” tab, check “Enable Ctrl key shortcuts”. After saving changes to the settings, you can use the shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste text on the command line.
3. In the same window, you can return to the previous version of the console by checking the box “Use legacy console.”

In the Command Line Properties, you can use many settings not only for the convenience of your work with the console. You can change the font, its color and size, change the background color and much more.

How to find out how much disk space is left

In previous versions of Windows, you had to use various applications to see what the disk was doing and how much space was left on it. In Windows 10, all this can be easily and quickly done using built-in tools.

1. From the Start menu, open the “Settings” section.
2. Open the “System” block.
3. In the window that opens, open the “Storage” section.
4. Select a drive to analyze.

As a result of this, the system will analyze the contents of the disk and issue a report in the form of a list of partitions sorted by decreasing space occupied. Here you can see which partitions are taking up the most space. Click on any of the sections and analyze which files and applications take up the most space.

The built-in disk content analysis function is very convenient when cleaning a disk in order to increase free space. In order to clean your computer of accumulated temporary and unnecessary files, you can use a PC cleaner specially designed for this purpose, as well as the built-in tools of the operating system.