Windows 10 customization tips

The Windows 10 operating system provides ample opportunities for its users. At the same time, it has no global differences from previous versions of Windows. Partly for this reason, many users, when switching to Windows 10, automatically use the already familiar system functions and do not pay attention to the new features. In addition, Windows 10 updates often add something new to existing features, and these innovations also go unnoticed. Additional features of the operating system make working on the computer more convenient and efficient, so they should not be ignored.
How to customize Windows 10 lock screen
How to set pin code on Windows 10
How to customize Start menu Windows 10
How to change Calendar in Windows 10
How to change mouse settings in Windows 10

How to customize Windows 10 lock screen

The lock screen is the first thing a user sees when starting to work on a computer. This feature existed in previous versions of Windows, but it has been further developed in the Windows 10 operating system. The lock screen is not only a pretty picture. It can also display the current date, time, notifications from some applications, such as email, and much more.

How do I put my own picture on the lock screen? Windows 10 offers a lot of pretty pictures by default, but if you want to install something of your own, it’s not difficult.

  1. From the Start menu, open “Settings” or press the Win + I keyboard shortcut.
  2. Open the “Personalization” section.Windows 10 lock screen
  3. Select “Lock Screen”.
  4. The default setting for “Background” is “Windows Spotlight”. Click on the arrow at the end of this field and select “Picture” from the menu that appears.windows 10 lock screen settings
  5. Below there will be a block with photos that you can set on the lock screen. Choose any of them. Here you can add any picture stored on your computer to the screen. To do this, click the “Browse” button. change lock screen windows 10

You can use the Photos app to set your favorite picture as your lock screen pattern. To do this, open the picture you like in the “Photos” application and click on the three dots in the upper left corner of the program. In the menu that opens, select “Install as”, and then open the sub-item “Install on lock screen”.

These actions allow you to place the current image as the background of the lock screen.

If the background setting is “Windows Spotlight”, different photos from the Internet will periodically change on the lock screen. Its peculiarity is that you can train this service so that you are shown pictures of the subject of your interest. In the upper right corner of the lock screen, find the question “I Like it!”, Click on it and select the desired answer. Over time, more and more pictures will appear on the lock screen that you should like.

In the same block, you can set up a slideshow of pictures that appear on the lock screen. To do this, select the appropriate menu item and specify the path to the folder with images that will alternate on the screen.

In the “Lock screen” section, you can also specify the application, the status of which will be given detailed information. As a rule, “Calendar” is set here by default. To add another program, in these settings, click on the name of the default application and select the program whose detailed status you want to display on the lock screen. windows 10 change lock screen
In the block below this section, you can select applications to display brief information about their status. For example, information about received emails, Skype messages, weather forecast, and so on. Unlike the previous paragraph, you can select several of them.

If you don’t want notifications from your apps to be visible to strangers, you can turn off these notifications.

  1. Open your computer settings with the Win + I keyboard shortcut.
  2. Go to the “System” section.change windows lock screen
  3. Open “Notifications & Actions”.
  4. In the “Get notifications from apps and other senders” field, click the toggle button to Off. Windows lock screen settings

In the “Lock Screen” section, you can also choose whether to display the same pattern on the PC login screen as on the lock screen. By default, the computer is turned on to match these pictures. You can turn it off using the switch in the “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” field. Set lock screen windows 10
If you set the switch to “Off”, the login screen will display the background from the set Personalization settings pattern.

How to set pin code on Windows 10

The Windows 10 operating system offers its users several ways to sign in. For example, it could be entering a password, scanning a fingerprint, recognizing a face, or logging in with a PIN. For home computers, the most commonly used method is using a pin code.

After the user installs the Windows 10 operating system on his computer and enters his account data, the system will prompt him to create a pin code, and there will be no “Cancel” button on the PC screen. However, later on, the PIN can be deleted in the computer settings, if necessary.

Some users mistakenly think that a PIN is a substitute for a password. In fact, this is not the case, because without knowing the password, you cannot create a PIN code. Entering a PIN is easier than entering a password, especially if the password is complex. However, Windows 10 does not allow creating too simple PIN codes. For example, you cannot use in this capacity a sequence where the difference between adjacent digits is always the same, such as 2222 or 5432. Please note that in the pin code you can use not only numbers, but also other symbols.

A feature of this method of protecting a PC from unauthorized access is that the PIN code is tied to a specific device, while the password is transmitted over the network and is applied to all devices using the same Microsoft account.

How to set up a PIN code in Windows 10 if it was not generated during the installation of the operating system?

  1. Open computer settings by pressing Win + I keys. You can use the “Start” menu for this purpose.
  2. Go to the “Accounts” section.How to change pin code windows 10
  3. Open “Sign-in Options” and look for “Windows Hello PIN”.How to change windows 10 pin code
  4. Enter your Microsoft account password.
  5. Come up with a PIN code and enter it twice. The code must contain at least 4 digits. You can add other symbols to the pin code by checking the “Include letters and symbols” option. How to change pin code in windows 10

If you forget your PIN code, you can restore it by clicking on the link “I forgot my PIN”, which is located on the lock screen just below the field for entering the PIN code. Then you will need to enter the password for your account and confirm that you are not a robot. After that, you should specify the phone number to which the SMS with the recovery code will be sent, or type the email address to which the email with the recovery code will be sent.

If you have forgotten your PIN code, but you have the opportunity to log into your computer, open the “Settings” section, go to the “Accounts” section and go to the “Sign-in Options” section. Open the “Windows Hello PIN” entry and look for the “Remove” and “Change” buttons and “I forgot my PIN”. How to turn off pin code on windows 10
When you click on this inscription, a window will appear informing you that the code should be reset only if it is forgotten or lost. Click the “Next” button, reset the pin code and enter a new combination of numbers and symbols.

How do I change my PIN? If your PIN code is recognized by unauthorized persons, or you want to replace it with a more complex password, this is easy to do. Click on the “Windows Hello PIN” entry under “Sign-in” options. After that, the “Change” button will appear. Click on it. As a result of these actions, a window “Change your PIN” with three input fields will appear. In the first field, enter the current pin code, and in the other two, write a new combination of numbers and symbols. After pressing the “OK” button, the pin code will be changed.

How to remove a pin code? Next to the “Change” button is the “Remove” button. Click on it. After that, a window will appear with a warning about the consequences of removing the pin code. Once again click on the “Remove” button in this window, and then enter the password for your Microsoft account and click “OK”. After these actions, the pin code will be deleted.

Why use a PIN code instead of a password for your computer logon account? First of all, because it provides greater security, since it only acts on your computer and is not stored on Microsoft servers. Even if someone steals your PIN, they will not be able to log into your account from any device other than your computer.

You can use a very complex password to log into your account, which is rather difficult to enter every time you unlock your computer. Using a trusted PIN code easily solves this problem.
Please note that using a PIN is not possible when connecting to a remote desktop and when starting the computer in safe mode. In such cases, only the standard password can be used.

How to customize Start menu Windows 10

The Windows 10 operating system has a very convenient and beautiful “Start” menu. However, the user, if desired, has the ability to customize it in accordance with his preferences.

  1. Change the color of the “Start” menu. To change the background and text color in the “Start” menu, open the “Settings” section and select “Personalization” (or right-click on an empty desktop field and select “Personalization”). In the window that opens, open the “Colors” section. How to customize Start menu Windows 10
    Here you can select the background color, transparency, element colors. Please note that in this case, the colors will change not only in the “Start” menu, but also in other elements of the system.
  2. Customize tiles in the “Start ” menu. On the right side of the “Start ” menu are items called tiles. You can modify these tiles, remove them, or add new ones. To do this, right-click on the tile and select the desired action.How to customize windows 10 start menu
    To create a new tile, find the selected application on the left side of the “Start” menu and right-click on it. In the menu that appears, find the “Pin to Start Screen” item. The same result can be obtained by right-clicking on the name of a program or folder in Explorer or on a shortcut on the desktop. If you don’t need any tiles at all and want the “Start” menu to look like it did in earlier versions of Windows, remove all tiles, and then move your mouse to resize the “Start” menu window to the usual size.
  3. Personalization of the “Start” menu. In order to make additional menu settings, go to the computer settings, open the “Personalization” section and select “Start”. Then on the right side, set the options you want . How to customize start menu

These are just a few of the options for customizing the Start menu to suit your preferences. Regular updates to Windows 10 often add new features to make changes to the standard Start menu to make it easier and more efficient to use it.

How to change Calendar in Windows 10

Many new features have been added to the Windows 10 Calendar: the user can now create their own events, meetings, in addition, the Calendar is interconnected with e-mail, and information from the Calendar can be displayed in the mailbox. Using the Calendar, you can check the weather forecast, create tasks and reminders.

How do I customize the Calendar myself?

  1. From the “Start” menu, find the “Calendar” app and open it.
  2. Go to the Calendar settings by clicking on its settings icon at the bottom of the window.How to change Calendar in Windows 10
  3. Set the required Calendar settings, which can be seen on the right side of the window. For example, here you can change the background of the Calendar, the first day of the week, the start and end times of the work day, and much more. Windows 10 calendar app
  4. Synchronize your Calendar with your user account in the “Manage Account” section of the menu.

The calendar can be printed. To do this, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the Calendar and select “Print” in the menu that appears.

How to change mouse settings in Windows 10

The convenience and efficiency of working with it depends on how the computer mouse is configured. For normal operation of this device, it is often enough just to connect it to a PC or laptop. However, in some cases, the user may not be satisfied with the speed at which the cursor moves or, for example, the speed at which a double click is performed. In such cases, it is necessary to make additional configuration of the device.

To open the mouse settings, use the “Start” menu to open the computer settings and find the “Devices” block. Select “Mouse” from the menu on the left. Mouse speed windows 10
The main mouse settings will open on the right side of the window. Here you can select which button will be the main one, use the slider to set the desired cursor speed, the number of lines scrolled by the mouse wheel at a time, and so on.

If these parameters are not enough for the desired mouse settings, in the upper right corner of the main mouse settings window open the “Additional mouse options” section. In the block that appears, you can make many other device settings. Windows 10 change mouse sensitivity
To adjust the mouse sensitivity, open the “Pointer Options” tab in the Advanced Options window and move the slider left or right until the optimal speed is achieved. This parameter will determine how fast the cursor will move, which is important, for example, in games or office work. Cursor settings windows 10
Many actions on the computer are performed by double-clicking the left mouse button. The speed of this click can also be adjusted. To do this, go to the “Buttons” tab and move the slider in the “Double-click speed” block to the desired side. Cursor speed windows 10
You can also change the usual cursor to something else. To do this, go to the “Pointers” tab and select the desired type of cursor. You can even choose your own picture as a guide. To do this, click on the “Browse” button and specify the path to the selected image. Change mouse settings windows 10
Unfortunately, Windows 10 does not have settings for so-called gaming mice with extra buttons. However, these devices are most often sold with discs that contain programs for customizing the gaming mouse. This software can also be downloaded from the website of the manufacturers or developers of these devices.

So, the new functions and features of the Windows 10 operating system make this system very convenient to use on computers of any capacity. If your Windows 10 computer starts to run slower than usual, be sure to check it for viruses, and then get rid of unnecessary files using special PC cleaner.