Mention the words “Windows 11” to any tech-savvy person these days, and you’ll get either an eye roll or a brief shrug that’s physically the same as uttering “Meh.” It has not won over the masses, to say the least. Many feel it doesn’t do anything better than Windows 10 while offering a new interface that repels Windows diehards.
Thankfully, many changes can be reversed or tweaked to make the OS easier to use, and we’re here to walk you through them. You’ll also want to look at some cool new features. Here are our top Windows 11 tips.
1. Restore Your Right-Click Options
One of Microsoft’s most infuriating changes to Windows 11 is the redesigned right-click menus. The company removed most previously available options from the default view to make it more compact. However, it did keep the full list of options around. It moved them one layer deeper in the UI, forcing you to click “Show More Options” to see it.
The new simplified right-click menu is the bane of our existence. Thankfully, it’s easy to get the old one back.
Credit: Microsoft
Some of us have to use this every time we right-click, which is highly annoying. Thankfully, there’s a way to revert to the old menu permanently. All it involves is adding an entry to the registry via the command line. Here’s what you must do to get the old right-click menus back via Microsoft:
To see the changes, reboot your PC or restart File Explorer. You can restart it by killing it in Task Manager, then clicking “Run new task” and typing “explorer.exe” in the window without quotes.
2. Customize Your Quick Settings
If you glance at the System Tray in Windows 11, you’ll notice a small “gear” icon next to it, along with the icon for your speakers. A menu pops up if you click the icon, giving you quick access to frequently toggled items. It’s like a control panel on your smartphone. The options let you cast your screen, change Wi-Fi networks, enable Airplane mode, and more.
Many of these seem more relevant to mobile users, though, which might be your cup of tea. On the desktop, they’re not so helpful. Thankfully, you can remove most of them or add ones not currently shown. Click the gear and the “pencil” icon to customize the menu to your heart’s content.
You can quickly change your, uh, quick settings here.
Credit: Windows
3. Use the Xbox Game Bar
Don’t be like your humble author and ignore this feature if you don’t have an Xbox. It’s incredibly useful and something that has been missing from gaming for ages. It’s a built-in toolbar for gaming that drops down from the top of the screen when you press Windows + G. The most valuable feature, in this PC gamer’s opinion, is it provides a moveable, transparent overlay on the screen showing your CPU, GPU, VRAM, and system RAM usage, along with your current frames-per-second as well.
Yes, you could previously use MSI Afterburner for this, but you had to download, run, and configure the software to do it, and that’s a bridge too far for many. Plus, it’s stuck in the corner of your game, which is not always an ideal location to glance at.
The Xbox Game Bar is actually quite useful for PC gaming, despite its name.
Credit: Microsoft
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the Game Bar. You can also use it to adjust your audio settings, snap a screenshot or record your gameplay, view your current system resources, and chat with Xbox friends (supposedly, as we did not test last this feature). Our favorite is each of the modules (performance, resources, audio, capture, etc.) can be pinned to the desktop and made transparent. If you have a big monitor, you can easily stash them on the edges of your game and keep tabs on what your PC is doing without them getting in the way. And of course, make sure Game Mode is enabled under Settings -> Gaming > Game Mode for maximum performance and no interruptions about updates.
4. Use Multiple Desktops
This is a returning feature from Windows 10, but it’s been upgraded. To use it, you need to enable the Task View icon in your taskbar (Settings -> Personalization -> Taskbar). Click it to add a new desktop. You can then easily switch between them by hovering over the icon and selecting the desktop you want to use.
You can setup one desktop with work apps, and another with apps that are more for after work.
Credit: Josh Norem
What makes this feature great is that you can easily separate your preferred apps for work and not work, and quickly swap them when needed. New for Windows 11, you can also change the wallpaper for each desktop to make it easier to identify at a glance. Whatever theme you’ve selected will be applied across the board, though.
5. Tweak Your Privacy Settings
We’ve always worried about third parties tracking us as we use our computers. But in Windows 11, Microsoft has become the tracker (insert Captain Phillips meme here). The company has begun touting that the more it’s aware of your activities, the more it can personalize suggestions, ads, and the overall experience. It’s similar to the line companies like Facebook use, where they say they can only serve you relevant ads if they know what apps you’re using.
It makes sense, sure—but that doesn’t mean we have to like it or even allow it. Thankfully in Windows 11, you can disable these settings. First, head to Settings and click Privacy & Security > General. From there, you can disable all the settings below, as they will serve you ads from Microsoft.
Turn this crap off ASAP.
Credit: Microsoft
Next, click back to Privacy & Security and go to Diagnostics & Feedback. In this box, Microsoft says it is required to collect data on you to keep your Windows 11 PC “secure, up to date, and working as expected.” Sadly, there’s no way to opt out of this, but at the bottom is a box that should be unchecked if you care about privacy. It lets Microsoft uses your diagnostic data (excluding website traffic) to show you personalized tips, ads, and recommendations. You can safely turn this off.
Sorry Microsoft, but we don’t need our experience to be “enhanced” with ads.
Credit: Microsoft
6. Try Out Live Captions
Microsoft has added Live Captions to Windows 11 for videos. It’s a neat feature, if not consistently accurate. By default, the captions appear in a bar on the top of your display, but you can change its location and have it appear as a floating box. Although you might expect it to work only with Microsoft’s media player or Edge browser, it works with almost anything, including Google Chrome and VLC.
Live Captions also work in Chrome as well.
Credit: Microsoft/Colonel Nathan Jessup
For people with hearing impairments, it also works in games that don’t offer subtitles. A Redditor discovered this cool trick, and the thread notes there are some caveats for games. The biggest is it doesn’t work in full-screen mode, only windowed mode. It also has a slight delay, as it has to hear the words before transcribing them, so there can’t be any music playing in the background. It’s only in English and struggles with music videos where people are screaming/growling (sorry, metal fans).
Still, if you find a game that doesn’t offer subtitles, it’s worth a shot.
7. Try Focus Mode
You don’t need to be a writer on deadline all day to appreciate the new Focus mode in Windows 11. It was rolled out with the 22H2 Windows update, and it’s a great way to shut the outside world out for a bit and get some work done. You can enable a session by going to Settings -> System -> Focus and clicking Start Focus Session.
Once enabled, your PC will go into Do Not Disturb mode for the allotted time. Apps in the taskbar will not flash when notifications arrive, and badge notifications in the taskbar will also be disabled.
You can also add Spotify to your Focus timer.
Credit: Microsoft
Once it begins, an on-screen timer appears in the corner. It includes a built-in notification for when you need to take a break, which is on a 20-minute timer by default. You can add Spotify to the app to listen to music while working. Additionally, the app lets you add various tasks from Microsoft To Do.
8. Move the Start button Back to the Left Corner
The above list of Windows 11 tips is a collection of features you should check out when first using the OS. There are several other pitstops we believe every Windows 11 user should make, but these last three tweaks are subjective, so you might not want to do any of them. Regardless, these are the things we’d change immediately upon first booting Windows 11.
First up is the Start button. By default, it’s in the center now, and we hate it. To move it back, go to Settings -> Personalization -> Taskbar. Under Taskbar Behaviors, you can change the location of the Start Menu.
Back to where you belong.
Credit: Microsoft
9. Experiment With Dark Mode
Though it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, we appreciate Dark mode since Light mode is too bright for our tastes, so don’t skip this new feature in Windows 11. To fiddle with it, click Settings -> Personalization -> Colors and enable it under “Choose Your Mode.” Click Custom to adjust it the way you prefer.
You can choose light, dark, or a blend.
Credit: Microsoft
10. Boost Your Power (Settings)
Microsoft hasn’t really figured out where to put this collection of options. As a result, in Windows 11, power settings exist in three different locations. Go into Settings -> System -> Power to start, but the most important ones are still in Control Panel.
But even when you go to Control Panel -> Power Options, you must click “Change Plan Settings” and then “Change Advanced Power Settings.” You’ll see a box that looks like it’s from Windows XP. In that window, you can customize your power settings at a granular level, whether you prefer maximum performance on a desktop PC or want your laptop to sip battery.
The control panel is still where you can make granular changes to power settings.
Credit: Microsoft
For more, read How to Speed Up Your Slow Computer.
