Windows 10 Archives - Page 29 of 55

How to bypass the Logon screen and boot straight to the Desktop in Windows 10

Posted on August 23, 2020

By default, Windows 10 displays a Logon Screen requesting that you enter a password before it will finish booting up into Windows, and it will display this screen even if you haven’t created a password for your user account.

Dealing with the Logon Screen can be an unnecessary annoyance if you know you are the only person that will ever have access to your computer.

Luckily, Microsoft made it fairly easy to configure Windows 10 to skip the Logon Screen and have the machine boot straight to the Desktop. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Here’s the fastest way to shut down your PC in Windows 10

Posted on July 29, 2020

Those of us who use Windows have long been accustomed to having to make two or three mouse clicks just to shut down our PCs, but there is actually a much easier way…

Simply press the Power button!

Of course that doesn’t work by default on most systems because the Power button is typically programmed to place the PC into Sleep mode.

Luckily, it’s extremely easy to reprogram the Power button to shut the computer down instead of putting it to sleep. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Heads-up: Microsoft is preparing to remove the ‘Control Panel’ from Windows 10

Posted on July 7, 2020

The Windows Control Panel has been one of the most important parts of the operating system ever since Windows 1.0 was released way back in 1985.

But that’s about to change…

As you probably know, Microsoft has been migrating various settings from the Control Panel into Windows 10’s Settings app with every recent major Windows update, and that process is about to come to a conclusion.

[Read more…]

Q&A: How can I prevent Windows Update from automatically updating my computer’s hardware drivers?

Posted on June 25, 2020

Question from Paul: Back in 2013 I bought a custom built gaming PC from a guy I knew back then.

I’ve since lost contact with him (I think he moved out of state) and I can no longer ask him for help with things like this.

Anyway, this machine came with Windows 7 on it but I updated it to Windows 10 after Microsoft abandoned Windows 7.

Windows 10 works great on it, but ever since I installed Windows 10 the Windows Updates have been automatically installing new hardware drivers that keep causing the system to crash.

After almost every Windows Update is installed I have to manually reinstall the original hardware drivers from the CD to get the computer to stop crashing (glad I still have that CD!).

Is there any way to prevent Windows 10 from updating the hardware drivers every time it downloads and installs new updates to Windows? This is really frustrating!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it possible to hide a hard drive in Windows 10?

Posted on June 17, 2020

Question from Leta W.: I have an external USB hard drive that I use to back up all of my important files. I keep this drive plugged into the back of my PC, and it’s hidden from view.

My question is can I hide that drive from showing up in File Explorer?

My daughter uses this computer too, and I want to make sure she doesn’t wipe out any of my saved files on the external drive. This computer is running Windows 10.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]