Windows 10 The Missing Manual

767 Pages·2015·25.51 MB·English

by  David Pogue

Windows 10: The Missing Manual
David Pogue
Beijing • Boston • Farnham • Sebastopol • Tokyo
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The Missing Credits
About the Author
David Pogue (author, illustrator) wrote the weekly tech column for The New York Times for 13
years. In late 2013, he joined Yahoo to launch a new consumer tech site for non-techies:
yahootech.com.
He’s also a monthly columnist for Scientific American, a three-time Emmy-winning correspondent for
CBS News Sunday Morning, the host of four NOVA miniseries on PBS, and the creator of the Missing
Manual series. He’s written or cowritten over 80 books, including 38 in this series, six in the For
Dummies line (including Macs, Magic, Opera, and Classical Music), two novels (one for middle-
schoolers), and The World According to Twitter. In his other life, David is a former Broadway show
conductor, a magician, and a funny public speaker. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Nicki, and
three awesome children.
Links to his columns and videos await at www.davidpogue.com. He welcomes feedback about his
books by email at [email protected].
About the Creative Team
Julie Van Keuren (editor, indexer, layout) quit her newspaper job in 2006 to move to Montana and
live the freelancing dream. She and her husband, M.H.—who’s living the novel-writing dream—have
two teenage sons, Dexter and Michael. Email: [email protected].
Phil Simpson (design and layout) runs his graphic design business from Southbury, Connecticut. His
work includes corporate branding, publication design, communications support, and advertising. In
his free time, he is a homebrewer, ice cream maker, wannabe woodworker, and is on a few tasting
panels. He lives with his wife and four great felines. Email: [email protected].
Acknowledgments
The Missing Manual series is a joint venture between the dream team introduced on these pages and
O’Reilly Media. I’m grateful to all of them, and also to a few people who did massive favors for this
book.
First of all, I discovered the hard way that Windows 10 is a brand-new operating system; there’s very
little up-to-date, accurate information about it. My bacon was saved by Waggener Edstrom’s Greg
Chiemingo and his team, who patiently helped dig up answers to the tweakiest questions. The
Microsoft team members he corralled to assist included Marcus Ash and Mohammed Samji, and I
wouldn’t have known what I was talking about without them.
I also owe a debt of thanks to O’Reilly’s Nan Barber, who accommodated my nightmarish schedule
with grace; and proofreaders/helpers Kellee Katagi, Judy Le, Gretchen Tipps, and Nancy Young.
In previous editions of this book, I relied on the talents of several guest authors and editors; some of
their prose and expertise lives on in this edition. They include Mike Halsey, Brian Jepson, Joli
Ballew, C.A. Callahan, Preston Gralla, John Pierce, and Adam Ornstein.
Finally, a special nod of thanks to my squadron of meticulous, expert volunteer beta readers who
responded to my invitation via Twitter: Robin Chattopadhyay, Justin Higgins, Nora Buckley, Carlos
Cordera, Rev. Robert J. Kelley, Lim Thye Chean, Jerry Peek, Joel Taylor, Kasim Hassan, Ann Hyatt
Logan, Chris Rauchle, Thomas Kerber, Devin Sijan, Lou Fonolleras, Jon Colt, Cori Culp, Pete
Morey, Thabo Zijlstra, Jiayan Xiang, Bob Myrick, Shaun Orpen, Jeff Franklin, and Ralph Sanchez.
They’re the superstars of crowdsourcing, selfless and eagle-eyed, and they made the book a lot better.
Thanks to David Rogelberg for believing in the idea. Thanks, above all, to Nicki, my muse and my
love, and the three Poguelets: Kelly, Tia, and Jeffrey. They make these books—and everything else—
possible.
—David Pogue
Introduction
Even Microsoft admits it now: Windows 8 was a huge mistake. It was, in essence, two radically
different operating systems, superimposed (see Figure 1). There was the regular desktop, which
worked a lot like the popular Windows 7. And then, lying over it, there was a new, colorful world of
tiles and modern typography—I called it “TileWorld,” since Microsoft didn’t have a name for it—
that was designed for the new world of touchscreen tablets and laptops.
Unfortunately, the result was two Web browsers, two Control Panels, two mail programs, two ways
of doing everything. And, in general, people couldn’t stand it.
In hopes of getting as far away from Windows 8 as possible, Microsoft skipped Windows 9 entirely;
there never was a Windows 9. But now there’s Windows 10.
In this new operating system, Microsoft achieved something rather brilliant: It eliminated the split
personality of Windows 8 but managed to retain the touch-friendly features. Just in case, you know,
the world moves to touchscreen computers after all.
If you’re a PC veteran, then you’ll recognize Windows 10: It’s pretty much Windows 7 with a few
new features and nicer typography.
And if you’re relatively new to all this, then get down on your knees beside your bed tonight and
thank whatever you believe in that you were spared the emotional and mental whiplash of Microsoft’s
changing its mind.
What’s New in Windows 10
The most radical new feature of Windows 10 is that Microsoft doesn’t consider it a version of
Windows. Instead, it’s going to be a work in progress—a continuously improved, living blob of
software. The age of service packs—megalithic annual chunks of updates and patches—is over.
Instead, Microsoft intends to fix bugs (there are plenty) and add features continuously via quiet,
automatic software releases.
That should make life interesting for you, and miserable for people who write computer books.
Figure 1. Windows 8 and 8.1 offered two radically different environments, mashed together onto the same computer: the
standard desktop (top) and TileWorld (bottom).
But you have to start somewhere. So here’s the list of new features that came with the first download
of Windows 10:
The Start menu. It may have taken four years, but Microsoft finally realized the foolishness and
incoherence of the Start screen that, in Windows 8, replaced the Start menu.
In Windows 10, the Start menu is back, and it works pretty much just as it always has—but the
Windows 10 tiles are still here, attached to the right side of the menu (Figure 2).
Figure 2. In Windows 10, the right side of the Start menu offers what Microsoft calls live tiles; many of them display
useful information without your even having to click, like the weather, news, the latest Twitter tweets and email, and
your next calendar appointment.
The main thing is this: The Windows 10 Start menu doesn’t take over your entire screen,
interrupting what you were doing, like the Windows 8 Start screen did. It behaves, in other words,
like a menu.
NOTE
Meanwhile, a lot of conventions from the Windows 8 era are gone now. All that business about swiping in from the sides of the
screen? Gone. (Mostly.) Charms bar? Gone. App bar? Gone.
All apps work alike. In Windows 8, there were two kinds of programs: the traditional Windows
programs like Word, Excel, and Photoshop, and then a new kind designed for touchscreens. These
TileWorld apps had no menus. They had no windows, either—each one filled the entire screen.
They were available exclusively from Microsoft’s online Windows Store. They tended to be
simple in design and function. They were, basically, tablet apps.
They also meant that you had two different kinds of programs to learn.
In Windows 10, those tablet apps are still around. But they behave just like Windows apps, in that
they now float in their own windows. They still look a little different, and there’s still no good
name for them. But they’re a lot less confusing now. Some people may never even realize they’re
using a different class of app.
Cortana. You know Siri, the voice-activated “assistant” on the iPhone? Or Google Now on
Android phones? Well, Microsoft now has Cortana. Same exact idea, except it’s not just on your
phone—it’s on your PC, which takes its usefulness to a whole new level. (Cortana is also
available on your phone—Windows phones, of course, but even iPhone or Android phones.)
The Edge browser. Microsoft has retired the wrinkly old Internet Explorer browser and replaced
it with an all-new, bare-bones one called Edge. It’s designed to eat up very little screen space
with controls, so that the Web pages you’re reading get as much room as possible. (Internet
Explorer is still available.) See Chapter 10.
Task view. With one click on this new taskbar button, all your open windows shrink into index
cards (Figure 3), so you can see them all at once—a great way to find a program in a haystack.
Figure 3. In the new Task view, every app is represented by a card—and they don’t overlap. This way, you can’t lose a
window you need.
Virtual screens. You can now set up multiple “virtual monitors,” each with a certain set of
windows open. Maybe you like your email on screen 1, Facebook and Twitter on screen 2, and
graphics apps on screen 3. With a simple keystroke ( +arrow keys), you can bounce from one
simulated monitor to another.
New Settings app. In Windows 8, you had a minimal page of often-used settings for your PC
called Settings. And you also had the time-honored Control Panel, where you could change all
your settings.
In Windows 10, that logic has been flipped. The newly designed Settings app offers almost every
switch and slider you’ll ever need, in a clean, well-organized app. The old Control Panel is still
around, filed in a junk drawer somewhere, for the rare occasions when you need an obscure
option.
Action Center. This is a panel that pops out from the right side of the screen, listing all recent
notifications up top and, at the bottom, one-click buttons for on/off switches like Bluetooth, WiFi,
Battery Saver, and Airplane Mode. If you’ve used a Windows phone, or a Mac, you’ve seen this
effect before.
Snap four apps at once. Snapping a window, in Windows, means dragging it to the right or left
side of your screen, whereupon it snaps there as though magnetically, occupying exactly half the
screen. You can then snap a second app in the empty half of the screen.
In Windows 10, you can snap four windows. As a bonus, each time you snap an app, the remaining
apps shrink to index cards in the empty space, making it very easy to specify which one you want
to snap next.
Universal apps. Windows 10 is designed to look and work the same on every gadget that can run
Windows: PCs, tablets, and even phones. In fact, software companies can, if they wish, write their
apps in such a way that the same exact program runs on all three kinds of devices. You see the
same controls and the same features, auto-squished to whatever screen size you’re using. Word,
Excel, and Outlook are all universal apps.
Windows Hello (face or fingerprint login). Instead of typing a password every time you wake
your machine, you can just look at it. Windows Hello recognizes your face and logs you in,
without your ever having to touch the computer.
This feature works only on machines equipped with an Intel RealSense camera, which rules out
any pre-2015 computers. But Windows can also log you in with your fingerprint, if your machine
has a fingerprint reader. Or even your eyeball iris, once someone sells a computer with an iris
scanner.
Continuum (Tablet mode). If you own a convertible tablet—one with a detachable keyboard,
like one of Microsoft’s Surface tablets—then Windows 10 can do something very useful indeed.
When you take away the physical keyboard, Windows enters Tablet mode, in which everything is
bigger and more finger-friendly, each app fills the entire screen, and an onscreen keyboard pops
up automatically. More on Tablet mode in Chapter 13.
Xbox streaming. If you have an Xbox game console—downstairs in your living room, for
example—you can now play its games anywhere else in the house on your tablet or laptop. The
game’s audio and video are streamed from the console to you, wirelessly. The rest of the family
can watch TV in peace, completely unaware that you’re blissing out on Halo up in your office.
Rejiggered File Explorer. The basic desktop folder window—once called Windows Explorer,