15 Cool Windows 10 Tricks – See What You Can Do!

There are many cool Windows 10 tricks and things to do with it that many people don’t know.

We’re talking about things like playing with Cortana, using snap, tablet mode, the reminder system, and more. Do you want to learn more? Keep reading!

15 Cool Windows Tricks

Quick Navigation#1 – Play with Cortana#2 – Set Reminders without Touching#3 – Set Sticky Notes#4 – Use Rainmeter#5 – Customize Windows to your Preference#6 – Use Dark App Mode#7 – Snap your Windows#8 – Use Game Mode#9 – Play with DX 12#10 – Record your Gaming Sessions#11 – Use a Fingerprint Scanner#12 – Utilize your Quick Actions#13 – Use Tablet Mode#14 – Link your Phone#15 – Utilize your Virtual Desktops

#1 – Play with Cortana

Cortana was initially designed to be a virtual assistant, but there’s a playful side to the program as well.

She has an answer for almost every kind of question, including silly ones. You can ask her practically anything.

You can ask her to tell you jokes, riddles, or you can ask her personal questions, such as, “Who created you? How old are you? What do you think of Google? What do you think of me?”.

#2 – Set Reminders without Touching

As mentioned above, Cortana is a virtual assistant. She has many features to offer, and all you have to do is tell her what to do.

One of these cool Windows 10 tricks is the reminder system, which allows you to set reminders for pretty much anything using only your voice.

The best part about the reminder feature is that it significantly speeds up your productivity because you can speak much faster than you can type.

You can also use Cortana with your PC locked, which is one more way to boost your productivity.

To use Cortana with your PC locked, go to Settings -> Cortana -> Hey Cortana -> “Let Cortana Respond to “Hey Cortana” -> Lock Screen -> Use Cortana Even When my Device is Locked. 

#3 – Set Sticky Notes

Some people like to do things more traditionally, and that’s completely fine. The “Sticky Notes” feature of Windows allows you to write notes on what appears to be a piece of paper.

After typing your note, you can place it on your Desktop or bring it up at any time by just clicking on it.

To launch sticky notes, type “Notes” on your Windows search bar and the appropriate program should come up. After that, you can pin it to your taskbar and launch it at any time.

#4 – Use Rainmeter

When it comes to cool Windows 10 tricks, Rainmeter is the champion. It’s a 3rd party program that allows you to customize your Windows 10 desktop fully.

By looking at the above image, you can see how my taskbar is transparent and how I’m using a clock and calendar gadget. That’s only possible with 3rd party apps like Rainmeter.

#5 – Customize Windows to your Preference

Rainmeter is cool, but Windows 10 has its customization settings as well. Do make sure to check them out.

You can customize many of your settings: from your background image to your notification sounds and your mouse cursor.

These options can be found in Settings -> Personalization -> Themes. You can also customize other aspects of the program, such as your start menu, taskbar, lock screen, etc.

#6 – Use Dark App Mode

It is another of our favorite, cool Windows 10 tricks. It’s a customization option that changes your background color from white to black. It’s a beautiful change for using your computer in the dark, and it looks cool.

You can activate Dark App Mode by going to Settings -> Personalization -> Colours -> Choose your Default App Mode -> Dark.

#7 – Snap your Windows

Windows allows you to correctly place your open applications next to each other by dragging them to the edge of your screen.

You can place a window to the left/right part of your screen or the corners of it. You can see an example of this in the above image where I snapped Chrome to the right side of the screen and my hardware information on the left.

#8 – Use Game Mode

Game mode is a feature that comes pre-installed with Windows 10. It has the purpose of improving game performance by focusing your PC resources on the game that’s currently running.

Do keep in mind, however, that only low-end PC users mentioned a performance increase. For the rest of us, Game Mode seems to decrease our gaming performance instead of improving it though I’m not yet sure why that is.

#9 – Play with DX 12

DX 12, or Direct X 12, is the latest API for handling gaming. And guess what? Only Windows 10 supports this version. So, why not take advantage of it?

All you have to do is keep your GPU, and Windows 10 drivers updated, then launch your game and select DX 12 as the rendering program. DX 12 will give you every bit of performance that you can get from your computer.

However, do keep in mind that most games do not support DX 12 yet, and the same goes for a lot of GPUs.

#10 – Record your Gaming Sessions

Speaking of gaming, did you know that one of the cool Windows 10 tricks is that it allows you to record your gaming sessions by default?

All you have to do to enable it is go to Settings -> Gaming -> Game Bar, Record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game bar.

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You can bring up the Game bar by holding down your Windows + G keys. Then, you can click on “record that,” and Windows will start recording.

#11 – Use a Fingerprint Scanner

Windows Hello is another of the very cool Windows 10 tricks. It allows you to unlock your computer by using biometric features, such as your face or your fingerprints.

As you can see in the image above, my device doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner. If yours doesn’t either,  you can order a USB fingerprint scanner online.

To enable the scanner, go to Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in Options -> Windows Hello. 

#12 – Utilize your Quick Actions

Windows 10 now has a notification bar. At the bottom of the bar, there are a few shortcuts for various functions of your computer. It is known as “Quick Actions”.

You have various options on what to add. You can check these options out by going to Settings -> System -> Notifications and Actions -> Add or Remove Quick Actions. 

#13 – Use Tablet Mode

Tablet mode is for touchscreen displays, but you are free to use it on your regular desktop as well.

It’s not the most productive option there is, but it’s still fun to play with it and to be honest, I quite like the UI that it offers.

The easiest way to turn Tablet Mode on and off is through the quick actions that the notification bar offers. You can learn how to add that option in the section above.

#14 – Link your Phone

Linking your phone to your Windows 10 device will allow you to resume any tasks that you started on your phone or computer from the connected device.

For example, if you were reading an article on your phone and then wanted to read the rest on your desktop or laptop, you could keep reading right where you left off.

To link your phone, go to Windows Settings -> Phone -> Add a Phone.

#15 – Utilize your Virtual Desktops

The last of our cool Windows 10 tricks is for multi-taskers. Virtual desktops allow you to split your working environment into multiple parts. It’s quite a helpful feature if you have a lot of different things to do on your computer.

Another way to use a virtual desktop is to split your working environment from your entertainment environment.

For example, say that you’ve got a project to take care of, but, at the same time, you would like to chat on Facebook and set some music playing on YouTube.

Doing all of these on a single screen can quickly make your display messy, so that’s how two virtual desktops can help you.

You can keep the apps that you need for your project on one virtual desktop and the apps that you need for listening to music and chatting on Facebook on another virtual desktop.

You can open your virtual desktop by either using the “task view” button on your taskbar or by holding down your Windows Key + Tab.

Further Reading

Ultimate Windows 10 Tricks and Hacks

20 Tips to Speed up Windows 10 Performance

George

Just another average person, living an average life. Which, by the way, mostly revolves around art and gaming.