Best Windows 11 Tips and Tricks

Clean up your Windows 11 PC

Local Accounts on Windows 11

Most tech giants and corporations are infamous for trying to coerce the consumer to use their ecosystem trying to lock them in it. With the advent of Windows 11, Microsoft notoriously requires the user to set up a new Microsoft account. For many users, this may be an unreasonable requirement, considering Windows 11 already costs upwards of $100 and yet it ships with a lot of preinstalled apps and is always prying on the user with unnecessary telemetry. Here is a way to bypass it and make a local account, similar to Windows 10. 

Step 1: Disconnect all forms of internet connection to the device during setup

Step 2: Press Shift + F10 to launch the Command Prompt. Then type in the command taskmgr to launch the task manager.

Step 3: Now scroll down and find Network Connection Flow. End this task.

Step 4: Close Command Prompt and Task Manager. Windows skips the step requiring logging into a Microsoft Account. 

Make a local account as you normally would and continue with the setup. 

Debloating Windows 11

Windows is infamous for bundling bloat, unnecessary software on Home editions. This can be a hassle for many users, especially for people running low spec machines, as it can slow down their machines. Fortunately, a developer with the username builtbybel created a user-friendly tool called ThisIsWin11. (https://dgit.in/thisiswin11). This makes it easy for users to uninstall several useless packages and has some other nifty features. Install ThisIsWin11 from the releases on the Github page. Here are some handy features included in it.

Disabling Unnecessary Features

Under the customized windows 11 tab, users can remove the services they don’t need or desire. Under each section, there are features that the user can tailor according to their needs.

Uninstalling Useless Packages

Under the PumpedApp section, the user can remove Windows 11 packages that aren’t needed. The most efficient way to do this would be to move all packages to the recycle bin and then carefully select the packages that are needed back to the left column as per use case (Eg, Gamers would want to move all Xbox-related packages to the left column). However, ThisIsWin11 does not purge packages necessary for Windows to function, so it is entirely safe even if all packages are purged.

Quick Install Required Packages

It also provides a one-tap solution to install all necessary applications, which the users can choose and run an installer for all of them at once. It curates a plethora of applications that are a necessity and are widely used, like Slack, Steam, Anydesk etc.

Running Scripts Easily

To remove preinstalled apps, it includes some nifty scripts that you just have to select and press a button to run. It includes tasks like bypassing edge from being the default handler of web services, removing default apps and cleaning windows of useless storage.

O&O Shutup10++

Windows gives you full control over data telemetry and unnecessary functions, giving you full control over which functions you want to use and when the data sharing goes too far.

Customising Windows 11

Bringing back the old context menu

Let’s face it. Nobody likes the new context menu that the Windows 11 update brings. It’s just bloated and it’s Microsoft’s way of pushing its features over 3rd party apps’ features. A simple and the best example of this is that Microsoft does not allow 3rd party apps in the main context menu. Hence, a simple right click isn’t gonna bring the functionality like Windows 10. You need to click on “Show More Options” to get the FULL context menu.

We were tired of doing that and we just did not want to make it a muscle memory to click for the second time. After all, the less clicks, the better, right? Well, fortunately, some talented developers thought about this too and decided to do something about it. Head on over to this website (Download Win11 Classic Context Menu v1.1). The zip file will begin downloading automatically. Once it’s done downloading, extract it into a folder.

Run the “Win11ClassicMenu.exe” and choose the style and formatting of the context menu to your liking.

Remember to click on “Restart Explorer” so that the changes are reflected instantly. 

Tinkering With The Taskbar.

In our time with Windows 11, we have developed a love-hate relationship with the taskbar. At first, we hated it. It was just too drastic of a change from the humble and simple Windows 10 taskbar. 

If you’re a classic Windows fanboy, you will NEED to have the icons aligned to the left. Well, thankfully it is really easy to do. If you haven’t figured it out yet, head on over to Settings –> Personalization –> Taskbar Alignment – and change that option to “Left”. Boom. Now you have every app to the left side just as it was since the beginning of time.

Now, you may be a part of that niche group who just isn’t satisfied with moving their icons left or right. You need more. You need full control! Well, we’re here to quench the thirst of customisation too. Allow us to introduce RoundedTB and TaskbarX.

RoundedTB is free to download and use and you can get it from Microsoft Store however, TaskbarX is a paid app if you get it from the Microsoft Store. If you’re willing to download it from the developer’s website – (https://dgit.in/taskbarx) you won’t have to pay a dime.

RoundedTB is a simple app to use. It allows you to change the way that the Taskbar looks but by adding margins and borders to it. Install the app and open it. 

If you play around with the “Border Radius” slider, you’ll essentially get a more “curved” taskbar. If you play with the “Margin” slider you’ll be able to control the thickness of the taskbar. Here’s a screenshot of the taskbar with both of those sliders (almost) maxed out so that you get the idea of what we’re talking about.

Another feature that is implemented in the app which is exclusive to Windows11 is the “split” taskbar mode. This will essentially make the taskbar more like a “dock” than a “bar”.  Click on the “advanced” button and turn on “Dynamic Mode”.

As you can see above, this will make the taskbar transparent on the places where no icons are placed hence making it look like a dock. The reason why it’s called Dynamic Mode is because the transparent area will resize itself based on the number of apps present in the taskbar.

TaskbarX

While RoundedTB changes the look and feel of the taskbar, TaskbarX changes how you interact with your taskbar. By default, Windows allows you to only position your icons to left or centre but with TaskbarX you can have your icons wherever you want. You can even control the finer details such as where an icon would show up if it’s added or removed. 

After you’re done installing TaskbarX, open up the “TaskbarX Configurator.exe”

From here, you can control each and every little aspect of your taskbar. You can give it a gradient, or make it completely transparent or even translucent!

If you navigate to the other menus like Animations, Position, etc. to customise your taskbar as per your liking. We personally like to play around with the Animations tab and make our own custom animation for the taskbar popping in and out.

Theming Your Start Menu

Start Menu is an integral part of Windows and it almost goes hand in hand with Windows. Microsoft replaced the Start Menu entirely with Windows 8 and that caused a lot of backlash from the community. They finally had to bring it back in Windows 8.1 and the iconic Start Menu has been the same ever since. But, Microsoft decided to revamp the Start Menu completely in Windows 11 giving it a more app-centric approach and, of course, that didn’t bode well with some people. 

Some people decided to give a revamp to the Start Menu while giving the user the ability to customise and change every aspect of it. We’re here with ValliStart – Your Start Menu Replacement and trust us, you’ll love it.

To install ValiiStart, you first need to install Rainmeter from (https://dgit.in/rainmeter) . After downloading and installing, it will place some widgets by default on your Desktop. You can remove them by right clicking them and clicking on “unload skin”.

After you’ve removed all of them, head on over to this site: https://dgit.in/vallistart . Click the download button. You will need to have an account on this site to download stuff from it. If you don’t then just simply make one and you’ll be all set.

Once you’ve downloaded the file, click on it and an installer should pop up. Just hit “Install” and you’ll be set (almost).

After that, you’ll be prompted to install JaxCore from this screen. Just follow the on-screen instructions for it and you’ll be good to go.

If all went well, you should end up with this screen in front of you.

Scroll down till you find the option of “ValliStart” and click on it. The first thing you have to do here is go to General > Customize how to activate ValliStart > (click) Separate Module. This ensures that if you press the Windows key you’ll get the regular start menu and if you press Win+Q you’ll get ValliStart. There’s also an option to override the Start key so that only ValliStart shows up but we found that to be a bit buggy. Now, return from that screen to go to the homepage.

From here, you can customise LITERALLY each and every aspect of the new Start Menu down to the Windows Logo in the Start Menu.

After doing some tinkering, this picture on the right is the final result that we came up with. In our honest opinion, it looks a heck of a lot better than the stock Start Menu.

Miscellaneous Tips

New Shortcut Keys

Windows + A

It opens the new Windows quick settings menu instead of the action centre

Windows + N

Opens the calendar and notifications menu

Windows + Alt + Up Arrow / Down Arrow

Snaps a window to the upper or lower half of the screen

Windows + K

It opens the wireless screencast menu

Windows + H

Launches voice type feature which allows the users to dictate in a text field.

Quality of Life additions

1. Twinkle Tray

Twinkle Tray makes it simple to control the brightness of many displays.

This programme adds a new icon to your system tray that you may click to have rapid access to all compatible displays’ brightness levels. These brightness sliders can change the brightness of one or all displays at the same time, making it very handy for users with multiple monitors. It also allows users to bind hotkeys for lowering or increasing brightness and also provides automating brightness levels depending on the time of the day. Combined with automating the night light feature, provides for a solid setup for the user.

2. Modern Flyouts

Modern flyouts is a simple Microsoft store app the overrides the default volume and brightness flyouts with more customisable and modern looking flyouts that fit in with the UI design philosophy of Windows11. It allows the user to change its behaviour in terms of look and functionality from the theming to the timeout period and what kind of flyouts the user wants to customise and change. 

3. Files

Files is an alternative file explorer available on the windows store with a cleaner UI and more functionality, including long demanded features like tabs, a separate section for WSL and seamless integration with cloud storage. It also has a simple setting toggle to make it the default file explorer without having the user go to the registry editor and changing keys in it, making it extremely user friendly. With its user-friendliness, it is a great alternative to traditional windows explorer. 

4. PowerToys

Windows Powertoys is a bundle of experimental yet nifty features developed by Microsoft which enhances and streamlines the user experience in many ways. It includes features like a Universal Color Picker, Apple spotlight like search utility called Powertoys Run, its own implementation of snapping windows called Fancy Zones and many more. It’s a completely open-source project giving users the ability to contribute and add their own features. 

5. Notepads App

Notepads app aims to be a modern, minimalist and lightweight notepad app. It has a built-in tab system with a very modern UI unlike the traditional Notepad app on windows or even Notepad++ which has been a popular alternative choice amongst users. 

Authors – Kshipra Jadav and Omang Baheti

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Kshipra Jadav