5 helpful Home windows 11 options I remorse not utilizing sooner

I’ve used Windows 11 for years, but I am nonetheless shocked by how usually I discover new features I did not learn about earlier than. To be truthful, Home windows 11 is kind of a complete desktop working system with many customization options and settings, so it is easy to miss some useful instruments and options hidden in its menus.

Whether or not you are new to Home windows 11 or have been utilizing it for some time, these options I’ve not too long ago began using have considerably boosted my productiveness and improved how I handle my PC, and so they may do the identical for you, too. These options are constructed into Home windows 11 and can be found without spending a dime, so that you needn’t set up any further software program to start out utilizing them. My solely want is that I might discovered them earlier.

Clipboard historical past

Maintain monitor of every thing you have copied to your clipboard

The primary characteristic I need to spotlight known as Clipboard historical past. When you do quite a lot of copying and pasting every day — whether or not for messaging apps, emails, spreadsheets, or picture modifying — that is a simple approach to maintain monitor of every thing you have copied so you’ll be able to entry it later. I am unable to depend what number of instances I’ve copied a picture or hyperlink to incorporate in my notes or ship to somebody, solely to overlook to truly do it after which lose it. So, Clipboard historical past has been a lifesaver and a priceless productiveness device for copying a number of gadgets without delay with out dropping any of them.

Clipboard historical past is not enabled by default in Home windows 11, so to activate it, go to Settings > Clipboard and toggle on Clipboard historical past. After doing that, press Win + V (win is the Home windows key), and your Clipboard historical past will seem, permitting you to click on on something you have copied previously to recopy it. To clear your Clipboard historical past at any time, merely click on the Clear all button. If you wish to save a copied merchandise, click on the pin icon on it to pin it.

Storage sense

Routinely keep your gadget’s storage

Subsequent up is Storage Sense, a built-in Home windows 11 device that robotically frees up disk area in your system drive (the C: drive) with out deleting any necessary information. Storage Sense deletes gadgets reminiscent of short-term system information, information in your Recycle Bin, and previous Home windows set up information. What I like about Storage Sense is that it automates all these duties for you, eliminating the necessity to ever run Disk Cleanup manually. It is sensible, easy, and it helps maintain your PC freed from pointless information.

Relying in your PC setup, Storage Sense would possibly already be enabled however not configured. To show it on and alter the settings, go to Settings > Storage and toggle on Storage Sense. If you click on on Storage Sense, a menu with varied choices will seem, permitting you to customise when it runs and what it clears. By default, Storage Sense prompts solely when your system drive is low on area, however you’ll be able to change this to run weekly, every day, or month-to-month. I set mine to run as soon as a month as a result of I do not assume I am accumulating sufficient pointless information to justify every day or weekly runs.

Moreover, you’ll be able to configure it to robotically delete information out of your Recycle Bin. Once I checked mine, I nonetheless discovered information from 2024, so I set it to delete information from the bin after 60 days. It’s also possible to set Storage Sense to robotically delete information out of your Downloads folder as effectively, which is helpful for clearing out setup information you have in all probability downloaded for putting in apps and now not want.

Shake to attenuate

Tidy your desktop in seconds

This characteristic is a nifty one, and in case you have a behavior like mine of conserving a number of Chrome situations open without delay and operating a number of totally different applications concurrently, that is a simple approach to decrease all of them immediately to clear up your display. The characteristic known as “Title bar home windows shake,” and it lets you shake your presently lively window to attenuate every thing behind it.

This characteristic has been accessible on Home windows since Home windows 7, when it was first launched as Aero Shake. I’ve discovered it to be a helpful approach to tidy up my desktop and have some enjoyable. Sadly, it isn’t enabled by default in Home windows 11. To activate it, go to Settings > Multitasking and toggle on Title bar window shake. Then, simply seize any window you need to deal with, shake it, and all of the home windows behind it is going to be minimized, saving you the difficulty of minimizing every one individually. It is each a time-saver and enjoyable to make use of; what’s to not love?

You will want a mouse related to your laptop computer for this to work

If there’s one factor I always do on my PC, it is adjusting the system quantity, whether or not I am in a gathering, listening to music, watching a video, or enjoying a recreation. This lesser-known characteristic lets you alter the amount in your PC even sooner, while not having to press a button in your keyboard or open the fast settings menu.

All you must do is solely hover your mouse cursor over the amount icon in your system tray and scroll up or down to boost or decrease your PC’s quantity. That is it. It is easy, but I’ve discovered it to be the quickest approach to alter my system quantity on the fly. It is saved my eardrums a couple of instances when a video or music is all of the sudden performed at a particularly loud quantity. This characteristic ought to work by default with out enabling any settings. Nonetheless, in case you encounter points with it, or it isn’t working, the issue can doubtless be resolved by going to Settings > Bluetooth & units > Mouse and enabling Scroll Inactive Home windows When Hovering Over Them.

Enhanced Home windows Search

Discover any file in your PC sooner

Lastly, the final characteristic I like to recommend enabling is Enhanced Home windows Search. It has saved me quite a lot of time by serving to me discover information on my PC a lot sooner. By default, the Home windows Search index is ready to Traditional, which suggests Home windows Search solely seems to be for information in your Paperwork, Photos, and Music folders, in addition to your Desktop. So, in case you retailer information elsewhere in your PC, like on a secondary drive, Home windows Search will not discover them, which might be fairly irritating.

Fortunately, Enhanced Home windows Search fixes this downside as a result of enabling it permits Home windows Search to index all of the information in your PC, making the search characteristic really helpful. To do that in your PC, go to Settings > Privateness & Safety > Search > Discover my Information. From there, change the search index from Traditional to Enhanced. If you allow Enhanced, it can take a while for Home windows to index all of the information in your PC, particularly in case you have 1000’s of information, so it is advisable to be affected person because it does this. When you’re on a laptop computer, I like to recommend plugging it in, as a result of it could drain the battery whereas indexing.