Windows 10 Portable Genius

Paul McFedries is a full-time technical writer. Paul has been authoring computer books since 1991, and he has more than 100 books to his credit. Paul's books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. These books include the Wiley titles Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows 11, Second Edition, Teach Yourself VISUALLY Microsoft 365, Second Edition, Google Workspace For Dummies, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for Dummies. Paul invites you to drop by his personal website at https://paulmcfedries.com and to follow him on X @paulmcf and on Facebook at https://facebook.com/PaulMcFedries.

• Acknowledgments iiiIntroduction xChapter 1 How Do I Customize Windows? 2Working with Settings 4Opening the Settings app 4Synchronizing settingsbetween PCs 6Accessing an app’s settings 6Customizing the Start Menu 7Pinning an app to the Start menu 7Arranging and sizing Start menu tiles 8Customizing Start menu settings 9Customizing the Taskbar 10Pinning an app to the taskbar 10Customizing taskbar settings 11Customizing the taskbar’s notification area 13Customizing the Lock Screen 15Changing the Lock screen background 16Adding an app to the Lock screen 17Extending Your Desktop with Multiple Monitors 18Setting Up Multiple Desktops 20Adding a new desktop 20Switching to another desktop 21Moving an app to a different desktop 22Chapter 2 How Can I Make the Most of Surfing the Web? 24Taking Advantage of Tabs 26Opening a link in a new tab 26Creating a new tab 26Customizing the new tab page 26Navigating tabs 28Duplicating a tab 28Pinning a tab 28Controlling which tabs appear at startup 28Closing tabs 30Saving Your Favorite Pages 30Adding a page to the Favorites list 30Working with the Favorites bar 31Opening a page from the Favorites list 33Maintaining favorites 33Customizing Edge 34Changing the Edge search engine 34Changing the theme 35Setting the default zoom level 36Customizing the toolbar 37Customizing the font 39Chapter 3 How Do I Maximize Sending and Receiving Email? 42Managing Mail Accounts 44Adding an account 44Changing the account name 46Deleting an account 47Setting Options for Incoming Messages 47Customizing account sync settings 48Combining the Focused and Other tabs 49Grouping messages individually 49Controlling notifications 50Switching between accounts 51Setting Send Options 51Creating a signature 51Setting the default message font 52Changing your message priority 54Running the spell-checker to eliminate message errors 55Chapter 4 Can I Use Windows to Manage Contacts and Appointments? 58Managing Your Contacts 60Adding contacts from an existing account 60Creating a contact 62Viewing contacts 64Editing a contact 65Assigning a photo to a contact 65Creating a new contact from an electronic business card 67Filtering your contacts 68Linking multiple profiles to a contact 69Deleting a contact 70Tracking Your Events 71Viewing your calendar 71Adding an event to your calendar 72Creating a recurring event 73Adding an event reminder 74Setting up an online meeting 74Customizing your calendar 76Chapter 5 What Other Day-to-Day Tasks Can I Perform? 78Finding Stuff on Your PC 80Viewing your timeline 80Searching your PC 80Configuring the Cortana Voice Assistant 83Controlling your PC with Cortana 84Making Video Calls 85Configuring Skype 85Calling someone using Skype 86Dealing with an incoming Skype call 86Working with Maps 87Giving Maps access to your location 87Displaying a location on a map 88Getting directions to a location 90Checking the Weather 93Checking your weather forecast 93Checking another city’s weather forecast 95Chapter 6 How Do I Max Out the Windows Image Tools? 96Getting Images into Your PC 98Importing images from a smartphone or digital camera 98Scanning an image 99Taking a picture or video with your PC camera 101Viewing Your Images 103Using File Explorer to view your images 103Using the Photos app to view your images 104Starting a slide show 106Enhancing Your Images 107Cropping an image 107Applying a filter 108Adding a vignette effect 110Repairing Your Images 111Rotating an image 111Straightening an image 111Adjusting the light 112Adjusting the colors 114Enhancing image clarity 115Getting rid of red eye 115Fixing small flaws 116Chapter 7 Can I Share My Computer? 118Sharing Your PC via User Accounts 120Creating a user account 120Switching between accounts 122Changing your user account picture 125Changing the account type 126Deleting an account 127Sharing Your PC with a Child 127Adding a child to your PC 128Setting restrictions on a child’s account 128Sharing PC Resources 132Sharing a document or folder 132Switching to advanced sharing 134Sharing a folder with other users on the network 135Protect your shared folders with advanced file permissions 136chapter 8 How Can I Get More from a Tablet PC? 138Working in Tablet Mode 140Controlling Windows with Gestures 141Understanding gestures 142Using gestures to control Windows 142Inputting Text with the Touch Keyboard 143Displaying the touch keyboard 143Selecting a touch keyboard type 144Using the touch keyboard 145Entering text using the handwriting panel 147Configuring the touch keyboard 149Setting Power and Battery Options 149Monitoring battery life 150Setting the power mode 150Adjusting screen brightness 151Switching to Battery Saver mode 151Creating a custom power plan to improve battery life 152Checking out more ways to save energy 153Chapter 9 How Do I Work with Documents? 156Editing Documents 158Creating a new document 158Saving a document 158Opening a document 159Changing the text font 160Finding text 162Replacing text 164Inserting special symbols 165Saving a copy of a document 167Taking Notes with OneNote 168Creating a OneNote notebook 168Adding pages and sections to a notebook 168Adding and working with text notes 170Adding an image to a notebook page 172Working with notebook lists 173Working with Files 175Selecting a file 175Changing the file view 176Previewing a file 176Copying a file 178Moving a file 178Renaming a document 179Creating a new file 180Deleting a document 181Extracting files from a compressed folder 183Specifying a different app when opening a document 185Chapter 10 What Are Some Ways to Enhance PC Security? 188Enhancing Sign-In Security 190Creating a strong password 190Updating your account password 191Creating a picture password 192Signing in with a PIN 193Setting up a fingerprint sign-in 194Locking Your PC to Prevent Others from Using It 195Locking your computer 196Configuring your PC to lock automatically 196Enhancing Your Privacy 198Making the Start menu more private 198Controlling your private information 199Stopping an app’s notifications 201Clearing your activity history 201Resetting your computer to preserve privacy 202Chapter 11 How Do I Increase Internet Privacy and Security? 204Making the Web More Secure 206Avoiding viruses 206Opting to never save a site’s password 208Deleting a saved website password 208Making the Web More Private 209Deleting your browsing data to ensure privacy 209Turning on private browsing 211Preventing ad sites from tracking you online 211Enabling strict tracking prevention 212Preventing sites from requesting your location 213Enhancing Email Security and Privacy 215Avoiding viruses in email 215Preventing messages from opening automatically 216Thwarting web bugs by blocking images in messages 216Avoiding phishing scams 217chapter 12 How Do I Maintain Windows? 220Performing a Few Maintenance Chores 222Scheduling automatic maintenance 222Checking hard drive free space 223Deleting unnecessary files 225Safeguarding Your Files 226Keeping a history of your files 226Restoring a file from your history 227Creating a system image backup 228Using the Windows Recovery Environment 229Understanding the Recovery Environment’s tools 229Accessing the Recovery Environment 230Working with a Recovery Drive 233Creating the recovery drive 233Booting your PC using the recovery drive 234Working with Restore Points 235Creating a system restore point 235Reverting to an earlier restore point 235Index 238