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 typically I discover new features I did not learn about earlier than. To be honest, Home windows 11 is kind of a complete desktop working system with many customization options and settings, so it is simple 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 lately began using have considerably boosted my productiveness and improved how I handle my PC, they usually might do the identical for you, too. These options are constructed into Home windows 11 and can be found at no cost, so that you need not set up any further software program to begin utilizing them. My solely want is that I would discovered them earlier.

Clipboard historical past

Maintain observe of every thing you have copied to your clipboard

The primary characteristic I wish to spotlight known as Clipboard historical past. When you do lots of copying and pasting each day — whether or not for messaging apps, emails, spreadsheets, or picture modifying — that is a straightforward method to maintain observe of every thing you have copied so you’ll be able to entry it later. I am unable to rely what number of occasions 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 precious productiveness device for copying a number of gadgets directly 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 prior to now 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 preserve your machine’s storage

Subsequent up is Storage Sense, a built-in Home windows 11 device that robotically frees up disk house in your system drive (the C: drive) with out deleting any necessary recordsdata. Storage Sense deletes gadgets reminiscent of momentary system recordsdata, recordsdata in your Recycle Bin, and previous Home windows set up recordsdata. 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 good, easy, and it helps maintain your PC freed from pointless recordsdata.

Relying in your PC setup, Storage Sense may already be enabled however not configured. To show it on and alter the settings, go to Settings > Storage and toggle on Storage Sense. Once you click on on Storage Sense, a menu with numerous 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 house, however you’ll be able to change this to run weekly, each 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 recordsdata to justify each day or weekly runs.

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

Shake to reduce

Tidy your desktop in seconds

This characteristic is a nifty one, and if in case you have a behavior like mine of protecting a number of Chrome situations open directly and operating a number of completely different applications concurrently, that is a straightforward method to reduce all of them immediately to clear up your display screen. The characteristic known as “Title bar home windows shake,” and it permits you to shake your at the moment lively window to reduce 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 useful method 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 wish 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 may 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 taking part in a sport. This lesser-known characteristic permits you to alter the quantity in your PC even sooner, with no need to press a button in your keyboard or open the short settings menu.

All it’s a must to do is just hover your mouse cursor over the quantity 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 method to alter my system quantity on the fly. It is saved my eardrums a number of occasions 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, if you happen to encounter points with it, or it isn’t working, the issue can doubtless be resolved by going to Settings > Bluetooth & gadgets > 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 lots of time by serving to me discover recordsdata on my PC a lot sooner. By default, the Home windows Search index is ready to Traditional, which implies Home windows Search solely appears for recordsdata in your Paperwork, Photos, and Music folders, in addition to your Desktop. So, if you happen to retailer recordsdata elsewhere in your PC, like on a secondary drive, Home windows Search will not discover them, which will 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 recordsdata in your PC, making the search characteristic truly helpful. To do that in your PC, go to Settings > Privateness & Safety > Search > Discover my Recordsdata. From there, swap the search index from Traditional to Enhanced. Once you allow Enhanced, it’s going to take a while for Home windows to index all of the recordsdata in your PC, particularly if in case you have 1000’s of recordsdata, so it’s good 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 will probably drain the battery whereas indexing.