Windows 10: Tips and tricks - You saw it first on TenForums!

Information Fellow TF geeks, let's start collecting various Windows 10 & software tips & tricks that are not published elsewher on the World Wide Interwebs.

Post in this thread if you have found an undocumented feature, modified an existing way to do stuff so that either realisation or outcome is something new, or if your way adds something new in a Windows 10 feature. Anything. A creative way to edit Windows user interface or theme, a time saving version of a known PowerShell script that adds something new, a combination of registry edits that makes boot time faster.

Only criteria is that your version of the tip or trick has not been previously posted. Do some creative Googling and Binging before posting, to be sure your idea as such has not been posted on the Interwebs.

Rules are simple:

• Posts should be short; post a tutorial instead if it requires loads of text and screenshots
• Either the idea itself, its realisation or outcome should be new, not copied from anywhere else
• If your tip includes modifications on an already known and posted method you should clearly mention what new your way adds to it. In these cases do not forget to mention the original source!
• Posts can be a single screenshot showing the idea, a batch file, a script, short text based presentation, a video, whatever makes you sure it can be understood and instructions followed
• If posting a script or batch, use
  Code:

   tags:
   [CODE]your script / batch here

  This makes it easier to other geeks to read it

Short: "I think this is neat, I saw it on this site!" does not qualify but "I saw this on that other site and thought that changing this variable and adding these lines in code the script works far better!" is already a good entry.

If and I believe when we have some nice entries I will start listing them in this first post, with links to each post.

Be creative!



:)

 

Tips, Tricks and More on S40

》》Capturing at not Well lit Areas | You can also do this in day to improve the image quality of the Camera.

Effects:

*Reduces Yellow Tint

*Reduces Noise

*More Accurate Color.

On Homescreen Go to Menu > Settings > Display > Wallpaper > Open Camera > Capture > then Back to Launch Camera Again.

Note1: It takes more time to save photos at this method.

Note2: This Method skips the process of 'compressing' so there be a case that the file size is higher than the normal.

Note3: Captured Photos is automatically in 'jpg/jpeg' format instead of 'nrw' format.

 

Tips, Tricks and More on S40

》》Decluding Sound Files on Music Player.

Good for people has a lot of tones.

Option1: Move the sound Files in Rintones folder in Phone Memory but most of S40 phones shouldn't store too much data cuz it may affect to the performance of the phone. So thats why we have Option2.

Option2: Your phone must have a Memory Card. Go to Root Folder of the Memory Card. Locate the Folder naming 'Recordings' In case you don't have, you can create one. Now, move the Sound Files in 'Recordings'.

**Go to Music Player|Update the Library| After Updating the Library| Go to All Songs| Browse the List.

 

OK, I'll start.

I searched Google and Bing with every possible search criteria I could think of, didn't find this being posted anywhere. Although I am a big fan of UWP apps, I understand those users who prefer traditional desktop apps. This video is for those members.

Windows 10 Creators Update - Clean Install without Windows Store (UWP) Apps

[youtube]xDyMNTReJJ4[/youtube]

The method shown adds two minutes to time needed for a clean install giving you a stripped down Windows 10, or rather a complete Windows 10 without any UWP apps.

PowerShell command used in video to completely remove all UWP apps including Store during installation:

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage –Online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

Alternative for those wanting to keep Store, to be able to reinstall and use UWP apps later on:

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage –Online | where-object {$_.packagename –notlike “*Store*”} | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online

Pro, Education & Enterprise users, this is the policy modified in video:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and taskbar > Start Layout




Related Tutorials

• Clean Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
• Uninstall Apps in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Apps Features Tutorials

 

This should qualify, have not seen it on any other site:

Windows 10 Creators Update - Name PC at Setup

[youtube]6L1pl1VoGNs[/youtube]

In my opinion, one of the worst decisions Windows 10 developer teams made was to remove possibility to name your PC already when setting it up. Especially when this feature was removed at the same time when Windows introduced digital licensing. For instance, transferring a digital license to another computer is based not only on your Microsoft account but also on old computer's name.

In Windows 7 setup, PC was named after your chosen username but you could change it to whatever you wanted to. Windows 8 took this a step further. No name was suggested, you simply had to name the PC otherwise you could not finish the setup.

This video shows how to fix this, name your Windows 10 PC already when setting up a pre-installed or a clean installed Windows 10 Creators Update.

 

I'm going to claim this as I didn't see it anywhere else on the web before I found it by trial and error.

It's about advanced searching in the Windows 10 Mail app, specifically with GMail and Outlook.

Mail app Advanced Searching in Windows 10

 

Nice you guys! *Thumbs

 

How to convert an mbr legacy bios boot disk to uefi gpt mode with no data loss

The CU update has a great new too called mbr2gpt which converts legacy bios boot disks to uefi gpt format.

It works with virtual hard drives as well - so if you have e.g. a hyper-v gen 1 disk, this is the easy way to convert it to a gen 2 disk.

I will do steps for a vhd

Step 1 - make a copy of vhd (for real disk - an image backup) in case things go pearshaped.

Step 2 - attach vhd using disk management - here disk 2 is legacy bios





Step 3: shrink the OS drive (H here) to give room to write EFI partition. I actually shrank it a lot as I had no idea how much space it needed

Step 4: validate the install is suitable for conversion from an admin powershell or admin command prompt

Code:

mbr2gpt /disk:2 /validate /logs:c:\ /allowfullos[CODE]
 
 The /allowfullos switch allows you do this from normal Windows.
 
 If doing a real disk and it was your boot disk, you need to do it from a winpe environment (eg bootomt from a 15063 installation disk and pressing shit+f10)
 
 I recommend you create log files to directory of your choice - I choose C:\ as easiest to type.
 
 [b]Warning - if you omit the /disk switch it will do it on your boot disk by default!
 [/b]
 
 
[img]https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/general-support/129330d1491845505t-tips-tricks-you-saw-first-tenforums-2017_04_10_17_31_472.png?s=c1e8b753a573dc6e5ffc1ac8c4009171[/img]

 
 Step 5 - Do conversion
 
 [CODE]mbr2gpt /disk:2 /convert /logs:c:\ /allowfullos[CODE]
 
 
[img]https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/general-support/129331d1491846025t-tips-tricks-you-saw-first-tenforums-2017_04_10_17_40_274.png?s=c1e8b753a573dc6e5ffc1ac8c4009171[/img]

 
 Step 6 - examine drive and tidy up
 
 Look at drive in disk management
 
 
[img]https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/general-support/129332d1491846119t-tips-tricks-you-saw-first-tenforums-2017_04_10_17_42_025.png?s=c1e8b753a573dc6e5ffc1ac8c4009171[/img]

 
 
 You can see it does not delete old SRP (partition 1) 
 
 You can also see I shrank it a lot - not needed to do it so much of course.
 
 Both these are easily tidied up using minitool partition wizard :-
 
 
[img]https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/general-support/129333d1491847404t-tips-tricks-you-saw-first-tenforums-2017_04_10_18_03_277.png?s=c1e8b753a573dc6e5ffc1ac8c4009171[/img]

 
 Step 7 - the Acid Test - Does it work?
 
 Yes! 
 
 I created a new gen 2 hyper-v vm and it booted just fine as you can see.
 
 
[img]https://www.tenforums.com/attachments/general-support/129342d1491848031t-tips-tricks-you-saw-first-tenforums-2017_04_10_18_13_549.png?s=c1e8b753a573dc6e5ffc1ac8c4009171[/img]

 
 The whole conversion process only took a few minutes - minitool was the slowest part!
 
 This new tool is truly awesome.

 

Really like this one Kari as I always rename my PC after setup. +1 *Thumbs

 

Thanks Sygnus.

Correctly renaming PC is quite important, I thought I might not be the only one missing the option to name it already when setting up Windows *Smile

 

Yeah, I love the ability to rename my PC in the beginning of a setup, not after. Nice find.

Tried to rep but I've not been spreading enough love *Smile

 

Windows 10 Creators Update - Clean Install without Windows Store (UWP) Apps


This is a VERY interesting tutorial, thank you!

I would like to ask, though:

- Is it absolutely sure that Windows 10 (Pro) Creators Update is functioning properly without Store and the Store Purchase App?

Because in the past it was [strongly] recommended to not touch (uninstall) the Store App... And I have personal experience from this, because one time I have uninstalled it and I had to clean-install Windows 10 Pro, afterwards. No problem, just asking.

Anyway, I will leave the Store installed because I will need it to install Calculator and Weather, afterwards, the two Apps I am using. I consider it best to clean-install with everything but Store uninstalled, and get the two Apps I use, afterwards.

Isn't this better than uninstalling them one-by-one after installation? Is it the same? And what about the Store Purchase App?

Thank you!

 

It is completely safe. The difference this method in post #2 makes is that Store and other UWP apps will be removed before any user accounts / profiles have been created. Windows 10 does not need other UWP apps than Settings and Edge, it will be fully functional whatever you choose.

Anyway, in your case it's clever to use the "leave Store" option; it's not safer option but when the option to reinstall removed or install new apps remains, it's not so irreversible.

Just choose your preferred option when setting up / installing Windows:

 

@Kari, okay thank you, I will use the "leave Store" option, when I will clean install [*] the Creators Update as my primary operating system.

One last inquiry: in my region, Cortana is not yet available. When should I press Shift-F10 to bring up CMD and then notepad?

[*]: I will wait a day or two to see IF it will arrive through Windows update, and if not, I will then clean install using either the ESD-ISO I got from the Media Creation Tool or the other ISO which contains the install.wim file. I have both but... DISM is not functioning on any of them... I am getting the "sources not found" error on both... Is DISM working for you (on the Creators update?)

Thank you.

 

That would be here when Windows Welcome Mode (OOBE) stops fist time to wait user input:





Thanks for pointing out an apparent mistake in my previous instructions, I didn't even think about those users not getting the Cortana assisted Windows Welcome.

A Windows ISO can be based and is using either a normal install.wim file in Sources folder which contains the Windows image being installed, or an install.esd file which is the same as install.wim but compressed and encrypted to save space. When installing from ESD based media, this ESD file will then first be decrypted and uncompressed to install Windows.

An ISO with ESD file cannot be used with DISM as source.

Unfortunately ISO images created with Media Creation Tool use install.esd instead of install.wim. A workaround is to join Windows Insider Program, not to start using Insider builds but to get option to download an install.wim based ISO.

Go to Home page - Windows Insider Program, click Get Started and sign up for Insider Program:





When signed up, go to Download Windows 10 Insider Preview Advanced and download Windows Insider Preview - Build 15063 ISO, it is the version 1703 ISO containing both Home and Pro editions with normal install.wim file:





No worries, signing up for Insider Program does not in any way force you to use Insider builds. You would only use the Insider ISO as source with DISM but do your installs from ESD based Media Creation Tool ISO.