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 find out about earlier than. To be truthful, Home windows 11 is sort 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 just lately 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 totally free, so that you need not set up any extra software program to start out utilizing them. My solely want is that I would discovered them earlier.

Clipboard historical past

Maintain monitor of all the things you have copied to your clipboard

The primary characteristic I wish to spotlight is named Clipboard historical past. When you do numerous copying and pasting each day — whether or not for messaging apps, emails, spreadsheets, or picture modifying — that is a straightforward method to hold monitor of all the things you have copied so you may 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 software for copying a number of gadgets directly with out shedding 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 up 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

Robotically keep your machine’s storage

Subsequent up is Storage Sense, a built-in Home windows 11 software that robotically frees up disk house in your system drive (the C: drive) with out deleting any essential recordsdata. Storage Sense deletes gadgets akin to 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 hold 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 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 house, however you may 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 suppose I am accumulating sufficient pointless recordsdata to justify each day or weekly runs.

Moreover, you may configure it to robotically delete recordsdata out of your Recycle Bin. After 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 now not want.

Shake to attenuate

Tidy your desktop in seconds

This characteristic is a nifty one, and if in case you have a behavior like mine of conserving a number of Chrome cases open directly and operating a number of completely different packages concurrently, that is a straightforward method to decrease all of them immediately to clear up your display screen. The characteristic is named “Title bar home windows shake,” and it permits you to shake your at present energetic window to attenuate all the things behind it.

This characteristic has been obtainable 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 will probably 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 continually 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 sport. This lesser-known characteristic permits you to alter the amount in your PC even sooner, without having to press a button in your keyboard or open the fast settings menu.

All it’s a must to do is just hover your mouse cursor over the amount icon in your system tray and scroll up or down to lift 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 abruptly performed at a particularly loud quantity. This characteristic ought to work by default with out enabling any settings. Nevertheless, in case you encounter points with it, or it isn’t working, the issue can possible 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 numerous time by serving to me discover recordsdata on my PC a lot sooner. By default, the Home windows Search index is ready to Basic, which implies Home windows Search solely seems to be for recordsdata in your Paperwork, Footage, and Music folders, in addition to your Desktop. So, in case you 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 Basic to Enhanced. Once you allow Enhanced, it is 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 you could 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 actually drain the battery whereas indexing.