Windows Tips

Windows is hugely powerful but many of its capabilities can be hidden or tough to manage. Let our experts show you how to get the most out of your Windows computer with tips and tricks.

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BitLocker recovery screen
After this update, your Windows PC will demand a 48-digit key, and most people can't produce one

Update, reboot, locked out — all because of a key you didn't know existed

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Popup window for adding a microsoft account to Windows 11
The reason Windows 11 requires a Microsoft account is actually pretty boring

Microsoft made the account the part that stays when the PC doesn’t.

Windows system properties and performance options open.
There's only one Control Panel dialog left that Windows Settings hasn't replaced

Control Panel has one tenant Microsoft still can’t evict.

BCU running on the Asus Vivobook with color-coded program list
These 4 free tools made my old Windows laptop useful again

A day of cleanup restored the speed I thought was gone.

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A Lenovo IdeaPad laptop screen displaying the Windows 11 Settings
Your PC isn’t too old — Windows 11’s default settings are slowing it down

Before you buy a new laptop, try turning some things off first.

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Regular laptop mode on the Lenovo ThinkBook Modular AI PC Concept
Windows 11 has had 5 years to fix these 5 features, but it still hasn’t

No wonder users are switching to Linux.

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A Windows laptop with Windows Security open
Your Windows security is hiding 11% of your gaming performance — here's why you shouldn't claim it

Disabling VBS boosted my game performance, but the security tradeoff isn't worth keeping it off.

File Explorer open on Windows laptop.
3 perfectly reasonable things Windows 11 still refuses to let you do

Windows still hides simple file limits most people never notice.

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The Dell XPS 16 on a table.
6 Windows 11 quality-of-life features you’ll wish you found sooner

They've been there this whole time.

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USB devices on top of a PC with USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports
3 things your USB ports can still do when your PC is turned off

The board can still listen after the screen goes dark.

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Your Windows clipboard can remember 25 items — and it changes how you work

Windows finally has a proper clipboard history and it's (almost) what we've always wanted.

Windows laptop showing Compact OS command
I made Windows compress itself with one command and benchmarked the catch

Free up 10GB of storage in a pinch.

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Reinstalling Windows
I was ready to reinstall Windows — these 3 repairs saved me from starting over

Turns out Windows doesn't need a fresh start every time.

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ChromeOS Flex running on an old MacBook.
5 free apps and tools that make an old laptop worth keeping

Stop paying for cloud storage and streaming — your old laptop can do it all for free.

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SSD tried in different casings
I checked whether Windows was maintaining my external SSD, and the enclosure got in the way

The drive passed every Windows check until I changed enclosures.

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Hp Pavilion Laptop Displaying Hyper V Manager With Virtual Hard Disk Configuration Dialog
Your old PC can keep running long after the hardware is gone

Your old PC's apps, settings, and configs don't have to die with the hardware.

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two usb c lightning ports on laptop.
Your Thunderbolt port can be used to steal data from a locked PC — here's the setting that stops it

One System Information field shows if Kernel DMA Protection works.

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Phone Link app Lock PC option on Android phone
Windows 11's Phone Link is finally becoming more than just an Android notification mirror

You're probably missing out on these new features.

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ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card installed in the HP Z6 G4 case
I enabled a hidden Windows GPU mode, and my games run smoother now

Your GPU is probably communicating the slow way — here's how to fix it in 5 minutes.

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Command prompt showing IP address
I use these Windows commands to solve internet problems that restarting my router won't

Better run these before calling your ISP.

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