Photo by Clint Patterson

We have carefully selected a range of essential features that will quickly improve your Windows 11 experience, from optimizing privacy settings to releasing the urge for speed. With these adjustments, you can make Windows 11 a smooth addition to your digital life, from improving privacy settings to streamlining speed. We explore the fundamental features of Windows 11 in this post, exposing a carefully chosen range of choices that can improve your experience right now.

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Turn on Dark Mode

Scheduled Dark Mode: Another feature of Windows 11 is the ability to set a time for Dark Mode to turn on automatically at particular times. You may adjust this by going to “Settings” > “System” > “Display” > “Night light.”

Night Light: This function, also known as a Blue Light Filter or Night Light, lowers the quantity of blue light that is released by your screen, which can lessen eye strain and improve the quality of your sleep. To turn on the night light, flip the switch. This will automatically set your screen’s color temperature to a warmer one in the evening.

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Power and Sleep settings

• Select a Power Plan: Windows provides a variety of power plans, including High Performance, Power Saver, and Balanced. Either make your own bespoke power plan or choose the one that best suits your needs.

• Advanced configurations: Advanced power settings are located in the “Additional power settings” section. You may change the following settings here:

• Processor Power Management: To regulate CPU performance, set the minimum and maximum processor states.
• Sleep: Set up extra sleep options, such as hibernation or hybrid sleep. 

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Mouse and touchpad

• Touchpad sensitivity: Change the touchpad’s sensitivity to regulate how sensitive it is to your touches. Adjust the sensitivity slider until the desired responsiveness is reached.

• Scrolling behavior: Scrolling behavior customization choices are located under “Touchpad.” Choose the direction you want to scroll in by adjusting parameters like “Scrolling direction”.

• Tapping and Gestures: Examine the tapping and gesture settings. Adapt settings such as “Tap with two fingers to right-click” or “Tap with a single finger to single-click” to suit your needs.

• Turning on or off enhancements: Examine more mouse options like “Snap to” and “Enhance pointer precision,” and change them to ON or OFF according to your preferences.

• Changing pointer speed: You may change the pointer speed by selecting the “Mouse” option. Depending on how comfortable you are, adjust the slider to the left for slower movement or to the right for faster movement.

• Extra mouse features: Depending on the kind of mouse you have, you may be able to customize the scroll wheel or add more buttons. To use these functions, click the “Additional mouse options” link.

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Privacy settings

Access configurations for privacy: By hitting Win + I or clicking the Start button and choosing the gear-shaped icon, you may access the Settings menu. To explore privacy-related settings, select “Privacy” from the menu.

• App Permissions: Check that the permissions for applications have been given and make sure you are satisfied with the data they are allowed to access. Adjust privacy settings for the camera, microphone, location, and other features according to your tastes.

• Location: Turn off “Location access” to prevent Windows from tracking the location of your device. Go to Settings. Go to the Privacy Settings page. Select “Location” from the sidebar on the left and turn Off Access by Location.

• Access to the camera and microphone: Disable access for any apps that don’t need it. Access the Settings. Go to Privacy Settings. Click on “Camera” in the sidebar on the left. Find the switch on the right side of the window, under “Camera”. Turn the switch to the off position to prevent applications from accessing the camera. Select “Microphone” from the sidebar on the left. Look for the switch under “Microphone” on the right side of the window. Turn the switch to the off position to prevent applications from using your microphone.

• Turn of activity history: Examine basic privacy settings to manage feedback settings, diagnostics, and advertising choices. Turn off “Let Windows collect my activities from this PC.” By doing this, Windows is unable to gather your activity history.

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Sound settings

To adjust volume levels, sound devices, and other audio-related settings, go to Settings > System > Sound.

• Audio preferences: Look into different sound settings according to your tastes. Sound Mode: Stereo, surround, and spatial sound are among the sound modes that certain systems provide. Select the audio mode that you like most.

• Advanced audio configurations: To access the advanced sound options, click the “Sound Control Panel” link. This is where you may adjust speaker characteristics, upgrades, and other device-specific options.
• Check the sound: You can play a sample sound by using the “Test” button to make sure your settings are to your satisfaction. You can hear the changes instantly thanks to this.

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Taskbar

Windows taskbar customization lets you adjust the UI to your preferred efficiency, style, and workflow. These options provide you the ability to customize and optimize your computer experience, whether your goal is a more aesthetically pleasing desktop or faster access to the programs you use most frequently.

• Pin Apps: The most important function of the taskbar is the shortcuts that you use to click to get to apps easier instead of having to use the home screen. These shortcuts are made by pinning the apps onto the taskbar which can be made in several easy ways.

You can right-click any app on the home screen and press the option to pin it to the taskbar. You could also search for the apps with the magnifying glass on the taskbar right-click them and add them too. Lastly, it is also possible to open an app and add it to the taskbar by right-clicking the icon on the taskbar and pinning it. Unpinning shortcuts is done the same way.

• Buttons and icons: To change the icons, items, and widgets showing on the taskbar you can right-click on the taskbar and press the option that pops up. A panel will come up with all the personalization settings that are available for the taskbar and you can change things like adding and hiding icons in multiple places of the taskbar.

• Appearance and Behaviour: Within the taskbar, the appearance and behavior can also be changed in the same personalization settings by scrolling down to the category “Behaviour”. In “Behaviour” the alignment of the taskbar can be changed so if you want to place the taskbar on the left side of the screen or the right, it is possible. You can also hide the taskbar by ticking the box so that the taskbar is hidden until you move your cursor to where the taskbar is. 

To change the appearance of the taskbar, click on “Personalization” and “Colors” on the new option that comes up. Then a variety of different accent colors will be available make sure that you have turned on the option that says to “Show accent color on Start and taskbar”.

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Startup programs

If you have been experiencing some issues with your computer starting up recently then a common possible root cause of it is all the startup programs that you have accidentally allowed to be activated when you boot up your computer which considerably slow down the startup process. This can easily be fixed as you only need to deactivate the ability for the programs to automatically start first thing.

To choose the apps that will run when you start your device you will have to navigate to Start > Settings > Apps > Startup and the window to the right will show all the apps that have automatic startup toggled on. You can also sort and search for the apps by name, status, and amount of impact. All you need to do from there is choose the app and select the toggle to set it to On or Off.

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Refresh rate and resolution

• Get to the display settings: Click on Settings and select “System.” In the sidebar, choose “Display” and then “Advanced display options.”

• Change the refresh rate: If it’s possible, turn on or adjust the dynamic refresh rate to your display’s specifications. Smoother motion and responsiveness are guaranteed by this function, which is especially helpful for multimedia and gaming material.
• Graphics card: Additional refresh rate and resolution options may be available on some sophisticated graphics cards. The graphics card control panel, such as the AMD Radeon options or the NVIDIA Control Panel, allows you to access these options.