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 sort 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 not too long ago began using have considerably boosted my productiveness and improved how I handle my PC, and so they might do the identical for you, too. These options are constructed into Home windows 11 and can be found free of charge, so that you needn’t 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 observe of the whole lot you’ve got copied to your clipboard

The primary characteristic I need to spotlight is named Clipboard historical past. When you do a variety of copying and pasting each day — whether or not for messaging apps, emails, spreadsheets, or picture enhancing — that is a straightforward option to maintain observe of the whole lot you’ve got copied so you may entry it later. I am unable to depend what number of occasions I’ve copied a picture or hyperlink to incorporate in my notes or ship to somebody, solely to neglect to really do it after which lose it. So, Clipboard historical past has been a lifesaver and a worthwhile productiveness device for copying a number of gadgets without delay 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’ve got 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 preserve your system’s storage

Subsequent up is Storage Sense, a built-in Home windows 11 device that mechanically frees up disk house in your system drive (the C: drive) with out deleting any necessary information. Storage Sense deletes gadgets equivalent to non permanent system information, information in your Recycle Bin, and outdated Home windows set up information. 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 sensible, easy, and it helps maintain your PC freed from pointless information.

Relying in your PC setup, Storage Sense would possibly already be enabled however not configured. To show it on and regulate 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 information to justify each day or weekly runs.

Moreover, you may configure it to mechanically delete information out of your Recycle Bin. Once I checked mine, I nonetheless discovered information from 2024, so I set it to delete information from the bin after 60 days. You can too set Storage Sense to mechanically delete information out of your Downloads folder as properly, which is beneficial for clearing out setup information you’ve got most likely downloaded for putting in apps and not want.

Shake to reduce

Tidy your desktop in seconds

This characteristic is a nifty one, and in case you have a behavior like mine of protecting a number of Chrome situations open without delay and working a number of completely different packages concurrently, that is a straightforward option to decrease all of them immediately to clear up your display screen. The characteristic is named “Title bar home windows shake,” and it means that you can shake your presently energetic window to reduce the whole lot behind it.

This characteristic has been out there on Home windows since Home windows 7, when it was first launched as Aero Shake. I’ve discovered it to be a helpful option to tidy up my desktop and have some enjoyable. Sadly, it is not 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 need to deal with, shake it, and all of the home windows behind it is going to be minimized, saving you the difficulty of minimizing each 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 continuously 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 means that you can regulate 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 solely hover your mouse cursor over the quantity 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 option to regulate 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, should you encounter points with it, or it is not 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 a variety of time by serving to me discover information on my PC a lot sooner. By default, the Home windows Search index is ready to Basic, which implies Home windows Search solely appears for information in your Paperwork, Photos, and Music folders, in addition to your Desktop. So, should you retailer information elsewhere in your PC, like on a secondary drive, Home windows Search will not discover them, which might 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 information in your PC, making the search characteristic really helpful. To do that in your PC, go to Settings > Privateness & Safety > Search > Discover my Recordsdata. From there, change the search index from Basic to Enhanced. Once you allow Enhanced, it’s going to take a while for Home windows to index all of the information in your PC, particularly in case you have 1000’s of information, so it is advisable 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 may well drain the battery whereas indexing.