Welcome to Windows 10Microsoft are betting everything they’ve got onWindows 10 after the failure that was Win-dows 8 – they’re even giving the operating sys-tem away for free to millions of users. Therecan be no doubt that they want everyone tomake the switch and experience Windows 10.

Although Windows 8.1 was a stable operatingsystem, the interface let it down and led to lotsof Windows users avoiding it. Fortunately, Mi-crosoft learned from the lessons of Windows8.1 when creating Windows 10 and the newoperating system is much more friendly,whether you are using a desktop PC, laptop ortablet computer.

Moreover, the upgrade process is easier than ithas ever been. Simply download and installthe Windows 10 update and the system isready to use.

In this, and your subsequent issues of Win-dows 10 Perfectly Mastered, I will show youhow to quickly get familiar with, and makethe best use of, the new features available inWindows 10.

Best Regards,

James Wilson, Editor-in-Chief, Windows 10 Perfectly Mastered

James Wilson is an IT professional with over15 years’ experience and an in-depth knowl-edge of Windows.

Windows 10Perfectly Mastered

Automatic Data Organisation with Storage Sense 3

Keep Your Data Safe with Windows 10 Backup Tools 4Backing up your data is essen-tial, fortunately, backup is easyusing Windows 10’s built-intools and recovery features.

How to Get Your Windows 10PC to Play DVDs Again 6Microsoft have ditched the muchloved Media Center _ so followthese steps to find out how to playall kinds of media on your system.

What to Do when Your Firefox Browser is Hijacked 7Does Firefox take you to strangewebsites? We show you how toundo the hijacking by resettingyour browser using these easy steps.

This new Windows 10 featureoptimises where data is stored.Follow these steps for perfectconfiguration and use.

The New Start Menu: Be in ControlOnce AgainThere was one major limitation that made using Windows 8 more difficult: Microsoftsuddenly removed the extremely useful Start menu that had served Windows users wellfor so many years. The good news is that the Start menu is back to its full glory in Windows10 and has incorporated the best elements of the Windows 7 Start menu with the Windows8 tile interface.

The annoying back and forth between the desktop and the tile view that characterised Windows8 is also gone in Windows 10. The return of the Start menu means that you can access yourfrequently used programs, settings and documents much more quickly. And, if you have atouch screen, you can also easily access it using the new, redesigned Start menu.

Here are some other tips and tricks:

Customise the Start Menu

Attach Apps, programsand folders: you can attachlots of different things tothe Start menu, includingdesktop programs, Appsand folders, in order tocustomise it to your ownrequirements. It’s very easyto do – simply right-clickthe item you’d like to at-tach, select Pin to Start inthe pop-up menu and youwill then see the corre-sponding item added toyour Start menu. In future,you can just click on theStart menu shortcut tolaunch the App/program,or open the folder.

You can access other options by right-clicking on an item, including:

Unpin from Start: removes the item from the Start menu.

Pin to taskbar: adds a shortcut to the item to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

Windows 10: Getting Started 1

Continued on page 2 ▶

The familiar Windows Start menu has finally returned.

Uninstall: opens the Programs andFeaturesControl Panel whichyou can use to remove the software from your system.

Run as administrator: launches the program with full adminis-trative privileges.

Open file location: opens the folder containing the program in Explorer.

Resize: use this option to change the size of the tile. The sizes oftile available will depend on the App in question.

How to Customise the Start Menu Appearance

By default, the Start menu has a dull, grey appearance, which isn’tvery appealing to look at. But that need not be a problem, sinceyou can customise the appearance to your tastes, as follows:

Click on the Start button to open the menu, then click on Set-tings. In the window that appears, click on Personalization, thenclick Colors. You can then choose from two options:

You can activate the option Automatically pick an accent colorfrom my background. This will cause Windows to select a colourautomatically, based on the image that you have set as your desktopbackground. If you don’t want to do that, turn the option to Off,then choose the colour for yourself, using the palette displayed.

Set the option Show color on Start, taskbar, and action center toOn, then the colour that you choose will be used on the Startmenu, taskbar and the notification window.

If you choose the option Make Start, taskbar and action centertransparent, then the Start menu, along with the notification win-dow and taskbar, will be given a translucent appearance.

Optimally Organise Your Start Menu

If you keep adding new items to your Start menu using the previ-ous steps given, it can quickly become cluttered. Here’s how tobring some order to the chaos:

� Remove the tiles that you never use from the Start menu. Forexample, unless you play games, you probably never use theXbox tile. To get rid of it, right-click on it and choose Unpinfrom Start.

� After you’ve removed the tiles that you never use, you canarrange the remaining tiles into categories. You can move tilesaround by dragging them with the mouse button pressed down.Personally, I found the following categories useful: WindowsApps, My Programs, Settings and Other. Organise the tiles sothat there is a free row between each. You may find this difficultat first but it gives you space to add titles to your categories (seeimage below).

Open the New Start Menu in Full Screen Mode

If you find you’ve got so many things pinned to the Start menuthat you can never find what you need, you can enlarge the Startmenu so that it takes up the whole screen, similar to the Win-dows 8.1 tile screen.

If your Start menu has too many items, a scroll bar will be addedwhich allows you to scroll up and down the items. This is prettyunfamiliar if you’ve used the Windows 7 Start menu. Instead, youcan enlarge the Start menu so that is uses more screen space bymoving the mouse pointer to the top corner of the menu so itturns into a double-headed arrow, then keep the left mouse but-ton pressed down and drag the Start menu to the size you’d likeit to be.

To use your Start menu in full screen mode, so that it looks similarto the Windows 8.1 tile screen, press the + key com-bination to open the SettingsApp. Click on Personalization, fol-lowed by Start, then turn the Use Start full screen option to On.

i

Tailor the Start Menu to Your Needs

2 Windows 10: Getting Started

▶ Continued from page 1

▶ Tip 1

Using the pop-up menu options you can link your most fre-quently used system settings to the Start menu and access themquickly. However, this is only the case for items that can beopened directly from the Settings button on the Start menu, notthe classic Control Panel items.

▶ Tip 2

It is possible to place programs from the All apps list on the left-hand side of the Start menu on the main right-hand side of theStart menu. To do so, open the All appsmenu and drag the itemyou’d like to move, keeping the mouse button pressed down.When you let go of the mouse button, the item will be placed onthe main part of the Start menu.

You can rearrange the Start menu items to your preferences, so thatyou can easily find the things you need.

▶ Tip 3

Are you looking for a specific program in the Start menu that youcan’t find? Simply click on All apps on the Startmenu. You’ll seean alphabetical list of all of the programs and Apps installed onyour system. Some Apps are grouped into folders, which you canexpand by clicking the down arrow next to the folder name.

Optimisation Tips

Windows 10: Getting Started 3

How to Create a Quick Shutdown ShortcutIt takes at least three clicks to shut down your PC in Windows 10.This is far too many but you can shut down much more quicklyby creating a shutdown shortcut on your desktop. To do so, right-click on a blank area of the desktop and choose New > Shortcut.In the location field, type shutdown.exe /s /hybrid /t 0, then clickon Next. Enter a name for your shortcut (e.g. Quick Shutdown)and then click Finish. Next, right-click on the shortcut and chooseProperties, then click on Change icon and select the icon you’dlike to use for the shortcut and click OK. Finally, right-click on the

shortcut and choose Pin to Start so that your quickshutdown option is then available directly from theStart menu.

More Information at a Glance:Split Your Screen into 4Windows 7 introduced the extremely useful Snap feature, whichyou can use to dock a window to either the left or right-hand sideof the screen to make it easy to compare the contents of two win-dows side-by-side. Windows 10 takes this a step further with thenew Snap Assist feature, allowing you to conveniently display fouropen windows in different corners of the screen. This is especiallyuseful if you have a large monitor and need to work on severalopen documents at the same time. All you need to do is drag therelevant window to the corner of the screen you want to have itdisplayed, using the right mouse button, and it will be snappedinto place.

How to Skip the Login Process If you are the only person who uses your computer and no oneelse has access to it, you can save yourself the time and effort ofhaving to enter a username and password each time you want touse the machine and, instead, automatically log in. Here’s how:

Press + , type netplwiz and press . This willopen the User Accounts Control Panel. Untick the option Users

must enter a username and password to use this computer, thenclick OK. Enter your password twice and you will no longer beprompted to enter it again when turning the machine on.

Note: if you have a laptop and decide to take it with you some-where, you should definitely re-tick this option so that a passwordis required.

Clever File Storage with Storage SenseIt can get very annoying if every time you install a program or copymusic, videos or pictures to your PC, Windows then asks youwhich folder on your hard drive you want to store the data on.Thanks to the new Storage Sense feature, you can configure Win-dows 10 so that your data automatically ends up where it belongs,on the right drive.

To do so, click on Start and then click Settings> System> Storage.You can configure the default hard drive locations for various typesof file under Save locations.

Take the time to set this feature up and you'll find that you canwork much more quickly with your Windows 10 File Explorer.

R Enter

Shutdown your system in one go with a shortcut.

If you’re the only person that uses your PC you can avoid entering the password.

Using the new Snap Assist feature you can view four windows at thesame time.

▶ Extra Tip

If you would like Windows to stop asking you for a passwordwhen you wake your PC from hibernation mode, then proceed asfollows: right-click on the Start button and then select PowerOptions from the pop-up menu. Click on Require a password onwakeup, then click on the Change settings that are currentlyunavailable link and select Don’t require a password and thenfinally click Save changes.

Windows 10 Data Backup

4 Windows 10: Getting Started

Safe and Sound: The Windows 10 Backup Features Smart users take precautions: you should create regular backups to soften the blow of a potential Windows 10 crash, using the new,built-in features that are available for Windows 10.

It seems that with Windows 10, Microsoft are finally taking backupseriously and have introduced a range of recovery features. Thereare three main features you can choose from:

� System Image backup: this feature provides for the most secureform of backup. When you create a system image, a file con-taining a complete 1:1 copy of your hard drive is created. If youexperience problems or hard drive crashes, you can use thisexact copy to quickly restore your system.

� System Restore point: Windows uses System Restore points tostore the configuration of your PC at a time when it is workingwell so that if problems do strike, after you install a new driver,for example, you can easily revert to the working setup.

� Refresh your PC: this Windows 10 feature allows you to resetyour Windows system back to its original state, while keepingall of your personal files, Apps and settings in place, meaningyou have a refreshed system but don’t have to spend hours re-installing programs and reconfiguring your machine. However,some programs will need to be re-installed.

How to Create a System Restore Point

To create a System Restore point, proceed as follows:

1. Right-click on the Start button in the bottom left-hand cor-ner of the screen, then select Control Panel > System and Se-curity> System> System protection. This will open the SystemProperties window.

2. Click on Create, then enter a name for your restore point (e.g.Prior to graphics card driver installation), then click on Createagain. Windows will then go through the process of creatingthe restore point, which can take a few minutes. When theprocess is complete, click on Close.

Problems? How to Reset Windows 10 Using System Restore

If your computer is not working properly after an update or a newdriver has been installed, you can quickly reset Windows usingSystem Restore:

1. Open the System Properties window using the steps givenabove and click on System Restore. In the wizard that appears,click on Next until Windows shows a list of available restorepoints for you to choose from, then select the restore point youwould like to revert to.

2. Click on Scan for affected programs and Windows 10 willcheck whether switching to the restore point will affect any ofthe programs on your system.

3. If you can’t see the restore point you’d like to switch to, click onShow other restore points to have it shown. To switch to yourselected restore point, click on Next > Finish > Yes.

Windows 10 will begin the restoration process and your systemwill be automatically re-booted. After the re-boot, Windows willbe reverted to the previous working configuration and your prob-lem will be solved. Note: if you have installed any new programssince the restore point was created, you will need to re-install themnow you’ve switched back to the earlier configuration.

Professional Tip: When Windows 10 will No Longer Boot

If Windows 10 suddenly refuses to boot, a restore point can quicklyget you up and running again. The only problem is, how can youswitch to the restore point if Windows 10 is no longer working?

If this happens, you should try to repair Windows 10 using the ad-vanced boot options:

Since you don’t usually have a boot CD or USB stick to hand, youshould try the method below to access the repair options.

1. If you have a desktop PC: when you boot Windows 10, simplyswitch it off. After the third time of doing this, the advancedboot options menu should appear.

If you have a laptop: remove the battery and connect the powersupply to the computer, with the power turned on. Then, when

Windows 10 automatically creates restore points at regular intervalsbut it doesn’t hurt to create your own before major system changes.

▶ Tip

Windows 10 automatically creates restore points in the back-ground without you having to do anything. In the System Prop-erties window, click on Configure and you can set how muchstorage space is allocated to System Restore. The more space youallocate, the more restore points Windows 10 will be able to store.

Windows 10: Getting Started 5

Windows 10 Data Backup

Windows 10 boots, unplug the power cable. After the third timedoing this, the advanced boot options should be displayed.

2. In the boot menu shown, click on Repair Computer, then clickon Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Restore, thenfollow the previous instructions to restore your PC.

How to Create a 1:1 Backup Copy of Windows 10

Manual backups are annoying things: you really only need one inan emergency and when you do need it, you find that you don’thave an up-to-date one to hand. Since it’s very easy to forget tocreate a regular backup, Windows allows you to automate theprocess. Software companies try to charge a lot of money for pro-fessional grade backup software but the built-in Windows 10 toolcreates perfect backups and will get you quickly back up and run-ning after a crash.

You can customise the data that your backup contains, whetheryour programs are included and which Windows settings aresaved and this data will then be included in every backup. Youneed to have a USB hard drive, or flash drive, connected to yoursystem with at least 33GB of storage space. Here’s how to createyour backup:

1. Press the + keys at the same time, then click onControl Panel. In the Control Panel, click on System and Se-curity, then click on File History and click the System ImageBackup link in the bottom left-hand corner.

2. In the next step, click on Set up backup. The wizard will launchto help you create your backup. Microsoft recommend that youhave at least 33GB free on your backup drive, so it is best tochoose an external hard drive to save your backup, or click Ona network location, then choose a shared network folder to saveyour backup to. Once you’ve selected the drive, click on Next.

3. You can now choose from one of two types of backup. SelectLet Windows choose (recommended) in order to have Win-dows automatically decide which of your documents and set-tings to back up. By default the AppData, Contacts, Desktop,

Downloads, Favorites, shortcuts, stored games and savedsearches will be included. If your hard drive is using the de-fault NTFS file format, Windows will also create a systemimage including the operating system, programs, drivers andregistry entries.

4. If you select the Let me chooseoption, a window will be shownallowing you to select which files, folders and drives are in-cluded in your backup. You should backup everything in the C:drive. You should also ensure you tick the option Include a sys-tem image of drives, as this will mean that if Windows 10 can-not boot at some point, you can fully recover your system usingthe backup. Click Next to proceed.

5. Finally, you need to decide how often Windows 10 performsthe backup. You can do so by clicking on the Change schedulelink and using the pop-up menu options to set exactly whenthe backup will take place. Since Windows creates backups in-crementally, after the first backup is made, Windows will onlybackup those files that have changed. This greatly reduces thesize of your backup and makes the whole process much quicker.Activate your backup by clicking on Save settings and runbackup. Depending on how much data you have to backup, thefirst backup process could take a while.

How to Restore Your System from a Backup

To restore your system using a previously created backup, followthese steps:

1. If Windows is still working: to restore a backup, open thebackup tool using the steps given in the previous section, thenselect the backup that you would like to revert to from the listof available backups shown and follow the wizard’s instructions.

2. If Windows no longer boots: start windows using the bootmenu as described on the previous page. Click on the Advancedoptions link in the menu, then select System Image Recoveryand follow the instructions.

X

▶ Tip

In practice, selecting the second option, Let me choose, is bettersince you will have full control over deciding what is included inthe backup and you can exclude large files that you don’t reallyneed to keep copies of. This helps you minimise the amount ofspace taken up by the backup and reduces the time taken to com-plete the backup. Once you’ve selected which options to use,click on Next.

▶ Tip

If you don’t want to create a schedule and instead prefer to cre-ate your backups manually, then click on the Change schedulelink and untick the option Run backups on schedule. You don’tneed to worry about Windows running out of storage space forWindows to store your backups. When the space starts to runout, Windows 10 will simply delete the oldest backup.

Follow the wizard steps to back up your system

Reader ServicesYour Reader QuestionsOver the following two pages, you will find the questions sent in by our Windows

10 Perfectly Mastered readers. My expertise and great knowledge of PCs has enabled

me to provide the best solutions to all of your problems, allowing you to continue

using your Windows system with ease. With Windows 10 Perfectly Mastered, you

will have your new operating system under complete control from the very start!

James Wilson,

Your Windows Expert and Editor-in-Chief of

Windows 10 Perfectly Mastered

Your Questions and Answers

6 Windows 10: Getting Started

Immediate Solutions: Send your most problematic Windows 10questions directly to the experts at editorial@windows-10.online andreceive a helpful response within 48 hours.

�

Online: You can discover more information about all of our publica-tions on our website: www.agorabusiness.co.uk, along with all of ourcontact details.

�

Help – My DVDs Won’t Play!Question: “After upgrading my Windows 8.1 system to Windows10, I find I can no longer play DVDs back in the Media Center. Whathas gone wrong?”, asks Gordon Harrison .

Answer: Microsoft has completely removed the Media Centerfrom Windows 10, without providing a replacement. If you wantto play back DVDs, you have to use a different playback tool. Thefamiliar Windows Media Player is available on Windows 10 but itdoes sometimes throw up problems when you try to play backDVDs or BluRay discs. Don’t worry though, to play back DVDsjust install the free VLC Player, which you can download from thewebsite: www.videolan.org.

You won’t have to worry about incompatible format problems.VLC can play back pretty much any file format you come across –whether it is Internet video, recorded TV programmes, camcordermovies, high resolution HD films or DVD discs. A simple double-click on a file is enough to open it in VLC once the program hasbeen installed. You can also find a version of the VPC App in theWindows Store, which will install a version of the App that is wellintegrated with the new features of Windows 10.

Where has the WindowsPerformance Index Gone? Question: “On my old Windows 7 system, you could find the Per-formance Index in the Control Panel which helped you find any per-formance problems with your system. Has it completely disappearedin Windows 10?”, asks Fred Lewis.

Answer: The tool hasn’t disappeared but Microsoft have hiddenit. Here’s how to find it again:

1. Press + and click on Command Prompt (Admin)to launch the Command Prompt. Type in the command win-sat prepop and press . Your computer will then start theperformance analysis process which can take a few minutes. Ifthe command doesn't work, try using the winsat formal com-mand instead.

2. The list of results are very detailed and only of real interest to soft-ware developers. In order to see a compact evaluation of the dif-ferent components of your system, click on the search field nextto the Start button, then type powershell, right-click on WindowsPowerShell (x86) in the list of search results and click on Run as

administrator. At the PowerShell, type the command Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_WinSAT and press . This willprovide you with a summary and your performance index score.

The processor performance (CPUScore), 3D performance of yourgraphics card (D3DScore), the system hard drive performance(DiskScore), the desktop performance of your graphics card(GraphicsScore) and the RAM performance (MemoryScore) areall displayed. The higher the value, the better. On Windows Vistathe highest possible score was 5.9 but on Windows 7 that was in-creased to 9.9, which is the same in Windows 10. The total scorefor the computer (WinSPRLevel) is actually the lowest individualcomponent score. Generally speaking, values from 5 upwards areOK for modern PCs.

As you can see, the values of my test PC are quite high. The lowestperformance is caused by the hard drive but the memory, graphicscard and processor all have scores over 8, which is more thanenough to comfortably run Windows 10.

However, if you have a score of 5.9 for your hard drive, don’t worrytoo much. You really need a fast SSD drive to get a much higherscore than this.

X

Enter

Enter

In Windows 10, Microsoft have managed to hide the performanceindex scores quite well.

Windows 10: Getting Started 7

ISSN 2397-4524Published by Agora Business Publications LLPEditor-in-Chief: James WilsonPublisher: Victoria BurrillAddress: Agora Business Publications LLP, Nesfield House, Broughton,Skipton, BD23 3AN

Customer Services: Open Monday to Friday, 9am until 5pmTel: 01756 693180Fax: 01756 693196Email: cs@agorapublications.co.ukInternet: www.agorabusiness.co.uk Technical help: editorial@windows-10.online

© 2016 Agora Business Publications LLP. No part of thispublication may be reproduced or transmitted in anyform or stored in any retrieval system withoutpermission. Whilst every effort has been made to ensurethat the information within this publication is accurateand not misleading, Agora Business Publications LLPcannot accept any liability for any loss or liability arisingfrom the use of any such information.

Your Questions and Answers

How Can I Get My USB Flash DriveRunning Again? Question: “Now and again, when I connect my USB hard drive tomy system, I get an error message telling me that the USB devicewasn’t recognised and I can’t access my data. This is pretty annoying– what can I do to solve the problem?”, asks Liam Jameson.

Answer: There are many ways to solve this problem:

1. Re-boot your PC: you can often solve problems like this by sim-ply detaching your USB drive, re-booting your computer, thenreconnecting the drive.

2. Detach other USB devices from your computer: sometimes dif-ferent USB devices will conflict with one another. Try removingother USB devices from your system to see if that fixes the prob-lem with your drive.

Check Your PC Settings

� With the USB device connected to your system, press +, type DEVMGMT.MSC and click OK. You’ll see a list of

unidentified USB devices marked with yellow exclamation marks.Right-click on the entry for your problem drive, select Properties,then click on the Driver tab. Click on the Update Driver buttonand follow the prompts on screen to install a new driver.

� If the device isn't shown in the Device Manager, click on theAction menu, then click on Scan for hardware changes.

� If the device still isn’t found, right-click on the various USB RootHub entries, click on Properties in the pop-up menu and thenclick the Power Management tab. Deactivate the option Allow thecomputer to turn off this device to save powerand try re-bootingyour computer and checking whether the device now works.

Why Won’t My DVDs and CDs Launch? Question: “When I insert a DVD or CD into my drive, the windowasking whether I want to run the software on the disc is no longershown in Windows 10. What can I do?”, asks Peter Cranwell.

Answer: There is probably something wrong with your systemsettings. Right-click on the Startbutton and choose Control Panel.Click on System and Security> Hardware and Sound> Play CDsand other media automatically. Tick the option Use AutoPlay forall media and devices and all discs that are inserted will belaunched automatically. You can then configure individual drivesettings below.

My Browser is Suddenly LaunchingAnother Home Page Question: “Every time I launch the Firefox browser, a strange web-site is shown – not the usual home page I configured. However, if Itake a look at the Firefox settings, the correct page is set to be thehome page. What can I do about this?”, asks Gerald Alder.

Answer: It sounds like you’ve fallen victim to browser hijacking.To fix the problem you need to reset Firefox:

1. Launch Firefox and click on the three line icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. In the menu that appears, click onthe question mark icon, then click on Troubleshooting infor-mation. Under Application Basics, click on Show Folder. Youcan now close Firefox.

2. In the folder window that opens, look for the file pref.js anddelete it. If you find more of these files, such as prefs.js.moztmpor user.js, then delete these too.

3. Close Explorer and launch Firefox. You can now click on thethree line icon, followed by Options, to reconfigure your homepage and other settings.

R

Using the Windows 10 Control Panel, you can set what happens whenyou insert discs or drives of particular types.

Alternatively, youcan try clicking onthe Refresh Firefoxbutton on theTroubleshootinginformation menu.This will reset Firefoxback to its defaultsettings, leaving allbookmarks, savedpasswords andopened tabs in place.

Microsoft, Office and Windows are Registered Trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are acknowledged as belonging to their respective companies.Windows 10 Perfectly Mastered is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, nor has it been authorised, sponsored or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.

Image and Photo Editing

8 Windows 10: Getting Started

Get More from Your Pictures with the New Photos AppYou can now make your best photos even more impressive _ by simply altering the exposure, customising the colours and perfectlyaligning your pictures. Along with this, you can also sharpen blurred photos and reduce imperfections, correct red eye, or convertcoloured photos to black and white. Using the new Photos App in Windows 10, you can make your pictures look great. I’ll show youhow to use the features of this great App in this section.

Great Photos App

The new Photos App is the central place for viewing, managingand editing your digital photographs. The App can usually befound on a tile on the Startmenu but if it’s not there you will findit in the All Appsmenu.

When you launch the program for the first time, it will scan yourPC and all of the attached drives for photos and display them underthe COLLECTION heading, sorted by the date they were taken.When you save new photos onto your PC in future, they too willbe shown under the COLLECTION heading. If you also want thePhotos App to display pictures saved in your online OneDrivefolder, click on the Settings (cog) icon, then turn the Show mycloud-only content from OneDrive option to On.

View and Edit Photos

In the COLLECTION window you will see a preview of all of yourimages. Click on a photo and the full size version of it will beshown. You can scroll through your picture collection using themouse wheel. At the top of the screen you will see the differenttools that the App provides (from left to right):

Share: allows you to share the picture with other Apps, such asyour email program, or the Facebook App.

Slide show: automatically display all of the pictures in your collec-tion one after the other.

Enhance: automatically correct problems with the pictures bright-ness, contrast and colour balance. If you decide you don’t like theresult, then you can click on the icon again to switch back to youroriginal image. Note, the icon only appears when you are viewingphotos saved to your local hard drive. For pictures saved onOneDrive, you first have to download them to your local machine.

Edit: manually edit the picture.

Rotate: allows you to rotate the picture if necessary. Note: this iconis only shown for images that are saved on your local hard drive.

Delete: sends the image to the Recycle Bin.

More info: opens a menu that allows you to copy or print theimage, set it as your desktop background image, or open it usinganother program. You can also select the File info option to seedetails of the picture, such as the camera settings used to take it.

Make Your Photos Even More Perfect

The Photos App comes with all of the features you need to improveyour pictures. You can use them to correct the most commonproblems, such as hazy colours, poor contrast, under exposure, orred eyes, with just a few mouse clicks.

You can access these functions by opening a photo in full screenmode, then clicking on the Edit (pen) icon. To the left you will seethe various options, e.g. to apply filters, effects, or alter the colours.On the right-hand side, you can access the corresponding tools.

Example: choose Light and then click on Brightness. Use thearrow keys or the mouse wheel to brighten up your whole picture.If you choose Highlights instead, you can change the brightnessof the foreground colours, or click Shadows to lighten the darkareas of the picture. You can experiment with the various settingsto see how they work and how they improve your picture, whileleaving the original image untouched.

The Photos App contains a whole host of tools to createperfect pictures.

▶ Tip

Click on the image you are editing and then click on the Compareicon to switch between the original and your edited version. Ifyou are happy with your changes, press + to savethe edited version. Windows will create a copy of the picture fea-turing your edits. You can tell which is a copy by the numberadded to the filename.

CTRL S

Use these options toconfigure where thePhotos App looks forpictures.