My essential Windows 11 tweaks: 22 Settings to change for a better experience

There, choose one of the images from the Recent images for the background or click the ‘Browse photos’ button to select an image from your local drive. After the folder is selected, you can use the‘Change picture every’ setting to choose how long an image should remain as your background before changing. By default, the picture will change every ’30 minutes, but you can change it to 1, 10, or 30 minutes, 1 or 6 hours, or 1 day. To change the desktop wallpaper/background, first, select ‘Picture’ from the ‘Personalize your background’ drop-down. Then, you can either select an available image under ‘Recent images’ or choose one of your own photos or images from the local storage. Click on “Background” and choose a picture, solid color, or slideshow to set as your desktop background.

If your PC is inactive, you can set the lock screen to show instead of turning off the screen. To change the type of lock screen background, click the drop-down next to ‘Personalize your lock screen’ and choose one of the three options. The lock screen is the first screen that appears whenever you turn on or wake up or lock your PC. The lock screen appears before the sign-in screen which is where you enter your password or PIN to get into your PC. The lock screen displays time, date, network, battery, notifications, and maybe info about the Windows spotlight image on top of the wallpaper.

Enable light or dark color mode

Once the theme is downloaded, it will be added to your collection of themes under the ‘Current theme’ section. To apply a downloaded theme, just click its thumbnail and it https://aliexpressofficial.com/ will take effect immediately. Once saved, your theme will be added to the list of themes available on the Themes page.

After all, a well-organized Start Menu means less time searching for apps, while a thoughtful color scheme can improve your focus and reduce eye strain. As you continue to personalize your PC, don’t hesitate to experiment with different settings until you find what works best for you. If you ever feel overwhelmed, remember that you can always revert to default settings. By default, Windows 10 will assign an accent color based on your desktop background image.

Select the “Personalization” option from the Settings menu to access a variety of customization features. Under Dismiss notifications after this amount of time, I selected a shorter duration, so alerts disappear sooner. Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using the Personalization settings.

To create a slideshow, you’ll need to select a folder from which Windows can draw pictures. You can’t select individual pictures–only folders–so go ahead and set up a folder with your favorite background pictures before selecting this option. After selecting your folder, you can also specify how often Windows changes the background picture, whether it shuffles the pictures randomly, and how the pictures should fit your desktop. To change keyboard background, go to the ‘Window’ tab, and choose keyboard background type from the ‘Personalize your background’ drop-down menu. You can set a custom ‘solid color’ or your own ‘picture’ for the background.

Customize the Start Menu in Windows 11

Once you complete the steps, transparency effects will be available according to your selection. After you complete the steps, the desktop will rotate new wallpapers daily from the Microsoft Bing service. In this how-to guide, I will walk you through the different ways to customize the appearance to make your computer experience a little more personal. From the Lock screen section, you can choose which apps show notifications, but this is nothing new.

Now, the selected photo will be set as your new desktop background as shown below. Choosing the right color can make your desktop more visually appealing and easier on the eyes. The dark mode is excellent for reducing eye strain at night, while a bright color might give your desktop a cheerful boost. Whether you want a soothing landscape, a motivational picture, or a color splash, this option lets you set the vibe every time you turn on your computer. I also disabled Show recommended files in Start, recent files in File Explorer, and items in Jump Lists. At the bottom of the same page, I opened Folders and kept only the ones I actually use near the power button, like Settings and Downloads.

However, if you create a new virtual desktop after changing the background, the last changed background will apply to all the new desktops. Once the image is selected, you can choose how the image covers or fits the screen. Click on the ‘Choose a fit for your desktop image’ drop-down to select a fitting for the image.

Windows 10 still includes the old Fonts tool in the Control Panel, but you can now also manage fonts within the Settings app. It’s usually a pretty long list, so there’s a search box right up top to help out. And for reference, here’s where all that stuff shows up on your lock screen. After the system restarts, right-click on the File Explorer or on the desktop to see the full classic content menu.

Once the taskbar was organized, the next area to fix was the Start menu. It had become cluttered with recently added apps, suggestions, and shortcuts I opened once and forgot about. Every time I pressed Start, it showed more of what Windows suggested than what I actually used. Select Browse to choose a desktop background from one of your personal photos. Customizing Windows 11 can make your computer not only look different but feel more intuitive and personal, offering an experience that’s tailor-made just for you.

Then, you can choose your own custom accent color or let Windows automatically select one that matches or contrasts with your wallpaper. To change color accent, either set the ‘Choose you mode’ setting to ‘Dark’ or ‘Custom’. If you selected ‘Custom’, change the ‘Choose your default Windows mode’ option to ‘Dark’.

• Increasing the font size will also increase the size of icons and other items on your desktop.
• Check the ‘Play a slideshow when using battery power‘ to run the slideshow even you are running on battery.
• We do, however, have a quick registry hack that can at least let you keep a black background on your Start menu and Action Center.
• Changing mode will reflect on the Start menu, Taskbar, Notification Center, Quick Settings, Title bars, Borders, and Apps.

If you select ‘Custom’ mode, you can choose one mode for Windows and another for apps from the below options. You can use the ‘Choose your default Windows mode’ option to set light or dark mode for Windows elements like Start menu, Taskbar, etc. Then use the ‘Choose your default app mode’ setting to set light or dark color mode for apps. It also enhances existing Windows apps and tools with advanced context menus, options, and handy commands.

By default, Windows 11 lock screen is set to show Windows Spotlight images. Windows Spotlight is an option for the lock screen background that automatically downloads images from Bing and displays a different high-quality image as wallpaper on the lock screen every day. The most common thing that people do to make their computer look different or feel personal to them is to change its wallpaper with a personal picture or some others. In Windows 11, you personalize your desktop background with a background image, a slideshow, or a solid background color. In this section, let us see how to change the background in Windows 11.

To do that, first, apply the theme you want to share, then right-click and select ‘Save theme for sharing’. Click the ‘Lock screen status’ drop-down list and choose which apps you want to show details (status) on the Lock Screen. If you don’t want any notification or status on the lock screen, choose ‘None’. If you select ‘Manual’, you will be able to choose your favorite color from the color palette of 48 predefined colors. Windows 11 enables you to create separate virtual desktops which allow you to multitask efficiently. If you change your background on the current desktop while using multiple desktops, the background will only apply to the current desktop.

When you open the Start menu, you will see a list of built-in apps under the ‘Pinned’ section, these include Microsoft Store, Microsoft Edge, Settings, Mail, To do, Calculator, etc. Under the ‘Key’ tab, select the key text color to change the text color. You can also select the color for the text in the suggestion area under the ‘Suggestion text color’ section. You can also expand the ‘Keyboard size’ setting and click the ‘Reset’ button to return to the default size. Then turn on the ‘Night light’ toggle under the ‘Brightness & color’ section to enable it. From the ‘Contrast themes’ drop-down, select one of the available themes and click ‘Apply’ to set the theme.