Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies

GET MORE OUT OF YOUR WINDOWS 11 COMPUTER WITH EASY-TO-FOLLOW ADVICE

Powering 75% of the PCs on the planet, Microsoft Windows is capable of extraordinary things. And you don’t need to be a computer scientist to explore the nooks and crannies of the operating system! With Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies, anyone can discover how to dig into Microsoft’s ubiquitous operating system and get the most out of the latest version. From securing and protecting your most personal information to socializing and sharing on social media platforms and making your Windows PC your own through personalization, this book offers step-by-step instructions to unlocking Windows 11’s most useful secrets.

With handy info from 10 books included in the beginner-to-advanced learning path contained within, this guide walks you through how to:

* Install, set up, and customize your Windows 11 PC in a way that makes sense just for you
* Use the built-in apps, or download your own, to power some of Windows 11’s most useful features
* Navigate the Windows 11 system settings to keep your system running smoothly

Perfect for anyone who’s looked at their Windows PC and wondered, “I wonder what else it can do?”, Windows 11 All-in-One For Dummies delivers all the tweaks, tips, and troubleshooting tricks you’ll need to make your Windows 11 PC do more than you ever thought possible.

CIPRIAN ADRIAN RUSEN is cofounder of Digital Citizen (digitalcitizen.life), a tech blog that posts how-to articles on consumer technologies. Ciprian is also co-author of Windows 10 All-in-One For Dummies, 4th Edition and author of Windows 10 At Work For Dummies.

INTRODUCTION 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

BOOK 1: GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS 11 5

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING WINDOWS 11 7

Taking Your First Look at Windows 11 8

Hardware and Software 9

Must You Run Windows? 10

Understanding Important Terminology 13

Buying a Windows 11 Computer 17

Looking inside your PC 20

Secure boot, TPM, and Windows 11 23

Tablets 24

Displays 28

Managing disks and drives 29

Connecting your PC to other devices 32

Video, sound, and multimedia 35

Ultrabooks and convertibles 37

What You Might Not Like about Windows 11 38

CHAPTER 2: SEEING WHAT’S NEW IN WINDOWS 11 39

Rolling Back to Windows 10 40

Microsoft’s Design Philosophy behind Windows 11 42

Understanding the Types of Windows 11 Apps 43

Seeing What’s New for the Windows Crowd 45

A new Start menu and taskbar 46

Increased role for Settings 46

Improved performance 47

Better gaming 48

Improved Microsoft Edge 50

Less Cortana 51

Improved security 52

Fine-tuned virtual desktops 53

Improved window snapping and grouping 54

Widgets are back 54

Other apps and improvements 55

CHAPTER 3: WINDOWS 11 VERSIONS 57

Windows 11 Editions 58

Buying the right edition, the first time 60

Narrowing the choices 61

64-bit is the new normal 62

Which Version of Windows Are You Running? 63

BOOK 2: PERSONALIZING WINDOWS 67

CHAPTER 1: GETTING AROUND IN WINDOWS 69

Navigating around the Desktop 70

Using Windows 11 on Tablets and Touchscreens 74

Shut Down, Sleep, Restart, Sign Out, Lock, Sleep 75

Taking Screen Shots 78

Keyboard Shortcuts 79

CHAPTER 2: LOGGING INTO WINDOWS 11 83

Working with the Lock Screen 84

Signing in 85

Changing the picture for the lock screen 85

Adding and removing apps on the lock screen 89

Logging in without a Password 90

Creating a PIN 90

Windows Hello 92

Bypassing Passwords 94

CHAPTER 3: HANDLING NOTIFICATIONS AND QUICK ACTIONS 97

What, Exactly, Is a Notification? 98

Using the Notification Center 99

Disabling Notifications 101

Enabling Focus Assist 102

Using Quick Actions 104

CHAPTER 4: MANAGING USER ACCOUNTS 107

Understanding Why You Need Separate User Accounts 108

Choosing Account Types 109

What’s a standard account? 109

What’s an administrator account? 110

Choosing between standard and administrator accounts 110

Knowing What’s Good and Bad about Microsoft Accounts 112

Adding Accounts in Windows 11 113

Adding a user with a Microsoft account 114

Adding a local (offline) account 115

Adding a Child Account 118

Changing Other Users’ Settings 119

Setting a standard account as administrator 119

Modifying the settings of other accounts 120

Switching Users 124

CHAPTER 5: UNDERSTANDING MICROSOFT ACCOUNTS 127

Realizing Which Accounts Are Microsoft Accounts 128

Deciding Whether You Want a Microsoft Account 129

Setting Up a Microsoft Account 131

Creating an Outlook.com account 132

Making any email address a Microsoft account 133

Discontinuing Your Microsoft Account 136

Taking Care of Your Microsoft Account 137

Controlling Which Windows 11 Settings Get Synchronized 137

CHAPTER 6: PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY 139

Realizing Why You Should Care about Privacy 140

Handling Your Privacy in Windows 11 142

Limiting diagnostics and feedback data collection 143

Viewing the diagnostic data sent to Microsoft 145

Knowing What Connections Windows Prefers 146

Seeing Fewer Ads in Windows 11 147

Controlling Location Tracking 149

Blocking all location tracking in Windows 11 152

Blocking location tracking in an app 153

Minimizing Privacy Intrusion 154

BOOK 3: WORKING ON THE DESKTOP 155

CHAPTER 1: RUNNING YOUR DESKTOP FROM START TO FINISH 157

Working with the Desktop 158

Changing the background 159

Switching Windows 11 themes 161

Battling dark mode and light mode 162

Setting Up Your Display 163

Switching the night light on and off 163

Enabling HDR and auto HDR 164

Setting the screen resolution 166

Changing the size of text, apps, and other items 167

Adjusting the refresh rate 168

Using magnification 170

Working with a Mouse and a Touchpad 170

Snapping app windows 171

Configuring the mouse 173

Setting up the trackpad 174

Using Virtual Desktops 175

Moving apps between virtual desktops 176

Managing Icons and Shortcuts 177

Creating shortcuts 178

Arranging icons on the desktop 180

The Recycle Bin 181

CHAPTER 2: PERSONALIZING THE START MENU 183

Touring the Start Menu 184

Modifying the Start Menu 185

Adding, moving and removing pinned apps 186

Changing your picture 188

Personalizing the Recommended section 189

Adding and removing Start menu folders 190

Moving the Start menu and taskbar to the left 191

CHAPTER 3: EXPLORING SEARCH AND THE TASKBAR 193

Searching in Windows 11 194

Searching is the fastest way to start apps 196

Filtering search results to find what you need 198

Starting apps as admin from a Windows search 199

Searching your entire PC 200

Touring the Windows 11 Taskbar 202

Using the taskbar 203

Using jump lists and other taskbar tricks 203

Pinning apps to the taskbar 205

Adding and removing taskbar items 207

CHAPTER 4: WORKING WITH FILES AND FOLDERS 209

Using File Explorer 210

Navigating File Explorer 210

Viewing and opening your file and folders 212

Creating and managing files and folders 215

Searching for files 217

Sorting and grouping files and folders 218

Displaying file extensions 219

Viewing hidden files 221

Pinning items to and removing items from Quick Access 222

Enabling and disabling check boxes for files and folders 222

Sharing files 224

Working with ZIP Files 225

Creating a ZIP file 226

Extracting a ZIP file 227

Right-Clicking in Windows 11 228

CHAPTER 5: CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET AND BROWSING THE WEB 231

Connecting to the Internet 232

Connecting a desktop PC to the network 232

Connecting your laptop or tablet to Wi-Fi 233

Connecting to hidden Wi-Fi 234

Using Microsoft Edge 236

Familiarizing yourself with Microsoft Edge 237

Enabling vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge 238

InPrivate browsing with Microsoft Edge 239

Adding extensions to Microsoft Edge 241

Using Other Web Browsers 243

Changing the Default Browser in Windows 11 243

CHAPTER 6: CALLING ON CORTANA 247

The Cortana Backstory 247

Setting up Cortana 248

Turning on Voice Activation for Cortana 250

Using Cortana 251

Exploring Cortana’s Settings 253

Useful or Fun Commands for Cortana 255

CHAPTER 7: MAINTAINING YOUR DRIVES 257

Using Maintenance Tools for Your Computer Drives 258

Formatting drives 258

Freeing up storage space with Storage Sense 260

Running an error check on a drive 261

Defragmenting a drive 263

Maintaining solid-state drives 264

Accessing the Health Report 265

BOOK 4: USING WINDOWS APPS 267

CHAPTER 1: USING THE MAIL AND CALENDAR APPS 269

Choosing Mail and Calendar Apps 271

Comparing email apps 272

Comparing calendar apps 275

Choosing the right package 277

Using the Mail App 277

Creating an email message 281

Searching for email in the Mail app 284

Mail Settings 284

Adding a new email account 284

Setting extra options 286

Avoiding Calendar App Collisions 287

Adding calendar items 290

Struggling with the Calendar app’s shortcomings 291

CHAPTER 2: KEEPING TRACK OF PEOPLE 293

Alternatives to the People App 294

The Contact List in Windows 11 294

Adding Contacts in the People App 295

Adding accounts to People 295

Editing a contact 299

Adding a contact 301

CHAPTER 3: WORKING WITH PHOTOS 303

Viewing Pictures with the Photos App 304

Adding Photos 306

Importing pictures from a camera or an external drive 307

Adding folders to the Photos app 308

Editing Photos 309

Switching to Light Mode in the Photos App 312

Working with Albums 313

CHAPTER 4: NOTE-TAKING WITH ONENOTE 315

Getting Started in OneNote with or without a Pen 316

Adding Notebooks, Sections, and Pages 318

Adding Content to a OneNote Page 322

Sending Sites from Microsoft Edge to OneNote 325

Configuring OneNote’s Settings 326

CHAPTER 5: STORING IN ONEDRIVE 329

What Is OneDrive? 330

Setting Up a OneDrive Account 331

The Four States of OneDrive Data 334

Adding Files and Folders to OneDrive 339

Changing the States of OneDrive Data 342

Sharing OneDrive Files and Folders 343

CHAPTER 6: COMMUNICATING WITH SKYPE 345

Signing Up with Skype 346

Adding a Contact 350

Testing Your Skype Settings 351

Improving Skype’s Settings 353

Making Individual and Group Calls 355

Recording Calls 356

CHAPTER 7: USING WIDGETS 359

Working with Widgets 360

Customizing Widgets 361

Adding Widgets 363

CHAPTER 8: HANDLING MUSIC, MOVIES, AND VIDEOS 365

Getting Your Groove Music On 366

Choosing where Groove Music looks for music 368

Creating playlists in Groove Music 370

Playing Videos and Music with Windows Media Player 371

Ripping Music from Your Old CDs 373

Setting Up Spotify 375

Creating Your Own Videos 377

Using the Movies & TV App 379

CHAPTER 9: PLAYING GAMES 381

Searching the Microsoft Store for Games 382

Enabling Game Mode 384

Using the Xbox Game Bar 386

Setting the Default Graphics Card 388

Bringing Back the Classics 389

BOOK 5: MANAGING APPS 393

CHAPTER 1: NAVIGATING THE MICROSOFT STORE 395

Understanding What a Windows 11 App Can Do 396

Browsing the Microsoft Store 398

Installing Apps from the Microsoft Store 402

Uninstalling Windows 11 Apps 403

CHAPTER 2: USING BUILT-IN APPLICATIONS 405

Checking Out the New Clock App 406

Getting Weather Forecasts 408

Editing Text Files with Notepad 409

Writing with WordPad 411

Doing Math with Calculator 414

Checking Out the New Paint App 416

Creating Sticky Notes 417

Keeping Track of Tasks with Microsoft To Do 418

Navigating with Maps 419

CHAPTER 3: GETTING APPS FROM THE WEB 423

Finding Safe Places to Download Desktop Apps 424

Checking Apps for Malware 426

Uninstalling Desktop Apps or Programs 428

CHAPTER 4: KEEPING APPS AND DRIVERS UP TO DATE 431

Updating Your Microsoft Store Apps 432

Updating Programs and Desktop Apps 434

Updating Drivers 437

BOOK 6: SHARING, SOCIALIZING, AND WORKING ONLINE 441

CHAPTER 1: BEING SOCIAL ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER 443

Getting Started with Facebook 443

Choosing the Facebook App or Facebook.com 444

Signing up for a Facebook account 446

Building a great Timeline 453

Downloading your Facebook data 457

Using the other Facebook apps for Windows 459

Getting Started with Twitter 460

Understanding Twitter 461

Setting up a Twitter account 464

Tweeting for beginners 469

CHAPTER 2: MASTERING TOOLS FOR REMOTE WORK 473

Getting Started with LinkedIn 474

Signing up for LinkedIn 475

Understanding LinkedIn basics 479

Using LinkedIn apps for Windows and mobile devices 480

Video Conferencing with Zoom 481

Downloading and installing Zoom 482

Setting up a Zoom account 483

Signing into Zoom cloud meetings 485

Scheduling a Zoom meeting 486

Joining a Zoom meeting 488

Contacting Others through Teams 489

Getting started with Microsoft Teams 489

Chatting from Windows 11 490

Starting a meeting from Windows 11 492

Accessing the full Microsoft Teams experience 493

Working Remotely with Windows 11 494

Enabling remote desktop connections 495

Connecting with Remote Desktop Connection 496

Connecting a second monitor 498

Installing a webcam 499

Adding clocks to the taskbar 500

BOOK 7: CONTROLLING YOUR SYSTEM 503

CHAPTER 1: NAVIGATING WINDOWS SETTINGS AND LANGUAGES 505

Understanding the Settings App 506

Exploring the Control Panel 509

Putting Shortcuts to Settings on Your Desktop 511

God Mode (Still) Works in Windows 11 514

Using Search to Quickly Find Settings 516

Installing New Languages in Windows 11 517

CHAPTER 2: MANAGING WINDOWS UPDATES 521

Understanding the Terminology 522

Installing Updates for Windows 11 524

Postponing Windows 11 Updates 525

Getting Updates for Office 526

Stopping Updates from Rebooting Your PC 527

Getting Information about and Removing Updates 528

The Case against Windows Automatic Update 530

Blocking Windows 11 updates 531

When is it a good time to unblock updates? 532

CHAPTER 3: TROUBLESHOOTING AND GETTING HELP 535

Troubleshooting the Easy Way 536

Troubleshooting the Hard Way 537

Tackling installation problems 537

Problems with installing updates 539

Using Windows Terminal 545

Experimenting with Windows Sandbox 547

Tricks to Using Microsoft Support 548

The problems with Windows Help & Learning 549

Managing your expectations of Windows Help & Learning 549

Snapping Your Problems 551

Recording a Video of Your Problems 552

Connecting to Remote Assistance 555

Understanding the interaction 555

Making the connection 556

Troubleshooting Remote Assistance 561

Getting Better Help Online 562

CHAPTER 4: STORING IN STORAGE SPACES 565

Understanding the Virtualization of Storage 566

Setting Up Storage Spaces 568

Working with Storage Spaces 572

Storage Space Strategies 574

CHAPTER 5: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 575

Installing a Printer 576

Attaching a local printer 577

Installing a network printer 578

Using the Print Queue 581

Displaying a print queue 582

Pausing and resuming a print queue 583

Pausing, restarting, and resuming a document 583

Canceling a document 584

Troubleshooting Printing 585

Removing a printer 587

Stopping a print job you’ve sent by mistake 587

CHAPTER 6: WORKING WITH USB AND BLUETOOTH DEVICES 589

Connecting USB Devices 590

Configuring AutoPlay for removable devices 591

Removing USB devices 592

Connecting Bluetooth Devices 594

Unpairing Bluetooth Devices 596

BOOK 8: MAINTAINING WINDOWS 599

CHAPTER 1: BACKING UP DATA 601

Finding Windows 7’s Backup Options in Windows 11 602

The Future of Reliable Storage Is in the Cloud 603

Backing Up and Restoring Files with File History 603

Setting up File History 604

Checking whether File History backed up your data 605

Restoring data from File History 606

Changing File History settings 608

Storing to and through the Cloud 611

Considering cloud storage privacy concerns 612

Reaping the benefits of backup and storage in the cloud 613

Choosing an online backup and sharing service 614

CHAPTER 2: RESETTING WINDOWS TO A WORKING STATE 617

Resuscitating Malfunctioning Windows 11 PCs 618

Resetting Your Windows 11 PC 620

Resetting Your PC to Factory Settings 623

Restoring to an Earlier Point 625

Enabling System Protection 626

Creating a restore point 628

Rolling back to a restore point 628

CHAPTER 3: TROUBLESHOOTING WITH SAFE MODE 633

Working in Safe Mode 634

Accessing safe mode 634

Using safe mode for troubleshooting 637

Entering the Windows Recovery Environment 638

CHAPTER 4: MONITORING WINDOWS 641

Viewing Events 641

Using Event Viewer 642

Events worthy — and not worthy — of viewing 644

Gauging System Reliability 645

CHAPTER 5: MANAGING RUNNING APPS, PROCESSES, AND STARTUP APPS 651

Using Task Manager 652

Starting Task Manager 653

Viewing running apps and processes 653

Dealing with Misbehaving Apps 656

Killing apps that don’t respond 656

Keeping an eye on performance 657

Getting More Info from Task Manager 659

Viewing App History 659

Managing startup programs 660

Checking out details and services 663

Managing Startup Apps from Settings 665

BOOK 9: SECURING WINDOWS 667

CHAPTER 1: SPIES, SPAMS, AND SCAMS ARE OUT TO GET YOU 669

Understanding the Hazards — and the Hoaxes 670

The primary infection vectors 671

Zombies and botnets 673

Phishing 675

419 scams 680

I’m from Microsoft, and I’m here to help 683

0day exploits 684

Staying Informed 685

Relying on reliable sources 686

Ditching the hoaxes 686

Is My Computer Infected? 688

Evaluating telltale signs 689

Where did that message come from? 689

What to do next 691

Shunning scareware 693

Getting Protected 694

Protecting against malware 695

Stop using Java and Flash 696

Using your credit card safely online 697

Defending your privacy 698

Reducing spam 700

Dealing with Data Breaches 702

CHAPTER 2: FIGHTING VIRUSES AND OTHER MALWARE 705

Basic Windows Security Do’s and Don’ts 706

Making Sense of Malware 710

Deciphering Browsers’ Inscrutable Warnings 713

Google Chrome 713

Mozilla Firefox 715

Microsoft Edge 715

CHAPTER 3: RUNNING BUILT-IN SECURITY PROGRAMS 717

Working with Windows Security 718

Adjusting Windows Security 720

Running Windows Security manually 722

Controlling Folder Access 724

Judging SmartScreen 726

Booting Securely with UEFI 729

A brief history of BIOS 730

How UEFI is different from and better than BIOS 731

How Windows 11 uses UEFI 732

Controlling User Account Control 733

Poking at Windows Defender Firewall 735

Understanding Defender Firewall basic features 736

Speaking your firewall’s lingo 737

Peeking into your firewall 738

Making inbound exceptions 739

CHAPTER 4: ENHANCING YOUR SECURITY 743

Encrypting Your PC with BitLocker 744

Managing Your Passwords 747

Using password managers 747

My recommendations 747

Rockin’ RoboForm 748

Liking Bitwarden 749

Fighting Back at Tough Scumware 751

Securing Your Communication with VPN 752

What’s a VPN? 752

Setting up a VPN in Windows 11 754

Which paid VPN services should you consider? 756

BOOK 10: ENHANCING WINDOWS 757

CHAPTER 1: LINKING ANDROID TO WINDOWS 759

Making Windows Talk to Your Android Device 760

Trying Samsung DeX 762

Linking an Android Smartphone to a PC 763

Using the Your Phone app 765

Removing your Android device from the Your Phone app 767

Turning a Smartphone into a PC Webcam 768

CHAPTER 2: USING YOUR IPHONE WITH WINDOWS 771

Installing iTunes on Windows 11 772

Setting up iTunes 773

Synchronizing the iPhone with Windows 11 774

Installing iCloud on Windows 11 776

Controlling Windows from an iPhone or iPad 778

CHAPTER 3: WRANGLING E-BOOK FILES 781

Working with E-Book Files 782

Introducing popular e-book formats 782

Reading e-book files on your PC 783

Organizing your e-book files with calibre 784

Getting e-Books from Your PC to Your Kindle 787

Emailing books from your PC to your Kindle 787

Receiving emailed books from a friend 789

CHAPTER 4: GETTING STARTED WITH GMAIL AND OTHER GOOGLE APPS 791

Introducing Google’s Ecosystem 793

Setting Up Gmail 796

Sending and Reading Emails from Gmail 798

Moving an Existing Account to Gmail 799

Adding Google Drive to File Explorer 802

Using Google Apps to View and Edit Files 804

CHAPTER 5: USING OUTLOOK.COM AND MICROSOFT 365 809

Using Outlook.com 810

Sweeping emails in Outlook.com 812

Bringing some sanity to your Outlook.com inbox 814

Handling Outlook.com Failures 815

The Office App and Microsoft 365 817

Using the Free Office Web Apps 818

CHAPTER 6: DISCOVERING THE BEST FREE WINDOWS ADD-ONS 821

Windows Apps You Absolutely Must Have 821

VLC Media Player 822

Bitwarden 823

Recuva 824

The Best of the Rest — All Free 825

Ninite 825

Revo Uninstaller 826

Paint.NET 827

7-Zip 828

qBittorrent 829

Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or 829

Other interesting free software 830

You may not need to buy Microsoft Office 831

Don’t Pay for Software You Don’t Need! 832

Windows 11 has all the antivirus software you need 833

Windows 11 doesn’t need a disk defragger 833

Windows 11 doesn’t need a disk partitioner 833

Windows 11 doesn’t need a registry cleaner 834

Windows 11 doesn’t need a backup program 835

Don’t turn off services or hack your registry 835

Index 837