We’ve catalogued some of our biggest beefs with Windows 10 and how you can fix them. reveals all.
Nathan Taylor
Are there things about Windows that still bug you? Is it launching the wrong apps, harassing you with notifications, starting apps you don’t want or showing interface elements you’d rather have hidden? Then this is the guide you’ve been looking for.
LOSE THE NOTIFICATIONS
Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit of Windows annoyances: notifications. Certain apps and Windows features just love to send completely pointless notifications, constantly bothering us with things we don’t care about or ‘reminders’ to do things we don’t actually want to do.
This is an easy fix. When you get a notification from an app or service you don’t want notifications from, just right click on it in the Action Centre and select the option to disable notifications for this group. Easy.
You can manage Notifications globally from the Windows Settings under ‘System > Notifications & Actions’. Here, you can manually switch on or off Notifications from individual apps. You can also disable lock screen notifications as well as Windows tips and tricks.
CLEAR PRE-INSTALLED APPS
Okay, this one’s not on Microsoft. It’s on the OEMs that load their new PCs with unnecessary crapware, like security suite and online storage trials, support utilities and apps that are already covered in the Windows default set. To get rid of all this stuff, we recommend an app called Decrap My Computer ( decrap.org). Decrap functions as a mass-uninstaller, allowing you to view all your installed apps, check the boxes next to the ones you don’t want, and then let it remove them from your computer. You do have to be a little careful, and we don’t recommend running it in automatic mode, but if you want to get rid of a lot of stuff quickly, it’s great.
An alternative tool is PC Decrapifier ( www.pcdecrapifier.com), a similar app that uses group intelligence to recommend apps to remove. For instance, if 95% of other PC Decrapifier users removed a given app, it will recommend you uninstall it as well.
FIX FILE ASSOCIATIONS
File associations are a constant source of annoyance, especially when a file is associated with the wrong app. For instance, if you prefer VLC but it keeps using Windows Media Player whenever you click on an AVI file, it’s going to get old quickly.
The way to fix associations is not terribly intuitive. In File Explorer, right click on any file of the type you want to change the association with. Select ‘Open with > Choose another app’. Do this even if the app you want to associate to that file type is listed in the available options. (If you choose the app from that list, then it will just use it this one time. We want to change the association permanently.)
Now, find the app you want to associate with the file type. If it’s not listed you may have to click on ‘Look for another app on this PC’. Check the box to associate that file type with that app permanently.
The other way you can manage file associations is through Settings. It’s under ‘Settings > System > Default apps’. You’ll have to scroll down and click on Choose default applications by file type. This will list all the file types Windows has encountered so far and their associated apps.
Click on the name of an app next to the file type (or the ‘+’ button if no app