MANAGE STARTUP APPS
One of the best new features of recent versions of Task Manager is the ability to control what starts when your computer does, making it easy to prevent annoying apps from starting before you need them to. Press ‘Win-X’, then select Task Manager.
Click on the Start-up tab to see the apps that start when Windows does. You can disable them by clicking on one and then on ‘disable’.
If you like doing things hardcore, you can also use regedit (see below). The relevant entry is:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\StartupApproved\Run
...for the current user. For all users, go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\StartupApproved\Run
Find the app you don’t want starting and right click on it, then ‘Delete’.
Finally, there’s the old timey Startup folder, a relic from the Windows 95 days. Any app or link placed in this folder will start when Windows does. Not many apps now use it, but some might. To see what’s in your Startup folder, press ‘ Win-R’ to bring up the run dialog. Type shell:Startup into the field, which will bring up your Startup folder.
DISABLE THE STICKY KEYS KEY
Sticky keys is an accessibility option for people who have problems pressing more than one key at a time. It’s disabled by default. To enable or disable sticky keys, one would normally press the shift key five times in succession, which will make the sticky keys popup appear.
The problem for gamers is that they might actually press the shift key five times as part of playing the game, which will immediately interrupt their game and probably cause a loss. Thankfully, you can make sure the sticky key popup no longer appears. Just press shift five times to bring up the window. There’s a link right there
TASKBAR ICONS
So the Taskbar icons are really stacking up, taking up a lot of the available space on your screen. Thankfully, you can trim that down in the settings menu, with icons that you don’t use or need to see continuously relegated to a drawer.
You’ll find what you need in ‘Settings > Personalisation > Taskbar’. Here, you can make the Taskbar thinner or auto hide it. When it comes to icons, scroll down to Notification area and click on ‘Select which icons appear on the taskbar’. A list of apps that have tried to shove an icon there are listed; and those you switch to ‘off’ will be relegated to the icon drawer, which appear next to the icons on the bottom right (it looks like an up arrow — ^).
You can also go back to the Taskbar settings and click on ‘Turn system icons on or off’. This way, you can dump things like the network and power indicators and even the Action Centre.
STOP WINDOWS FROM ASKING PERMISSION TO CHANGE SETTINGS
That popup you get, asking for your permission to change a Windows system setting or install an app — have you ever said no? If you’re tired of your PC asking, you can turn this off. It’s called User Account Control, and we should warn you: it exists for a reason. It’s so apps can’t make unauthorised changes to certain Windows settings without your permission. But if you’re careful