Learn how to use Windows 10 for beginners
Learn how to use Windows 10 for Beginners
A Complete Windows 10 tutorial for 2021 on how to use an operate Windows for the visual learner. This training is free and a hands on guide to learn all the essentials for Windows. This is a Windows 10 training for seniors or any age group and anyone wants to learn more. This is training part 1 of 2 and more to come.
I will go through many different tutorials on how to use windows 10 to get the most out of your computer. This training is made in a easy to understand manner for all audiences. The more you understand the basics of your computer operating system the faster you will be able to complete tasks. I am going to go through many different materials to teach you how to effectively use windows 10 and to continue to learn into the future.
As a computer repair technician I see many people who want to learn about Windows but they don’t know where to start, where to look or don’t have the time to find good content. Many times I will go to someone’s house or business to fix their issue and they easily learn so many things. To me these are easy but to everyone else they are not easy to learn. I understand from my past experience how to properly communicate with each individual based on their needs and learning style.
I wanted a simple solution to this problem so I created this free beginners guide to help those in need. I discovered how to reach all types of people trying to learn either visually, verbally or through easy to understand terminology.
Things to learn
Lesson 1 The taskbar and all its features
The taskbar is the horizontal bar located on the very bottom of your Windows screen. In it is multiple categories which are the start menu, Cortana search menu, programs and shortcuts, system tray and notifications. The taskbar can be very useful and is always visible even when you open other programs. We will go through each section of the taskbar one at a time.
The Start Menu
The start menu is the main hub for controlling your computer and accessing just about anything. You can access any program, settings and all your files. The start menu has three different sections that we will discuss, the left, middle and right.
The left section
The left section has power settings pictures documents and user information.
· The Power lets you turn the computer on/off or restart the computer.
· The Settings will open up the entire windows 10 settings menu which we will talk in detail later.
The Pictures and Documents is a shortcut giving you easy access to your pictures folder or documents folder. The pictures folder and document
folder are the default location where Windows will choose to save
The User information gives you direct access to change your user information, this is usually not necessary to know till a later time. these types of files. For example, if you put pictures on your computer Windows will save them into the pictures folder
The middle section
This section is an alphabetical list of all the installed programs or apps on your computer, programs and app examples are Microsoft Word, Calculator, Google chrome, Edge or any other program that you may use on your computer.
When you install new programs or apps they will automatically appear in the program and app list here.
You can scroll down in this menu to view all the programs and apps. If you do not see a scroll bar move your mouse to the small vertical line just to the right
The right section
The right section is made for custom categories, everything on the right section is customizable. Here are a few things in this section you can customize.
Move your mouse over the text on the right side and you will notice three horizontal bars appear to the right of the text. Click on the three horizontal lines to change the title of the category.
Move your mouse over any of the tiles in this section and hold the left click on the mouse, you can move tiles to a different spot on the right side of the start menu
Right click on any tile icons and you will have more options available
Unpin from start removes the tile in the right-side menu
Resize changes the size of the tile
Sometimes you will see pin to taskbar, this option makes a shortcut of the tile to the central area of the taskbar so you can easily open it at a later time
Under More you will sometimes see open file location, this option will open the folder on your hard drive where the program file is located. We will discuss looking at files on your hard drive in a later step.
Cortana Search menu
The Cortana search menu is a convenient way of finding files on your computer. With this search bar you can search for many different things on your computer and some things on the internet as well. An example would be searching for calculator to open the calculator app or searching for a specific document you created by name. After you type in what you’re looking for a list will appear up above for you to open up the document or application.
Programs and Shortcuts
Programs and shortcuts section of the taskbar will be used frequently. In this section of the taskbar all your opened programs will appear, also your program shortcuts or pinned shortcuts can appear here if you chose as well.
Programs that you have currently opened will show a small blue bar below the Shortcut icon indicating That you have this program opened.
If you want to remove a program from this part of the taskbar you can do so by right clicking on the icon and selecting unpin from taskbar.
If you want to pin a program from the start menu to the middle of the taskbar you can do so by opening the start menu and right clicking on any program you want then select more, then pin to taskbar.
System Tray
The system tray is a location for some notifications and it’s a spot to see the status of some programs. In here you will commonly see your internet connection, battery if you have one and antivirus if there is one installed.
The main thing we will go over in this list is the internet icon and how to connect your internet if you are on Wi-Fi and it gets disconnected on accident.
If Wi-Fi is disconnected or you get a new internet connection, you can connect to a new connection by clicking on the internet icon. Then you choose your connection and put in the password for your internet/Wi-Fi.
You can also see the status of your internet connection if you are having internet issues. A icon like this means your connected to Wi-Fi, a icon like this means your connected via wire and a icon like this means you are not connected to the internet. (show Gif here)
Notifications
The the last section of the taskbar is the notifications section located on the bottom right of the taskbar. Here you will notice the time and date and you will notice a little square icon at the far right, this is your notification menu. We will now go over how to change the date/time and the notification menu
Date and Time
If the time or date is incorrect right click on the date and time, select adjust date/time, turn off set time zone automatically, scroll down to time zone and switch it to your time zone, then switch set time zone automatically back to on.
Notifications Menu
The notifications bar has some important things on it. Click on the notifications square icon and you will notice a big bar on the right with notifications in it. Most of these notifications are not important, in fact I recommend ignoring all of them. Later I will show you how to turn them off.
On the bottom of the notifications bar when its open will have a menu of many buttons that you can turn on or off. I will list the important ones below. To start click on the expand text next to the notification buttons you see.
Tablet mode (do not click), this is made to turn your touch screen laptop or computer to be like a tablet, it will change all the menus and appearance of everything, I do not recommend pushing this button because it can be difficult to get out of touch screen mode. If your are stuck in touch screen mode click here (link to get out of touch screen mode)
Airplane mode (do not click), this one is important to know because many times you could loose your internet because of airplane mode, if you don’t have internet and see a small airplane icon on the bottom right of the task bar then it is because you are in airplane mode. Simply press airplane mode button in this menu to enable or disable airplane mode.
Nightlight is a convenient lighting mode to adjust your screen at night time so your eyes are not bothered by the screen.
At the very bottom there is a screen brightness bar you can easily adjust your screen brightness this way.