Settings You Should Optimize After Installing Windows 10 Windows by Osman Ali - January 3, 2020 Installing Windows 10 is not difficult. The main job begins after installing the operating system. Most of us install all the drivers and software that we need to use the system on a daily basis first. In addition to installing the software, there are some Windows settings that you need to review and manage for a better experience. These are some of those settings. 1. Default Apps Windows 10 uses its own applications as default applications for various things like browsing, emails, music, etc. When compared to third-party applications such as Chrome, Thunderbird, VLC, etc., the integrated applications are not as good. The first thing you should do is configure the default applications manually. This eliminates the need to change the default applications each time an application asks you to choose it as the default application. To do so, open the Settings application and go to “Applications -> Default Applications”. In the right pane, select a new default application in each category. If you are not viewing your favourite application, make sure it is installed. 2. Startup Apps After installing Windows, we will need to install all the applications that we need for our daily use. Most applications are added to the start list. Once added, these applications will start automatically with Windows. The more applications there are in the startup list, the longer Windows start time. Most of the time, you do not need all the applications that start with Windows. Disabling applications that you do not need will decrease the start time of Windows 10. To remove an application from the start list, open the Settings application, go to the “Applications -> Start” page and move the switch next to the application to the Off position. 3. Active Hours One of the most common complaints about Windows 10 is that it automatically reboots the system to install updates. You can avoid this behaviour by enabling and configuring the Active Hours function. To enable the Active Hours function, open the Configuration application and go to “Update and Security -> Windows Update”. In the right panel, click on the “Change active hours” button. Then click on the “Change” link and set the active hours. If you want Windows to manage the active hours according to the use of your device, activate the button in the section “Automatically adjust the active hours for this device according to the activity”. 4. Delivery Optimization To make Windows application and update downloads faster, Windows 10 uses something called Delivery Optimization. With this feature, Windows can download or upload updates from other local PCs and connected to the Internet. Windows automatically verifies the authenticity of downloads and uploads through Delivery Optimization so you do not have to worry about damaged downloads. If you do not like this behaviour, you can deactivate the Delivery Optimization feature. To do so, open the configuration application, go to the “Update and security -> Delivery optimization” page and move the switch to “Allow downloads from other PCs” to the off position. 5. Find My Device As with mobile phones, Windows 10 has an integrated device tracking feature called “Find my Device.” If you are using a laptop, enabling this feature will help you a lot when necessary. To enable the Find my device feature, open the Settings application and go to the “Update and security -> Find my device” page. In the right panel, click the Change button and then move the switch to the On position. If you are not viewing the option or if it is dimmed, make sure you are logged in with your Microsoft account. 6. Enhanced Search In Windows 10 v1903, Microsoft introduced a new feature called Enhanced Search Mode. When enabled, Windows will crawl your entire system so you can search and open almost any file or folder directly from the start menu. To enable enhanced mode, open the configuration application and go to the “Search -> Windows Search” page. On the right page, select the “Enhanced” option in the Search my files section. If you do not want a particular folder to be indexed or tracked, click on the “Add an excluded folder” button and add that specific folder. Note that this feature, when enabled for the first time, can increase CPU consumption and decrease battery life.