Tag: Windows 10

How I make Windows 11 less annoying

My primary screen on Windows 11

Over the last few months, I kept reading comments on social media about how bad people think Windows 11 is.

“Surely it‘s not that bad,” I kept thinking.

And then I set up a new mini PC with a clean installation of Windows 11 Home, logged in for the first time and thought, “What in hell‘s name is this?!”

It was then that I remembered that I have made a number of significant tweaks to make Windows 11 feel… well, less like Windows 11.

Here’s what I do…

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Moving from Chrome OS Flex to Zorin OS on my Asus Zenbook UX303UA

Screenshot of Zorin OS with an elementary OS wallpaper showing a long wooden pier at sunset.
Screenshot of my Zorin OS desktop (using my favourite elementary OS wallpaper)

For the last few months, I’ve been using my 2014 Asus Zenbook UA303UA laptop for writing projects.

This month, I switched from Google Chrome OS Flex to Zorin OS (Linux) and I couldn’t be more delighted.

Continue reading Moving from Chrome OS Flex to Zorin OS on my Asus Zenbook UX303UA

Connecting to my NAS faster

Ever since I bought my NAS (Western Digital 8TB My Cloud EX2 Ultra) in 2021, I have had a frustrating problem with it.

Each time I’ve clicked on my network share (above) to access it … it has taken a few attempts to connect: <double-click> Can’t find the drive … wait … <double-click> Can’t find the drive … wait … <double-click> Can’t find the drive … wait … <double-click> Oh! there it is! Finally.

But I’ve found a solution!

  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (Win+R, enter gpedit.msc and click OK).
  2. In the console tree, select Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Lanman Workstation.
  3. Right-click Enable insecure guest logons and select Edit.
  4. Select Enabled and select OK.

That worked for me. Now, whenever I click on my NAS network location it connects immediately. Phew!

No Windows Security after upgrading to Windows 11

My laptop desktop under Windows 11

This weekend I upgraded my Acer Nitro 5 laptop from Windows 10 Home to Windows 11 Home.

It mostly went well.

Microsoft Security was missing!

A strange consequence of the upgrade in fact was that most of my Modern Windows Apps were missing and needed to be reinstalled from the Microsoft Store: 3D Viewer, Clock, Maps, Microsoft OneNote for Windows 10, Microsoft To Do, Paint 3D and Windows Security.

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System-wide colour picker added to Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10

Colour picker settings in PowerToys for Windows 10

Last year I tested out the new Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10 and liked what I saw.

One of my favourite additions since then is a system-wide colour picker utility that enables you to pick colours from any currently running application (including Windows itself) and automatically copies it in a configurable format to your clipboard.

With PowerToys running and Color Picker (sic) enabled, press Win + Shift + C.

Continue reading System-wide colour picker added to Microsoft PowerToys for Windows 10