Windows 10 is the most widely used operating system worldwide. According to Microsoft, more than 400 million people use this system for their day to day, for work and even for leisure. Microsoft has designed it thinking of taking the productivity of all users to the limit, being a fast, stable, secure system with a multitude of functions designed to make all kinds of tasks as simple as possible. However, you can always turn the productivity screw once more, and that is that if we use this operating system to work and know the best tricks of Windows 10, we can make our day to day even more comfortable and better and improve productivity .
In addition to being able to install all kinds of third-party programs to be more productive (although we will not go into them), Windows 10 hides a large number of functions designed to improve the productivity of its users.
Below we will see the best of them, unknown functions for many users that are included in Windows 10 to help us be more productive and make the most of every second.
If you don’t have two screens, virtual desktops help improve productivity in Windows 10
For most jobs, two monitors is a must. Or, at least, an ultra-wide monitor in which you can place two open windows without problems at the same time. However, due to lack of space or budget, not everyone can have two screens on their computers. In that case, an interesting alternative is virtual desktops.
Virtual desks , as the name implies, are different workspaces in which we can divide our work. In one, for example, we can open the messaging program that we use (WhatsApp, Slack, Microsoft Teams, etc.), in other documents and spreadsheets, in another the browser, etc. In this way, each desktop will have its own resources and we will not have a single desktop with all the programs mixed.
The task view also helps us to have all our files, programs and documents at hand. We can access it through the Windows + Tab command and it will allow us to manage all the windows that we have open in our main session.
Create virtual desktops and keyboard shortcuts
To create a virtual desktop, we simply have to open the task view of Windows 10 (with the command Windows + Tab), and at the top we will see all these desktops. By default we will have one, but we can create all the ones we want or need.
Furthermore, we can easily use these virtual desktops by holding down the Windows + Control keys, followed by the following keyboard shortcuts:
- D: create new virtual desktop.
- F4: close the current virtual desktop.
- Right arrow: go to the next virtual desktop.
- Left arrow: go to the previous desktop.
There are other useful shortcuts that, although not directly related to virtual desktops, can help us improve productivity. For example, Windows + S allows us to open the Windows 10 search engine, and Windows together with the up and down arrows adjust applications and windows to the top or bottom of the screen.
Good privacy helps prevent distractions and be more productive.
If we use our computer to work, it is very likely that we are letting our tastes or interests be seen when browsing the Internet or simply using the operating system. Privacy has not been, by far, one of the strongest pillars of Windows 10. Rather the opposite, something that has been weighing down the system since its launch in 2015 until today.
Fortunately, as the operating system has been updated, Microsoft has been including new options to organize to control privacy. If we enter the Configuration> Privacy section, we will be able to see a large number of options related to privacy when using the operating system.
It is worth spending some time reviewing all the options and configuring them according to our tastes, according to what we want, or not, to share with Microsoft.
Some interesting options are, for example, the permission to use our ID to display advertising (within the “General” section) which may cause advertisements to appear that distract us from our work, or personalized experiences (within “Comments and diagnosis” ) that can make recommendations and promoted applications appear in the system.
Prevents the computer from slowing down by controlling its performance
One of the things that can most distract us from our work is that the computer is slow or freezes. This can happen for many causes and reasons, although many times it can be easily solved with a simple software configuration (for example, closing very heavy applications or restarting the PC).
Windows 10 Task Manager is one of the fastest ways to see how our PC is working and which processes or programs are consuming the most memory. We can open it using the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + Escape, and from it we will be able to control the performance of the computer.
In the “processes” tab we will be able to see everything that is open on our computer and how much each process consumes. In the “Performance” tab, we can have an overview of the use of our PC hardware.
A restart every now and then also helps Windows 10 work better.
Take advantage of Windows 10 cloud integration to improve your productivity
Windows 10 integrates with Microsoft’s cloud so that we can easily take advantage of the company’s cloud services from the operating system. If we log in with our Microsoft Account, the first thing we will be able to enjoy is OneDrive, the Microsoft cloud. In it we can save any file we want to have a backup and be able to access it from anywhere.
In addition, if we install the Office suite, this cloud will allow us to directly save the documents in the cloud in a secure way, preventing them from being lost due to a failure or problem.
Feng shui: the desktop, startup and applications as neat as possible
Another aspect that makes us waste a lot of time using Windows is searching for things. If we are one of those who have a desktop full of programs and files of all kinds, in addition to our computer going slower, we will waste a lot of time looking for things.
It is much faster and more comfortable to have the desk tidy and organized . We can put important files inside folders, leaving only the programs and shortcuts that we use often. The tidier the desk is, the more calm we will have, the faster we will find things and we will be able to work better.
In addition, there are other elements of Windows itself that we can have ordered and will help us to be more productive. The first of these is the taskbar . All the programs that we have open will appear in it. However, we can anchor the programs we use the most to always have them at hand, and in the same place, and be able to open them as we need them. This also allows us to further clean the desktop, being able to remove from it the programs that we have anchored in the taskbar.
The Windows 10 Start menu is another element that, if we know how to use it well, can help us to be more productive. It is true that the concept of the start menu is very strange, since Microsoft has not come out to make it really useful. However, if we eliminate all the tiles and leave only those that are useful to us, in addition to having greater peace as everything is more ordered, we can go directly to what we need.
The same should apply to all the applications that we usually use. For example, it is very common to fill the browser with extensions, accesses and bookmarks of all kinds. If we really want to be productive and avoid distractions we must focus exclusively on having at hand what we really need, nothing more.
Avoid interruptions and annoying warnings so as not to break productivity in Windows 10
Our work can be interrupted for many reasons. And each interruption is a waste of time and concentration that later costs to recover. Therefore, to avoid interruptions, we must ensure that Windows is configured correctly.
For example, we must configure the active hours of Windows Update to avoid that, if Windows updates, the computer will restart by surprise while we work.
We must also make sure, if we have a laptop, that the battery notification options are correctly configured. And, if possible even work with it connected to the current. This will help us that the battery does not drain (and the PC turns off), and we can always have it ready so that, in case we have to go somewhere else, we can disconnect it and move without interruptions.
It can also help us improve our productivity by turning off all unnecessary warnings in Windows 10. The Notification Center has a feature called ” Focus Assistant ” that mutes less important notifications to avoid distractions.
We can activate and deactivate the concentration assistant by clicking with the right mouse button on the icon at the bottom right of the PC screen.
In this way we will improve productivity when using Windows 10, preventing the system, or any application, from showing us notices and notifications. We will only receive notifications of those notices that are considered as priority (we can configure it from the Windows configuration), and of the system alarms.
