Windows 10 Tips, Tricks, and Improvements Options

[SubRosa]

I created this to be a place where people can post their Windows 10 life hacks. Not a place to troubleshoot problems, but rather a place to put ways to customize and tame the beast.

I will start with a little program I just found that can restore the old style start menu from Windows 7 or XP. Open Shell Menu is a free program that allows you to customize the Windows 10 Start Menu. As I said, it allows you to recreate the format of the older Windows editions.

You can also create folders on the start menu, and move shortcuts back and forth on the menu however you want. Things you cannot do in Windows 10. (You can do that with the tiles, but not with the list of programs on the start menu just left of the tiles). It also brings back the Recent Items list.

It also still leaves you a single icon on the new menu that you can click to bring up the original Windows 10 style start menu.

Here is an example of what I did with it on my non-gaming PC There are a lot of ways you can customize it however. So this is not the only way it could look.

[SubRosa]

OldNewExplorer will get your old style Explorer back, including the preview and details pane on the bottom of the window, instead of on the side.

[Decrepit]

OldNewExplorer will get your old style Explorer back, including the preview and details pane on the bottom of the window, instead of on the side.

ahhhhhhhhhh...good old Explorer. I recommend going a step further and download a full-function replacement. My file manager of choice has long been Free Commander, found here:

(link) Free Commander (link)

Go to its 'screenshots' page and check out the many ways you can set it up to your liking.

I, however, stick with an old 2009 version, which works just fine with Win10. Why? For whatever reason, later versions got rid of my preferred panes configuration. Either that or I'm too dumb to figure out how to implement it. Admittedly, I miss out on a few bell-and-whistles recent versions provide. Most folk will be quite happy with the latest edition.

(We of course shouldn't physically ditch Explorer.)