Home windows 11 is now the most well-liked desktop working system, lastly beating Home windows 10. But it surely’s additionally loaded with head-scratching default settings that sap your productiveness and deal with you want a pc illiterate.
Whether or not it is hiding very important file info from you or making you see commercials all through the UI, Home windows appears hell-bent on distracting you out of your productiveness work. Listed here are the worst time sinks and tips on how to cease them.
Widget board is like studying the headlines in a grocery store checkout aisle
Microsoft’s widget at first seems to be so harmless. By default, it seems on the left or proper aspect of your taskbar and reveals the present climate. However do not be fooled; it is out to steal your consideration. Generally the widget will change to indicate promotions comparable to “Trending movies” from Hallstatt, Austria, or let you already know about native site visitors once you’re simply sitting at your desk.
Most distractingly, once you hover over the widget or click on on it, you are subjected to a mixture of distracting information headlines, a few of that are fairly schlocky. I am going to always remember the time I realized that pigs eat people “way more usually than folks count on,” or the cases the place I learn concerning the man who went to hell and heard the demons enjoying Rihanna songs there.
Home windows Widget Board – Click on to enlarge
For those who’re attempting to be productive, even useful headlines are a time sink. To disable widgets, right-click in your taskbar, choose Taskbar Settings, after which toggle Widgets to off.
Lock display screen desires you to play Sweet Crush
By default, the Windows 11 lock display screen shows what Microsoft calls “Home windows Highlight.” That is an advert selling another Microsoft service, which might be Copilot, Home windows Backup, or perhaps a free-to-play recreation comparable to Sweet Crush Saga.
These commercials are designed to distract you out of your work and get you to give attention to no matter Microsoft is hawking. To make the lock display screen adverts go away, first navigate to Settings->Personalization->Lock display screen. Then choose Image as a substitute of Home windows Highlight beneath “Personalize your lock display screen.” Lastly, choose None beneath “Lock display screen standing.”
Disable adverts on the lock display screen – Click on to enlarge
Search highlights are a lowlight of your day
The Home windows search field is likely one of the most necessary navigational instruments that the working system has. As a rule, I exploit search in lieu of the Begin menu to search out and launch my favourite purposes.
By default, the search field reveals promotions for MSN content material in addition to apps. It even tries to get you to play informal video games. On the day I wrote this text, it was promoting World Mind Day content material. Simply think about should you simply got here to the search menu to discover a doc or launch Microsoft Phrase and you bought waylaid by this cruft, since you have been tempted to click on otherwise you hung out ready for the photographs to attract as you opened the menu.
Home windows Search Highlights provides cruft to your search – Click on to enlarge
To disable Search highlights, open the Search menu, choose Search settings from the … menu after which toggle Present Search Highlights to off.
Open search settings – Click on to enlarge
Search offers you Bing outcomes once you simply wished recordsdata and apps
The Home windows search field not solely promotes lame MSN content material and video games once you first click on it, but it surely additionally reveals you Bing search outcomes, even once you simply need to discover content material in your native drives. For instance, I began typing “phrase” and ended up getting search outcomes for Wordle. Maybe if I might had Phrase put in on the check system, I might have gotten that as a substitute. In the meantime, I needed to wait whereas Microsoft downloaded outcomes from Bing.
Looking for phrase can get you Wordle – Click on to enlarge
To disable Home windows search options, you will must edit the Registry file, so watch out, ensure you have permissions, and again up. Within the Registry, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindows. Create a subfolder there known as Explorer and enter it. Then create a DWORD (32-bit) Registry known as DisableSearchBoxSuggestions and set it to 1.
After your subsequent reboot or relaunch of Explorer, your search options ought to be gone.
Microsoft desires you to ‘end organising your PC’ however you already did that
Whenever you first put in Home windows, maybe you did not purchase an Xbox recreation go subscription or join Workplace 365. Now, you boot up and are introduced with a display screen that claims “Let’s end organising your PC,” which seems to be similar to a display screen from the unique setup course of, aka the OOBE (Out of the Field Expertise). What is going on on?
Microsoft has what it calls SCOOBE (Second Probability Out of the Field Expertise), a dialog field that typically pops up after a Home windows replace and tries to promote you Microsoft providers. Positive, you do not have to purchase an Xbox recreation go, but it surely’s a waste of your time to have to say no it time and again, simply because Redmond cannot take no for a solution.
To make SCOOBE go away completely, navigate to Settings->System->Notifications->Extra Settings. Then uncheck “Recommend methods to get essentially the most out of Home windows and end organising this gadget.”
Flip off Home windows 11 Second Probability OOBE – Click on to enlarge
You need to see file extensions? You possibly can’t deal with the file extensions
I have been utilizing PCs for the reason that DOS age, so I am nonetheless just a bit in awe of the truth that now you can have a file identify that is greater than eight characters with a three-character extension. Within the halls of energy at Microsoft, they suppose that even displaying you an extension like .docx on the finish of your file identify will trigger your mind to soften from confusion. So, by default, extensions for recognized file sorts are hidden and also you see descriptions comparable to “Textual content Doc” subsequent to the file names in File Explorer.
Not solely is the choice to cover file extensions infantilizing customers, but it surely additionally causes extra confusion than it solves. What should you simply see {that a} file is listed as a Microsoft Phrase doc, however you do not know that it is really an old style .doc as a substitute of a .docx. You must know and also you need to know precisely what sort of recordsdata you’re looking at.
To unhide extensions, first open File Explorer. Then navigate to View->Present and choose File identify extensions.
Unhide extensions in Home windows – Click on to enlarge
The pc simply began speaking
It is simpler than you may suppose to unintentionally hit the flawed keyboard combo. And hitting Home windows + CTRL + Enter launches a doozy of a characteristic that is very distracting and can break your prepare of thought.
Narrator is a display screen reader that is meant to assist customers with imaginative and prescient challenges and it does that fairly nicely. The issue is that, should you do not want it, it can ship you looking for a option to flip it off completely.
To cease Narrator instantly, hit the identical keyboard shortcut – Home windows + CTRL + Enter – a second time. To cease it from unintentionally launching once more, navigate to Settings->Accessibility->Narrator and toggle “Keyboard shortcut for Narrator” to off.
Disable narrator keyboard shortcut – Click on to enlarge
Too many notifications are driving you loopy
Whenever you get a Slack message from the boss, you’ll want to know. Whenever you get a message out of your good friend on Discord, you need to know. However when an app desires to inform you it has gotten a brand new characteristic, you do not want or need a pop-up message telling you that.
Earlier than you go loopy, it is time to take a scalpel to the checklist of apps which have permission to inform you of something. Navigate to System->Notifications and toggle each app that is not mission crucial to off.
Disable pointless notifications – Click on to enlarge
When unsure, flip it off
Each Home windows time suck has the identical primary resolution: flip it off. The one query is tips on how to disable every annoyance in order that it does not come again. For those who care about your productiveness and focus, turning off consideration hogging apps and options is nicely value your time. ®
Source link
