5 Home windows 11 settings I instantly change on any new PC

Each time I carry out a clear set up of

Windows 11
on my desktop or arrange a brand new laptop computer, the very first thing I deal with is adjusting the Home windows settings that hinder my productiveness, privateness, and total enjoyment of the OS.

Do not get me flawed, Home windows 11 has some

excellent features
proper out of the field. Nonetheless, sure default settings and options may be exceptionally annoying and detract from the consumer expertise,

with Copilot
and the usual notification settings being key examples. All these settings may be simply adjusted — you needn’t obtain a third-party app or modify any registry settings — and are accessible to any Home windows consumer.

5

Change your default browser

You possibly can change different app defaults as effectively

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

By default, once you boot up Home windows 11 for the primary time, Microsoft units Edge as your default browser. Whereas I admire Microsoft’s adjustments over time to Edge, it is nonetheless inferior to Chrome or different well-liked browsers like Firefox. One of many first issues I do on any new PC after setting it up is immediately obtain Chrome to exchange Edge.

To alter your default browser, head to Apps > Default Apps > Google Chrome (or no matter your browser of alternative is) and click on Set default. With this enabled, you will be redirected to your new default browser as a substitute of Edge everytime you click on on a hyperlink. In the identical default apps menu, you may also change different default apps for Home windows 11, resembling your media participant for video recordsdata, which I all the time swap to VLC media player as a substitute of the default Home windows Media Participant.

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4

Scale back the quantity of notifications you obtain

I do not want notifications for ideas Microsoft

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Home windows 11 can ship a number of notifications that shortly turn out to be overwhelming or distracting once you first begin utilizing it. If you end up receiving too many notifications, whether or not from apps or what Microsoft refers to as “Suggestions,” you’ll be able to scale back them to remain extra centered and declutter your notification heart.

To do that, go to Settings > Notifications. You possibly can then regulate which apps ship you notifications. You possibly can type them by just lately used, providing you with an thought of which apps you employ probably the most and would possibly need to hold notifications enabled for. The primary apps I hold enabled are Outlook, Slack, and Discord, primarily something communications-related.

Close to the underside of the notifications web page, you will discover Extra settings. Whenever you click on that, you will see three choices for Home windows that I like to recommend turning off, certainly one of which supplies “ideas and recommendations when utilizing Home windows” that I discover irritating. My philosophy for Home windows is, if I want to search out one thing out, I will look it up, in any other case I do not want Home windows always recommending me issues to do.

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3

Say goodbye to Copilot

Sorry Microsoft, I do not want it

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Microsoft is enjoying a giant half within the AI revolution with Copilot, its AI chatbot. With Home windows 11, Microsoft has positioned Copilot entrance and heart within the taskbar for customers to expertise. When you’re not serious about AI or don’t need it getting in the best way, you’ll be able to eliminate it.

If you wish to take away your Copilot out of your taskbar, merely right-click the icon and unpin it. If you wish to go a step additional and say goodbye to Copilot totally, you’ll be able to uninstall the app by going to Settings > Apps > Copilot. Then click on the three dots subsequent to Copilot and choose Uninstall. There’s a separate Copilot for Microsoft 365 apps, so this may not have an effect on your means to make use of it in applications like Phrase or Excel if you wish to use it there.

If in case you have a PC with a devoted Copilot key on the keyboard, you may also rebind it to one thing else. To take action, obtain the Microsoft PowerToys app from the Home windows Retailer. Whenever you open PowerToys, go to the Keyboard Supervisor submenu, then choose Remap a key to alter the Copilot key to one thing else.

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Disabling these background providers may assist pace up your Home windows 11 PC.

You can even reposition the Begin button again to the left

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Copilot is not the one factor glued to your taskbar once you first boot up Home windows; the Information Widget can be there. Whenever you hover over the widget or click on on it, it brings up a panel with information, climate, and ads from MSN. I’ve by no means as soon as opened this widget on objective, nor do I ever plan to, and it feels extra like bloatware than something helpful. If I need to see the information or the climate, I will examine my cellphone or look it up.

Fortunately, in the event you’d desire to see the Information Widget gone too, it is simple to eliminate. To take action, head to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and switch off Widgets to disable it. It should then disappear out of your taskbar for good. When you’d desire to maintain the Information Widget round simply to see the climate in your taskbar, however not have it open once you merely hover over it, you’ll be able to change that by opening the Information Widget and going to Settings > Open Widgets board on hover and toggling it off.

Moreover, in the event you’d desire to maneuver your begin button again to the left nook, prefer it was on Home windows 10 and lots of previous variations of Home windows, you are able to do that below Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar alignment and select Left.

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1

Regulate privateness settings

Management how Microsoft makes use of your knowledge

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Each time I arrange a brand new laptop computer or carry out a recent set up of Home windows 11, my first intuition is to regulate my privateness settings. This provides me management over how and when Microsoft accesses my private knowledge. I’m significantly against focused promoting, particularly in Home windows, which is why I give attention to adjusting the settings to cease apps from utilizing my promoting ID. You are able to do this too by going to Settings > Privateness & Safety > Basic and disabling the choice that enables apps to indicate personalised adverts utilizing your promoting ID.

The subsequent privateness setting I alter is diagnostic data. Whereas sending restricted diagnostic knowledge to Microsoft is required to maintain your machine up to date and safe, you’ll be able to select to ship optionally available diagnostic knowledge, which incorporates “knowledge about web sites you browse, how you employ apps and options, and enhanced error reporting,” as per Microsoft. I desire to not ship any optionally available diagnostic knowledge to Microsoft in any respect. To do that your self, head to Settings > Privateness & safety > Diagnostics and suggestions > Ship optionally available Diagnostic Information, and switch it off.

Moreover, below Diagnostics & suggestions, I disable Tailor experiences, which lets Microsoft use your diagnostic knowledge to “improve your product experiences with personalised ideas, adverts, and proposals.” That is a giant no thanks for me, so I additionally turned that off. When you’re trying to enhance the efficiency of your PC, then there are additionally settings you can disable to just do that.

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