20 little-known Windows features every student should use

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Home windows PCs are extremely highly effective and versatile, and that’s true even prior to installing any apps. Because it seems, Home windows itself is chock-full of helpful options that few individuals truly learn about.

For those who’re a university scholar who desires to take your school laptop computer to the following stage, listed here are a number of obscure Home windows options that’ll aid you whether or not you’re taking notes, researching tasks, or in any other case.

Associated: One of the best laptops for school college students

Stay captions

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Home windows 11 has a function known as Stay Captions that listens to audio and mechanically generates readable captions on the fly.

It really works if you’re watching a video, nevertheless it additionally works with audio captured by your microphone. So, whether or not you’re sitting at school throughout a lecture or watching a recorded video, Stay Captions can use speech-to-text expertise to transcribe what you hear into readable textual content.

To get began, simply seek for “stay captions” within the Begin menu and launch the Stay Captions app. This app is obtainable on all Home windows 11 PCs and requires an web connection to work.

If in case you have a Copilot+ PC, the Stay captions function can truly work offline and in addition helps stay translation between completely different languages.

Clipboard historical past

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Everytime you copy and paste, you may assume you’ve overwritten the earlier factor you copied — however that’s not true. Home windows 11’s Clipboard Historical past function retains monitor of all of the textual content and pictures you copy.

Usually, if you paste, you simply paste the very last thing you copied. However you may select from beforehand copied gadgets through the use of the Home windows key + V shortcut (slightly than the standard Ctrl + V shortcut). You’ll be prompted to allow the Clipboard Historical past function in the event you haven’t already achieved so.

Clipboard Historical past even lets you “pin” gadgets in order that they’re all the time accessible and conveniently accessible for simple pasting sooner or later. It’s one of many many helpful productiveness options on Home windows.

Handwriting to textual content enter

Some Home windows laptops ship with assist for capacitive pens. These pen-enabled PCs are an amazing alternative for school college students as a result of they make it method simpler to put in writing handwritten notes, mathematical equations, diagrams, and extra in glorious note-taking apps like OneNote.

However with Home windows 11, pen enter works in any app because of handwriting recognition. You may write straight on any textual content area along with your pen and Home windows will immediately convert it to textual content.

Dictation

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Home windows 11 has built-in assist for dictation, which implies you may converse your ideas aloud they usually’ll be transcribed on the fly as textual content. In different phrases, you may sort utilizing your voice — identical to on a cellphone.

To open the Home windows 11 dictation software, use the Home windows key + H shortcut. For those who’re utilizing a PC with a contact display screen, you can too faucet the microphone button on the contact keyboard to launch it.

Associated: I used Home windows Dictation to put in writing this text with my voice

Net apps as desktop apps

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As of late, many apps are literally simply web sites that run within the browser. Hate having to maintain dozens of tabs open with the entire webpages and internet apps you utilize? Nicely, there’s a greater method.

Home windows 11 allows you to flip webpages and internet apps into Home windows “apps” with their very own taskbar icons and home windows. They really feel virtually equivalent to traditional desktop apps, and it’s a very handy trick for single-page internet apps you retain open 24/7 (e.g., Gmail, Spotify, Slack).

To do that in Google Chrome, navigate to any web site and click on the three-dot menu > Save and Share > Set up web page as app. In Microsoft Edge, navigate to an internet site and click on three-dot menu > Apps > Set up this website as an app. (Mozilla Firefox doesn’t supply this function.)

Sticky notes

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Microsoft OneNote is a superb note-taking utility, nevertheless it may be a little bit too advanced in your wants. If all you need to do is jot down fast notes right here and there, strive the Sticky Notes app as an alternative.

Home windows 11 has a built-in Sticky Notes app that you could launch by looking for “sticky notes” within the Begin menu. This app can maintain notes pinned to the desktop or saved in an easier checklist format, and the notes could be synced between your PC and different gadgets.

When syncing Sticky Notes along with your cellphone, your notes are accessible through OneNote Cellular, Microsoft Launcher for Android, and Outlook for Home windows.

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Home windows has a handy built-in fast insertion software for emojis. To entry it, you need to use both the Home windows key + Interval or Home windows key + Semicolon keyboard shortcuts.

You may browse all of the emojis included with Home windows and insert them into any utility or doc. It's also possible to begin typing proper after urgent the keyboard shortcut to seek for a selected emoji.

Textual content modifying shortcuts

The Ctrl key offers so many important keyboard shortcut tips for modifying textual content. My favourite half, although, is that it makes many keyboard actions apply to whole phrases as an alternative of particular person characters.

Right here’s what which means: Usually, if you press Backspace, you delete the a single character of textual content. However in the event you use the Ctrl + Backspace keyboard shortcut, you delete your complete earlier phrase. This works with numerous shortcuts, together with the Delete key.

One other instance is textual content choice. You may maintain Shift and press the left or proper arrows to pick out particular person characters. However in the event you use the Ctrl + Shift + left or proper arrow keyboard shortcut, you may choose whole phrases at a time. And in the event you use Ctrl + Shift + Residence or Finish, you may choose whole traces of textual content with a single keystroke.

Dynamic locking

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Whether or not you’re on a laptop computer or PC, try to be locking it everytime you aren’t utilizing it, particularly if you’re on campus. You’re in all probability already doing it with a keystroke (Home windows key + L) or with a setting that mechanically locks every time your system goes to sleep.

However there’s a greater method in Home windows 11: use the Dynamic Lock function, which detects when your cellphone strikes away out of your laptop and mechanically locks when it does. You may set this up in Settings > Accounts > Signal-in choices > Dynamic lock.

Presence-based locking

Newer laptops with Presence Sensors don’t even have to contain your cellphone. They will detect if you transfer away out of your laptop, then mechanically lock if you do — they usually can mechanically unlock if you sit again down. For those who’ve arrange Home windows Hi there with facial recognition, they'll even signal you again in mechanically.

Additional studying: One of the best webcams for Home windows Hi there

Focus timers

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Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro approach? It’s a technique that helps you keep targeted and get extra achieved in much less time. The hot button is to work in half-hour bursts with brief breaks in between — and most of the people use timers to know when to modify between work and breaks.

Home windows 11 has a built-in Pomodoro timer. You may entry it by opening the Clock app within the Begin menu, then activating its Focus periods function. You may configure your focus session, throughout which all notifications and app alerts will likely be stifled. It's also possible to hyperlink your Spotify account so the suitable music performs whilst you’re focusing.

Do Not Disturb mode

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Home windows has a Do Not Disturb function that quiets down noisy notifications whilst you’re attempting to focus. Whereas Do Not Disturb has lengthy been a well-liked function on smartphones, Home windows PCs didn’t even have this type of factor for a few years.

To allow Do Not Disturb mode on Home windows 11, press Home windows key + N to open the Notification Middle, then click on the bell icon with Z’s on the top-right nook. On Home windows 10, you’ll have to activate a setting known as Focus Help to briefly disable notifications.

Sync along with your cellphone

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Home windows makes it simple to entry or management your cellphone proper out of your PC, however the course of is completely different relying on whether or not you've got an iPhone or Android cellphone (and each’s performance is completely different).

If in case you have an iPhone, set up the iCloud for Home windows app. After you set it up, you’ll be capable to hyperlink iCloud Photographs to the Photographs app and browse from inside Home windows. You’ll additionally get to combine with iCloud’s different options, together with Drive, Passwords, Contacts, Calendar, and Bookmarks.

If in case you have an Android cellphone, open the Cellphone Hyperlink app from the Begin menu. After you set it up, you’ll be capable to textual content out of your PC, handle your cellphone’s notifications, browse pictures in your digital camera roll, and even copy-paste pictures to your PC.

Screenshots and display screen recording

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Trendy Home windows PCs have highly effective built-in screenshot instruments. On Home windows 11, it’s known as the Snipping Software, which is as simple to launch as urgent the Home windows key + Shift + S keyboard shortcut (or the Print Display screen key in case you have that in your keyboard).

As soon as the Snipping Software is opened, you’ll see an overlay bar on the high of your display screen. Use it to pick out the kind of screenshot you need: Rectangle, Window, Full display screen, or Freeform. Then, click on or drag to pick out what you need to seize and also you’ll get a notification. (You may click on the notification to edit the screenshot earlier than saving it.)

Associated: take smarter screenshots in Home windows 11

The Snipping Software additionally contains the power to document video of your display screen. Swap to the video digital camera icon within the overlay bar on the high of the display screen, then draw a rectangle over the realm you need to seize.

Previous variations of recordsdata

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Home windows affords a number of methods to retrieve an older model of a file. If the file is synced to Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage, you may find it in File Explorer, right-click it, and choose OneDrive > Model historical past.

For recordsdata which might be solely saved in your PC and never synced to a cloud storage service, you may arrange the File Historical past function to often again up chosen recordsdata and folders to an exterior drive. Then, you may restore earlier variations of the file from there.

Misplaced laptop computer monitoring

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For those who’re in school and utilizing a laptop computer, it's best to all the time have a contingency plan in case your laptop computer is misplaced or stolen.

One possibility is to make use of the built-in laptop computer monitoring function of Home windows, which additionally allows you to lock your laptop computer remotely. It received’t be as helpful as related options accessible on smartphones as a result of your laptop computer in all probability doesn’t have a mobile connection. The monitoring requires your laptop computer to be related to Wi-Fi, and your laptop computer can’t be in sleep mode.

Even so, it’s nonetheless helpful even when it isn’t excellent. For those who lose your laptop computer on campus, it’ll in all probability keep related to Wi-Fi and be traceable.

However the secret is ensuring the function is energetic earlier than you lose your laptop computer. Flip it on now by going to Settings > Privateness & safety > Discover my system and activate the Discover my system possibility. Then, use Microsoft’s account gadgets web page to trace down your laptop computer.

Additional studying: Laptop computer safety information for school college students

Superior calculators

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The built-in Calculator app on Home windows is extra highly effective than it seems to be. Open the app’s menu and also you’ll discover completely different calculator modes, together with a scientific calculator, a graphing calculator, and instruments for changing currencies and models of measurement.

Fast video trimming

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Home windows comes with Microsoft’s Clipchamp video editor, however there’s truly one other helpful video software buried throughout the working system. With this function, you may shortly trim video recordsdata and clip sections to avoid wasting as their very own smaller video recordsdata.

You are able to do this by right-clicking on a video file in File Explorer, then deciding on Open with > Photographs. When the Photographs app opens up with the video loaded, click on the blue Trim button on the toolbar and choose the a part of the video you need to save.

Additional studying: use the free Clipchamp video editor

Fast photograph modifying

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You’d be stunned by how succesful the built-in Photographs app could be. It’s not only a photograph viewer — it’s additionally a great photograph editor if you’re in a pinch or simply want some easy crops and edits.

After opening a picture in Photographs, click on the blue Edit button within the toolbar to entry the picture modifying instruments. You’ll see choices for cropping the picture, marking it up, adjusting lighting, making use of filters, and even utilizing AI results to erase parts and take away the background.

Laptop computer battery drain statistics

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Everybody all the time desires extra laptop computer battery life. For those who discover your laptop computer dying a lot sooner than you assume it ought to, you’ll need to look into which apps are the most important battery drains — and Home windows retains monitor of that for you, making it simple to research and troubleshoot.

On Home windows 11, head over to Settings > System > Energy & battery. Then, scroll down and develop the Battery utilization part to view battery utilization by app. On Home windows 10, go to Settings > System > Battery to seek out these identical particulars.

As soon as you realize which apps are killing your battery life, you can also make knowledgeable choices on what to do. (Battery stress is likely one of the widespread errors killing your laptop computer’s lifespan.)