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

Every 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 fallacious, Home windows 11 has some

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

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

5

Change your default browser

You may change different app defaults as nicely

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

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

To vary your default browser, head to Apps > Default Apps > Google Chrome (or no matter your browser of selection is) and click on Set default. With this enabled, you may be redirected to your new default browser as an alternative of Edge everytime you click on on a hyperlink. In the identical default apps menu, you can even change different default apps for Home windows 11, resembling your media participant for video information, which I all the time swap to VLC media player as an alternative 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 plenty of notifications that shortly turn out to be overwhelming or distracting whenever you first begin utilizing it. If you end up receiving too many notifications, whether or not from apps or what Microsoft refers to as “Ideas,” you possibly can cut back them to remain extra centered and declutter your notification heart.

To do that, go to Settings > Notifications. You may then modify which apps ship you notifications. You may type them by lately used, providing you with an concept of which apps you utilize essentially the most and would possibly need to maintain notifications enabled for. The primary apps I maintain enabled are Outlook, Slack, and Discord, basically something communications-related.

Close to the underside of the notifications web page, you may discover Extra settings. Whenever you click on that, you may see three choices for Home windows that I like to recommend turning off, certainly one of which supplies “ideas and options when utilizing Home windows” that I discover irritating. My philosophy for Home windows is, if I would like to search out one thing out, I am going to look it up, in any other case I do not want Home windows continually 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 an enormous 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 occupied with AI or don’t desire it getting in the way in which, you possibly can do away with 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 possibly can 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.

When you’ve got a PC with a devoted Copilot key on the keyboard, you can even 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 vary the Copilot key to one thing else.

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You can too reposition the Begin button again to the left

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Copilot is not the one factor glued to your taskbar whenever 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 commercials from MSN. I’ve by no means as soon as opened this widget on function, 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 am going to test my cellphone or look it up.

Fortunately, for those who’d choose to see the Information Widget gone too, it is simple to do away with. To take action, head to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and switch off Widgets to disable it. It is going to then disappear out of your taskbar for good. When you’d choose to maintain the Information Widget round simply to see the climate in your taskbar, however not have it open whenever you merely hover over it, you possibly can change that by opening the Information Widget and going to Settings > Open Widgets board on hover and toggling it off.

Moreover, for those who’d choose 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 underneath Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar alignment and select Left.

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1

Alter privateness settings

Management how Microsoft makes use of your knowledge

Pocket-lint / Microsoft

Every 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 offers 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 advertisements utilizing your promoting ID.

The following privateness setting I modify is diagnostic data. Whereas sending restricted diagnostic knowledge to Microsoft is required to maintain your machine up to date and safe, you possibly can select to ship non-compulsory diagnostic knowledge, which incorporates “knowledge about web sites you browse, how you utilize apps and options, and enhanced error reporting,” as per Microsoft. I choose to not ship any non-compulsory diagnostic knowledge to Microsoft in any respect. To do that your self, head to Settings > Privateness & safety > Diagnostics and suggestions > Ship non-compulsory Diagnostic Knowledge, and switch it off.

Moreover, underneath Diagnostics & suggestions, I disable Tailor experiences, which lets Microsoft use your diagnostic knowledge to “improve your product experiences with personalised ideas, advertisements, and proposals.” That is an enormous 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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