Win woes

Windows 10 is still a little rough around the edges, just as Windows 7 was when it was first released. Smoothing those edges can often be accomplished by changing a setting or two, but wait, where are those settings? Well, not the same place they were in Windows 7.

 

Fix the “Windows 10 keeps going to a blank screen every 60 seconds” problem

This is annoying. And it’s a problem that has annoyed people in previous versions of Windows as well. It’s more annoying in Windows 10, because the setting you need to fix the problem isn’t as easily discovered as in previous versions.

This blanking is caused by the Screen Saver settings. The Screen Saver is different than the Background. In Windows 10:

Click Start | Settings (or just press the WinKey +I).

Click Personalization | Lock Screen | Screen saver settings (you might have to scroll down to see that).

If your settings say Blank, and 1 minute, you’ve found the problem. Change them to None, and if there’s a check in the box to require a password, be sure to remove the checkmark.

Click OK.

That will stop the screen from going blank after a minute of activity.

In previous versions of Windows you can get there as shown here: http://rlis.com/columns/column469.htm. 

To manage the settings that put the computer to sleep or to turn off the display in Windows 10:

Click on Start | Settings | System | Power & sleep

 

Fix the ‘Edge won’t let me use Google’ problem 

Windows 10 includes Microsoft’s new browser, called Edge. And Microsoft really wants you to use the Microsoft search engine, called Bing (if you’re not sure what I mean by browser and search engine, have a look at last week’s column. 

So determined are they to get you to use Bing that it’s very hard to find the setting to let you use Google. But . . . I found it! The trick is to go to the Google site and then add it as a search engine.

Open the Edge browser (the icon looks like a lower case blue ‘e’, with a Mohawk).

In the address bar, type google.ca or google.com - whichever you want.

Press Enter.

In the upper right-hand corner of the Edge window, click on the three dots to open the menu.

Click on Settings.

Scroll down until you see View Advanced settings, click on that.

In the box for Search in the address bar with, click on the downward arrow and then on Add new.

Click on the search engine and then on Add as default.

Now when you start typing in the address bar, your search results will be from Google. If you want to add another search engine, follow the same procedure. Some, like DuckDuckGo, will let you click right on that page to add them to Edge.

 
Fix a problem you might not know you have

If you haven’t seen this already, you soon will. Microsoft will place what they call ‘suggestions’ (and what the rest of us call ‘advertisements’) on the Windows 10 Start Menu. Seriously, Microsoft? 

These suggestions/ads are for apps. Clicking on a suggestion takes you to the Microsoft Store and right to where you can download that app. Isn’t that efficient?

This makes people angry, including me. You dismiss a suggestion by right-clicking on it and then clicking on Don’t show this suggestion. You can also turn off all suggestions by clicking on that choice.

If you haven’t seen this yet, and you never, ever want to, you can turn it off now:

Click on Start | Settings | Personalization | Start
Turn off Occasionally show suggestions in Start

Have you fixed something annoying about Windows 10? Tell me about it, and I'll share your tip (and give you full credit, of course. 

Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along.

 

Links

Quick Tips http://rlis.com/columns/column469.htm

Not the Same Thing http://rlis.com/columns/column531.htm 

Computer Care Kelowna http://computercarekelowna.com/

Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.