Find yourself suddenly needing to be more productive? Good news! Windows 10 comes loaded with all sorts of tools designed to help you Get Things Done, along with deeper tweaks that can optimize the operating system for productivity even more. Each new major upgrade adds even more. Now for the bad news: All those excellent productivity-boosting Windows tools and tweaks aren’t immediately obvious, with many of the most useful settings buried deep inside a maze of options menus. (There’s a reason we need to publish articles like 10 little-known Windows features that will blow your mind.)

We can help. Taking five or ten minutes to tinker with Windows 10 can supercharge your setup, regardless of whether you’re trying to keep at work while stuck at home or setting up something more permanent. Better yet, most of these tips also work just fine for Windows 11, though their exact location may differ slightly. Let’s dig in.

Get rid of interruptions

If you want to stay focused on a task, reducing your interruptions is key. That can be as simple as checking your email and social media only at designated times, but Windows 10 can still pop up notifications that can kick you out of a productive headspace, be it from apps or the OS itself. Let’s eradicate those first.

Open the Start menu, click the Settings cog icon, and head to System > Notifications and actions. You have a few different options here. To nuke all notifications from orbit, eradicating them completely, move the Get notifications from apps and other senders item to Off. Boom.

Even if you’ve been using Windows for decades, it’s big and complex enough that there might be features that can still surprise you. We’ve tracked down ten little-known Windows tools and tips that might just improve your efficiency, your comfort, or possibly even your fun while using your PC. 

Here they are, in no particular order. All of them should work on both Windows 10 and 11. 

Mouse hover window activation

Whenever I use a new PC, this is the very first feature I enable. Technically it’s part of the accessibility tools, but many users might find it useful no matter what their level of mobility. This setting allows you to activate a window simply by moving your mouse cursor over it, instead of requiring an extra click before interacting with the program. It’s a tiny change, but one that makes a huge difference, especially on a laptop trackpad. 

To change this setting, go to Control Panel, then click the Ease of Access Center. Click “Make the mouse easier to use.” Under “Make it easier to manage windows,” select “Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse.” Click Okay to enable the setting. 

It’s important to have a professional-looking signature in your work email. Microsoft Word has a template gallery with 20 signatures that you can choose from and then tweak to make your own. I’ll show you how to access this Word gallery template and then create your own signature.

I’m using Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use an earlier version. For your convenience, you can download the demonstration .docx and .doc files. Word for the web supports most everything in this article.

SEE: Get Microsoft Office for Windows with this lifetime license (TechRepublic Academy)

How to start with a template in Word

You can create your own design, but there are so many good templates available that it isn’t necessary. Start with one you like and alter it. To use a template in Word:

Figure A

How-To

iCloud Drive is now your home for everything.

Thanks to advancements in AI, you don't need to be an expert in Photoshop in order to make your photos look good. Anyone with a bit of working knowledge of photo filters can easily manipulate their photos, improve background lighting, perform things like color contrast, and more.

There are a bunch of free AI photo editing tools online that you can use to easily enhance your photos. Many of them also have built-in filters that you can use to improve your photos in a single click.

In this article, we'll discuss seven of the best free AI online photo editors that you can use today.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of carefully manipulating every aspect of your images, you should consider checking out Autoenhance. It offers three core features:

There's even an API that you can use to integrate Autoenhance into your own applications. It's entirely free to use (even the API), but only for up to 15 images. There is an option to pay as you go, or you can also choose from different bundles.

Browser extensions improve the experience of internet trawling. Just a handful can save you time, money, and sanity, plus protect your security and privacy.

Everyone has their favorite add-ons. And as you might expect, the PCWorld staff’s faves tend to overlap. For example, my colleague Mark Hachman’s list of top 5 Edge extensions is a kind of sneak peek of my own lineup.

But while you’ll see the same themes come up, my actual picks differ. There’s a lot of choice on this planet, and that means you can tailor your experience to fit your needs and interests. Mine revolve around staying safe on the web, deal-hunting, and not letting social media get the best of me.

Oh, and Edge users—you can join in on this party, too. Most of these exist as native Edge add-ons, but you can also install them from the Chrome Web Store, too.

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