MAY 2020 PCWorld 135of other Windows 10 tweaks can make your
life easier, too.
Night Light restricts blue light
emanating from your display by changing its
hue, similar to the popular f.lux app (go.
pcworld.com/f1ux). “Studies have shown
that blue light at night suppresses melatonin
production more than other colors and shifts
the body’s circadian timing, thereby
disrupting the sleep-wake cycle,” we said in
our Night Light primer (go.pcworld.com/
prmr). Head to Start > Settings > System >
Display and activate the Night Light slider to
turn it on, then click the Night Light settings
link to adjust how it works.
Windows Timeline shows you a history
of your recent activity in Microsoft apps,
including individual Office files and Edge
browser tabs, making it easy to jump back
into something you were working on before.
If you’re a Chrome user, grab the official
Web Activities browser extension by
Microsoft (go.pcworld.com/wbac) to enable
the same functionality.
You summon Timeline by opening the
Task View icon on the Windows 10 toolbar, or
pressing Windows + Tab. Your recent
activity appears underneath the virtual
desktop view. Better yet, Timeline’s tied to
your Microsoft Account, so it can travel with
you from PC to PC. You can disable
Microsoft’s synchronization options by
heading to Start > Settings > Privacy >
Activity History and disabling everything. I
find the feature incredibly useful, however, as
I often switch from my laptop to my desktop.
Cloud Clipboard further leverages the
connectivity of your Microsoft Account by
letting you copy text on one PC, then paste it
on another. It’s wonderful. Head to Settings
> System > Clipboard to turn it on and
configure its behavior.
If you have external storage connected to
your PC, File History is a godsend, taking
snapshots of your files as you go and storing the
different versions, so you can recover older
saves if need be. “Say, for example, you really
liked a paragraph from the first draft of an essay,
but you deleted it long ago and are now
battling regret,” we explained in our primer.
“You can dip into File History, retrieve the right
version of your document, and copy theNight light’s options are basic, but it’s a handy tool.