Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

MakeWindowsBetter Expert tipsfor everyversion

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It’s easytoendupwith

severalfoldersthathave

thesamename,

especiallyifyourPChasmorethanone

drive.Folderswithobviousnamessuch

as‘Pictures’, forexample,cansoon

multiplyasyoumakebackups.And

whenyouhaveseveralFileExplorer

windowsopen,it’s easytomixthem

up.FileExplorer’s addressbaraddsto

theconfusionbyhidingtheletterof

thedriveonwhichthefolderisstored.

Onesolutionistoshowthefolder’s full

pathinthetitlebaratthetopofits

windowwhenyouopenit.

Thisoptionisdisabledbydefault,

soyou’llneedtoswitchitoninFile

ExplorerOptions.Thequickestway

istotypefolderintotheStartmenu,

thenclickFileExplorerOptions.

SelecttheViewtabintheboxthat

appears,tick‘Displaythefullpath

inthetitlebar’under‘Advanced

settings’, thenclickOK.

We’veactivatedthisoption,

soalthoughExplorer’s addressbar

shows‘OneDrive-Personal>Documents

>Work’(^1 in ourscree nshot), thetitle

baraddsthe driveletter–‘D:\

OneDrive\Docum ents\Work’^2 .This

means you’ll neverhavetog uesswhich

driveyou’reworking from .Italsohelps

when workingonf olders with similar

namesbut on differen tdrives.

Showfull path in FileExplorer’stitle bar

WINDOWS 11

Makethetaskbarlook

morelikeadock

RoundedTBisoneofthemany

newthird-partytoolsyoucan

usetochangetheappearanceof

theWindows 1 1taskbar.Itmakesthe

taskbarlookmorelikeadock,with

roundedcornerstomatchWindows 1 1’s

style. TheappisfreefromtheMicrosoft

Store(www.snipca.com/4 0529 ). Toinstall

it,clickGet,thenrunitfromtheStart

menu.OpenitsAdvancedsettings,then

tick‘Dynamicmode’(^1 in ourscree nshot

below) followed by Applytog et thedock

effect^2 ,and ‘Showsystemtray’ to make

thesystemtrayfloatini ts ownsection.

We foundthe defaultMargin^3 and

‘Corner radius’^4 settings to be just right.

WINDOWS 10 &11

Search imagesbydatetaken

Anyonewhohaslotsof

photosscatteredacross

theirharddrivewillknow

whatapainitcanbetofindanything.

Onewaytonarrowyourselectionisto

searchby‘datemodified’-inother

words,whentheimagefilewascreated-

butthatisn’t alwaysthesameasthedate

thephotowas taken. Thankfully, youcan

sear ch by this date to o-just type

datetaken:april (orany month-see

screenshot below) into Fi le Explorer’s

sear ch box. Windowswill search the

metadatatofind out when photos were

taken,thenshowtheresults.Youcan

narrowtheresultsfurtherbyaddinga

year,forexampledatetaken:april 2021.

WINDOWS 10 &11

Get Pantone’s2022 colour

as atheme

Colour specialistPantone

haslaunchedits colou rof

theyearfor 20 22 (see

previous colou rs atwww.snipca.

com/40527). It’s asortofpurpley

indi go called Very Peri,and it

appears in anew officialWindows

them e(pictured right), which

uses theWindows 11 ‘bloom’

graphic butalsoworks in

Windows10. It’s averyattractive

colou r–blue, butwithenough

redtomakeiti nteresti ng,and sets

off Windows11’s‘Light’ mode

well.Install it from theMicrosoft

Storeatwww.snipca.com/40528.

Openingthedownloadwilltakeyouto

Settings,Personalization, Themes,where

youcanactivateit.

19 Januar y–1February 2022 •Issue623

WINDOWS 10 & 11

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