Make Windows Better Expert tips for every version
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WINDOWS 10 & 11It’s all too easy
to drag and
drop items
without meaning to. You can
make this less likely by
increasing the distance you
have to move your mouse
before Windows recognises
that you’re trying to drag something.
This requires a registry edit, so press
Windows key+R then type regedit into
the Run box and press Enter. Navigate
to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control
Panel, then double-click Desktop (^1 in
our screenshot) and look for the
DragHeight and DragWidth options^2.
Click either option and you’ll see that
the ‘Value data’ is 4^3 , which means
Windows recognises a dragging actionif you move your mouse just four pixels
on your screen. The distance will
depend on your screen’s dpi, but it may
be too short for you. To make it less
sensitive, change the DragHeight and
DragWidth value to a higher number.
Try 10, 20, 30 and 40 to see which you
prefer. Click OK each time to confirm.
Anything higher than those values will
probably mean having to move the
mouse too far.Change the ‘drag and drop’ sensitivity
of your mouse
WINDOWS 11
Create folders in the Start menu
Microsoft is adding a new feature
to Windows 11 that lets you
create folders in the Start menu
by dragging icons on top of each other.
Our screenshot below shows three
folders, Office^1 , Productivity^2 and
Social^3 , each containing icons for four
tools. To remove an app from a folder,
drag it out and drop it anywhere on the
Pinned apps section. You can easily name
these folders, too, as this animation
shows: http://www.snipca.com/41627.
This feature was part of Preview Build
22557, released in February, and is now
being added to the full version. If you
haven’t received the update yet, keep
checking every few days.WINDOWS 11
Create your own caption styles
You can create your own
style for Windows 11’s Live
Captions feature, allowing you to
switch between different backgrounds,
text colours and effects to suit the video
you’re watching.
Press Windows key+I to open Settings,
then click Accessibility on the left. Scroll
down to the Hearing section, click
Captions, then the Edit button. Look for
the Text, Background and Window
options (^1 in our screenshot below), and
click one to see what you can change.
‘Text’ offers the most customisation
options (opacity, size, font and effects). In
‘Background’ and Window, you can adjust
only the opacity. As you play with the
settings, you can see how your changes
will look in the ‘Theme preview’ box (tomake this full screen, click the diagonal-
arrow button^2 ).
Once you’ve finished customising your
caption style, click the small cross at the
top right of the caption box, then type a
name for it. We’ve called ours
WhiteonRedDropShadow 3. Windows
will save it automatically, so when you
next open Captions and click the
dropdown menu, you’ll see your new
style alongside the default options.
However, you can create only one style.
If you save another style, it will replace
the one you created previously.WINDOWS 10 & 11
Create a System Restore Point
from your right-click menu
We usually recommend
creating a system restore
point before performing
any task that might wipe data or files. If
you do this regularly, you may want to
add this option to your
right-click context menu.
To do this, you need to
add a command to the
registry. First, open
Notepad, then visit our
Pastebin page (www.
snipca.com/41583) and
copy the code from there.
Paste the code into
Notepad, then click Filefollowed by Save As. Give it a suitable
name, and add a .reg file extension (for
example addsystemrestore.reg). Once
you’ve saved the file, double-click it, then
click Yes twice to confirm that you want
it to make changes to your computer.
Next, right-click a blank area of your
desktop and you’ll see the option to
Create Restore Point. If you want to
remove this later, repeat the steps above
but use this code instead: http://www.snipca.
com/41584. Give it a different name when
saving, such as removesystemrestore.reg.
Note that in Windows 11 you’ll have to
click ‘Show more options’ after right-
clicking your desktop.27 April – 10 May 2022 • Issue 6301
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