Introduction

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

—T. S. Eliot

Thank you for purchasing or considering the purchase of Windows 10 In Depth. Windows 10 is, in short, a bold, thoughtful, and well-executed step forward in Microsoft’s quest to create a single operating system that looks and acts the same across all devices, from desktop PCs to tablets, notebooks to telephones, and eventually even vending machines and gaming consoles. Rather than taking Apple’s approach of having one OS for computers (OS X) and a second OS for phones and tablets (iOS), Microsoft has committed itself to the “One Ring to Rule Them All” principle, and has engineered Windows 10 to efficiently manage both types of devices.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because Microsoft attempted to do this in 2013 with Windows 8, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, universally reviled. If there was one positive thing that you could say about it, it was that in comparison it made Windows Vista look like a spectacular success. There were two main problems: first, a lack of flexibility, especially on desktop computers. While a full-screen, one-application-at-a-time interface is sensible on a phone or tablet, on a desktop computer it was a productivity drain of black hole proportions. The second and worse problem was that Microsoft could have made it work well but refused. The company’s attitude at the time was essentially, “This is what you’re going to get, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it. You’re stuck with it, so get used to it.”

It turns out that this wasn’t a spectacularly effective business strategy.

So, now, after firing the CEO and the Windows Division president, eating nearly $2 billion in losses from its Surface Tablet product line, and skipping an entire version number just to show that it’s really moved on, a much humbler, much more responsive Microsoft has released a new operating system. It kept what was good about Windows 8 and either tossed out or fixed the rest. The folks at Microsoft listened...really listened; in fact, they let the public vote on how Windows 10 would work. And the result is very, very good.

Microsoft backtracked on two key points:

On traditional desktop and laptop computers, “Modern*” apps no longer have to run full-screen, one at a time. They can now run in normal windows, which you can move around and open and close.

* These are programs based on software technology that makes them as capable of running on phones and tablets that have only a touchscreen and no mouse or keyboard as they are on desktop computers. Microsoft doesn’t know quite what to call them. They’ve tried a bunch of names, including Metro apps, Windows 8 Style-apps, and Windows Store apps. In this book we call them Modern apps. We talk about this in Chapter 1.

The Start menu is back. It’s modernized, but it’s recognizable as the Windows Start menu that we’ve had since 1995.

And still, Windows 10 has enough of the new to be interesting. There’s an online personal digital assistant named Cortana. There are Modern apps and the Windows Store from which to find and install them. And, according to Microsoft, this is the last version of Windows you’ll ever have to install. The plan is to incrementally improve and polish it bit by bit over the years, through frequent automatic updates.

If you’re upgrading from Windows 8.1, you’ll find that this version of Windows is easier to use. There are fewer “secrets.” You know what we mean: those invisible places you had to click or bizarre gestures you had to make with your finger to perform even basic tasks.

And, despite all the new features, if you skipped Windows 8 and are moving up, or are considering moving up, from Windows 7 or XP, you’ll find that almost everything you know about Windows still applies to Windows 10—you just have to learn some new routes to reach old places. In this book, we show you not only how to use all the new features, but also how to quickly and easily navigate to the parts of Windows that you’re already familiar with.

This book covers the main desktop, notebook, and tablet versions of Windows 10: Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro (which includes advanced features such as virtualization, encryption, Remote Desktop hosting, and group policy), and Windows 10 Enterprise (which includes additional features for enterprise IT support and security). Windows 10 Education version is Windows 10 Enterprise licensed for educational institutions. We cover how to use Enterprise and Education, although we don’t cover the server-side management tools that are supplied with Windows Server operating systems.

Although some of what we cover here also applies to the small-device version called Windows Mobile, we don’t explicitly cover that version in this book.

Although usually the path from one version of Windows to the next is smooth and straight, every so often there is a big bump in the road. The first was with Windows 95, where the Start button appeared and the right mouse button suddenly became very important. The next bump was Windows XP, which marked the move from MS-DOS to the Windows NT operating system kernel, to a security system for files, and to a whole new way of managing Windows. It happened again with Windows 8. The Start button disappeared, and you had to use arcane “gestures” and tools to get anywhere.

Windows 10 fixes most of those problems, but there are still a bunch of shortcuts and tricks that you’ll want to know about. We found these out for ourselves as we worked with Windows 10 daily, for months, as we wrote this book. We didn’t have anyone’s guidance then, but you do now. In this book, we’ll show you how to manage the Windows 10 interface without a struggle.

In addition to getting you through the steeper parts of the Windows 10 learning curve, we’ll give you the benefit of our combined 50-plus years of experience working with, writing about, and even writing software for Microsoft Windows. We know what parts of using and managing Windows are confusing. We know the easy ways to do things. We’ve seen just about every bug and glitch, have been through just about every ugly scenario one can come up with, and have made just about every mistake one can make. Therefore, we can spare you from having to repeat some of them.

You might also appreciate that in this book, we can be honest with you. We don’t work for Microsoft, so we can tell you what we really feel about the product: the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. If we say something’s great, it’s because we think it is; and if we hate something, we’ll tell you, and we’ll try to show you how to avoid it.

Our book addresses both home and business computer users. As we wrote, we imagined that you, our reader, are a friend or coworker who is familiar enough with your computer to know what it’s capable of, but might not know the details of how to make it all happen. So we show you, in a helpful, friendly, professional tone. We make an effort not just to tell you what to do, but why you’re doing it. If you understand how Windows and its component parts work, you can get through rough patches: diagnosing problems, fixing things that the built-in wizards can’t fix, and otherwise solving problems creatively.

And if you’re looking for power-user tips and some nitty-gritty details, we make sure you get those, too. We try to make clear what information is essential for you to understand and what is optional for just those of you who are especially interested.

However, no one book can do it all. As the title says, this book is about the versions of Windows 10 that run on desktop computers, notebooks, and mobile devices (tablets) that have an Intel-compatible processor. Our coverage of the new Modern interface, Start menu, apps, management tools, and setup panels for the most part apply to tablets that run Windows 10 Mobile; however, a few parts of this book won’t apply to those devices, and if you have one, you might want to get a book that specifically addresses that operating system.

We also don’t have room to cover how to set up or manage the various Microsoft Server operating systems, such as Windows Server 2016, or how to deploy or manage Windows 10 using enterprise tools that are provided only with those operating systems. For these topics, you’ll need to consult a Windows Server book.

Because of space limitations, only one chapter is devoted to coverage of the numerous Windows 10 command-line utilities, its batch file language, Windows Script Host, and Windows PowerShell. For that (in spades!), you might want to check out Brian’s book Windows 7 and Vista Guide to Scripting, Automation, and Command Line Tools, which is equally applicable to Windows 10.

Even when you’ve become a Windows 10 pro, we think you’ll find this book to be a valuable source of reference information in the future. Both the table of contents and the very complete index provide an easy means for locating information when you need it quickly.

If you’re new to Windows 10, however, we do recommend that you read Chapter 3, “Your First Hour with Windows 10,” and Chapter 4, “Using the Windows 10 Interface,” in their entirety. Windows 10 has new ways of doing things that aren’t always entirely intuitive or obvious. Reading these two chapters might save you hours of frustration.

This book is broken down into six major parts. Here’s the scoop on each one:

Part I, “Starting Out with Windows 10,” introduces the new Windows 10 user interface, and shows you how to install Windows 10 on a new computer or upgrade an older version of Windows to Windows 10. In addition, we take you on a one-hour guided tour that shows you the best of the new Windows 10 features, and we walk you through making essential settings and adjustments that will help you get the most out of your computer. Consider this the Windows 10 version of “freshman orientation.”

In Part II, “Using Windows 10,” we cover the new Modern user interface and apps, managing documents and files, starting and stopping applications, searching for files and media, printing, and using the included desktop accessories and accessibility tools. In other words, this section covers all the routine, day-to-day stuff. However, it’s very important material: Windows 10 does many things differently, and using it can be frustrating and confusing, especially if you don’t know the basic tricks and techniques.

Part III, “Multimedia and Imaging,” covers the Windows 10 bells and whistles, including Windows Media Player, imaging devices, using a document scanner, faxing, and all the other media tools that ship with Windows.

In Part IV, “Windows 10 and the Internet,” we help you set up an Internet connection and then move on to cover the Windows 10 Internet tools. The final chapter in this part shows you how to diagnose Internet connection problems.

Any home or office with two or more computers needs a local area network (LAN) to easily transfer and back up files, share printers, and use a shared high-speed Internet connection. In Part V, “Networking,” we walk you through setting up a network in your home or office, and show you how to take advantage of it in day-to-day use. We also show you how easy it is to share a DSL or cable Internet connection with all your computers at once, show you how to network with other operating systems, and, finally, help you fix it when it all stops working.

Part VI, “Maintaining Windows 10,” covers system configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting. We tell you how to work with the huge assortment of Windows 10 management tools, show you various useful tweaks and customizations, take you through some hard disk management techniques, give you advice on troubleshooting and repairing problems, show you how to manage software and hardware, and give you the details on editing the Windows Registry. And for real power users, we show how to use and tweak the command-line interface.

When Windows was introduced more than two decades ago, computer viruses, online fraud, and hacking were only starting to emerge as threats. Today (thanks in great part to gaping security holes in previous versions of Windows), computer threats are a worldwide problem, online and offline. In Part VII, “Security,” we provide a 360-degree view of the ways in which Windows protects you and your data. Here, you’ll find out both what Windows 10 will do to help you and what you must do for yourself. We cover protection against viruses and spyware, data loss and theft, hackers and snoops, and fraud and spam—in that order.

Part VIII, “Windows On the Move,” shows you how to get the most out of Windows 10 when either you or your computer, or both, are on the go. We show you how to use a touch or pen interface on a Windows tablet or some other mobile PC, how to use wireless networking safely, how to get the most out of your laptop or tablet PC when traveling, and how to connect to remote networks. We also show you how to remotely connect to and use your Windows 10 computer from anywhere in the world.

Appendix A, “Virtualization,” explains how to use Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology to run other operating systems side by side with Windows 10, or to run Windows 10 within some other operating system. This can be an excellent alternative to setting up a dual-boot system. And, finally, Appendix B, “Command-Line Utilities,” takes you through a tour of various Windows command-line utilities.

All Windows book publishers struggle with how to represent command sequences when menus and dialog boxes are involved. In this book, we separate commands using a comma. Yeah, we know it’s confusing, but this is traditionally how Que’s books do it, and traditions die hard. So, for example, the instruction “Choose Edit, Cut” means that you should open the Edit menu and choose Cut. Another, more complex example is “Select Control Panel, System and Security, Change Battery Settings.”

Key combinations are represented with a plus sign. For example, if the text calls for you to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, you would press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time. The letterless “Windows Logo” key is very useful in Windows 10. In key combinations it appears as, for example, “Windows Logo+X.”

We designed these elements to call attention to common pitfalls that you’re likely to encounter.

Finally, cross-references are designed to point you to other locations in this book (or other books in the Que family) that provide supplemental or supporting information. Cross-references appear as follows:

To learn more about the Start menu and Modern apps, see “Taking a Tour of the Windows 10 Interface,” p. 105.

Let’s get started!