Introducing Settings

This is all achieved in the Windows 11 Settings panel. You will see Settings pinned to the Start Menu and represented by a gear (cog) icon. Opening settings reveals the different settings categories, listed down the left side, and the settings appropriate to that category in the main view, see Figure 2-1.

It is here that you will perform every task from configuring and customizing your Windows installation to managing user accounts, work accounts, printers and Bluetooth headphones, privacy, accessibility, and more.

Personalizing Your Desktop

Let’s start with your desktop and Start Menu. There are two ways to access the personalization options in Windows 11. You can either open Settings and click Personalization on the left of the settings panel, or you can right-click (tap and hold) anywhere in an unused place on the desktop and from the menu that appears click Personalize.

Windows 11 has personalization settings for all parts of the desktop and user experience. The first thing you will see is a selection of themes, which include different color schemes for Windows, and also different desktop wallpapers, see Figure 2-2.

Some of these themes, such as the one seen in Figure 2-2, will change the whole desktop from a light theme to a dark one. Others will change the colors of specific desktop items such as the Taskbar and Start Menu.

If you scroll down the Personalization options screen with your mouse or finger, you will see additional options, allowing you to change any aspect of the current theme, see Figure 2-3.

Changing Windows Desktop Scaling

One of the problems with modern computer displays is they come with a very high resolution. While this can make apps, games, photos, and videos look pin sharp, it can also make everyday items on the desktop such as text and icons very small and difficult to read.

In Settings, select System in the left panel, and then Display on the right side (you can also get to this by right-clicking the desktop and selecting Display settings from the menu that appears).

In the Display settings options, you will see an option called Scale. There is a drop-down menu here which has different scaling options for your display, and they will vary from 100% all the way to 250%, see Figure 2-4.

Changing the scaling options doesn’t change how pin sharp apps, games, photos, and video can look as they still stay the same. What it changes is the size of text and icons on your desktop, making them much easier to see and read (if you zoom upward) or to give you more available desktop space overall (if the zoom level goes downward).

Caution

Changing your desktop scaling options is not the same thing as changing the Display resolution, as the latter will make your display blocky and difficult to use. Display resolution should always be set to the native resolution of your PC’s monitor.

Personalizing Your Sound Options

Sometimes, especially when you’ve plugged a different monitor into your PC, you can find that your sound isn’t working. This happens when Windows thinks you want to play your sound through a different device than the one you actually want. You can choose what device or speakers to play your sound on in Settings under System and Sound, see Figure 2-5.

In the section Choose where to play sound, you can select which audio device to use with your PC. This can come in useful if you plug headphones into your PC, perhaps for an online call or meeting, but they’re not recognized.

You will see a volume slider below this where you can select the volume for your PC, and further down the page is also a Choose a device for speaking and recording panel, and you can use this to select the correct microphone to use for online calls and meetings.

Note that if you are using Bluetooth headphones or speakers and they are not visible in the list, I will show you how to connect and manage them in Chapter 10.

Personalizing Quick Settings

In Chapter 1, I detailed the Quick Settings panel, which pops out when you click the network and volume icons in the System Tray to the right side of the desktop Taskbar. This menu contains quick on/off switches for features like Bluetooth, flight mode (on laptops and tablets), the Night Light feature, Accessibility settings, and more.

In the bottom-right corner of the Quick Settings panel is a pen icon, and clicking this will allow you to add and remove items from Quick Settings, as well as dragging items around the panel to rearrange them, see Figure 2-6.

You can click the unpin icon in the top-right corner of any item to remove it and also click the Add button to display a list of additional settings you can add. These will vary from one PC to another depending on the hardware and features you have installed. When you are finished customizing Quick Settings, click the Done button.

Adding and Managing User Accounts

You might not be the only person that wants to use your PC. Perhaps a friend or another member of your family wants to use the PC too, or maybe you want your children to be able to use it safely.

You can add user accounts to the PC in Settings by selecting Accounts from the left panel. The first thing it will show you is details of your own user account, see Figure 2-7, and below this are options to manage Your info which is where you can add or change your user avatar and add and manage Email and accounts which we will look at shortly, and to sign into your PC using facial or fingerprint recognition (called Windows Hello), and we will look at how we set this up and use it in Chapter 9.

You set up and manage other users on the PC using the Family & other users’ settings. There are two different ways to add an account, Add a family member and Add [an] other user, see Figure 2-8.

Family accounts are normally used for children, and Windows includes family safety features that we will look in detail in Chapter 3. When you add somebody to your PC, Windows 11 will ask for the email address associated with their Microsoft Account. You don’t need to know their password though, so they don’t need to be with you at the time. Their account will appear at the Lock Screen and be available from the Start Menu and will be configured the first time they sign into the PC.

Other ways to add a user account to a PC though include creating a new Microsoft Account for them (which you must do if you have a child you want to use the Family Safety features for), adding them by a phone number associated with their Microsoft Account, or if your PC is running Windows 10 Pro you will see an option to add a user without a Microsoft Account. This will just add a local (non-synced) account to the PC, see Figure 2-9.

After a user has been added to the PC, they will appear in the Family & other users’ settings, and you can click their name to get more options. These include removing their account from the PC when it is no longer required and Changing [their] account type, see Figure 2-10.

Managing Accounts for Children

I’m going to begin this section with a caveat. Microsoft do change the child account and family safety options in Windows and on their Family Safety website from time to time as they introduce new features or update existing ones. This means that what you see might vary slightly from what I detail here, though the functionality will always remain broadly the same.

When you add a Family account, you are first asked what role they should have. This is either an Organizer, and this is a role that would be assigned to another parent, guardian, or adult who is supervising the child, or a Member and this option is the one you would choose for a child, see Figure 2-11.

Once a child’s account has been set up, when you are signed into Windows 11 using your own account, the child will be visible in the Family & other users settings, and you will see an option to Manage family settings online…, see Figure 2-12. This is where you can manage their safety settings.

Clicking this takes you to a website where you can see your child account(s), see Figure 2-13, and yes, I know this is showing a picture of my border collie Evan, but I don’t have children of my own, and having some just for the purpose of writing this book might not be the best for them… or my own sanity.

This is a website you might want to bookmark; I’ll show you how to do this in Chapter 3, as you’ll want to come back to it regularly. While there’s still a caveat with this as Microsoft might vary or retitle these options over time, the main options available to you include the following:

• Screen time is where you can manage the amount of time and times of the day when the child can use Windows 11 and other Microsoft devices such as an Xbox games console.

• Apps and games is where you can set an age rating for games; 10 in the case of Evan as he had his tenth birthday a few months ago. This works with online game age rating systems to help make sure your child does not play inappropriate games.

Caution

Please note that the game age rating system online is not foolproof, and some games and gaming platforms have been known to allow children to play age-inappropriate games. It is always advisable to check what games your child is playing from time to time.

• Web and search allows you to set safe search options for the child, which include the automatic blocking of age-inappropriate websites such as gambling, shopping, and social media. Alternatively, you can specify what websites the child is allowed to visit, and which ones should be blocked.

Caution

As with gaming ratings, these online systems are not completely foolproof, and it is always good advice to discuss with your child what websites they like to use, what they do online, and why certain types of websites can be harmful to them.

• Spending is where you can set the child a budget of what they are allowed to spend on apps and on in-app purchases (which have been known to bankrupt a few people when it all goes horribly wrong), or you can specify that you must give permission whenever your child wishes to make a purchase online.

• Xbox online gaming is an additional set of options that are part of the Xbox online gaming system, which allow you to help shield your child from inappropriate games and online spending.

Setting Up Email and Online Accounts

Windows 11 comes with in-built email and calendar apps, but you might use a non-Microsoft Account for these, such as an account from Google. Additionally, you might also use your PC for work and want access to your work email and calendar, and we will look at working on your PC in detail in Chapter 8.

In Settings, click Accounts and then Email & accounts to set up (and remove) additional accounts on your PC. When you click the Add account button, you will be asked what type of account you want to add; these include Microsoft and Microsoft 365 accounts and Google, Yahoo!, and Apple iCloud accounts, and there is an advanced setup option for other types of accounts, see Figure 2-14.

You can add as many accounts as you need and these will be available in appropriate apps, such as email and calendar.

The Email and Calendar Apps

You can find both the Email (called Mail in Windows 11) and Calendar apps in the Start Menu, and they are pinned to the Start Menu when you first start using Windows 11, see Figure 2-15. I am not going to spend much time on these apps; however, as Microsoft update them regularly and as I write this, I have already said a complete overhaul is coming to them, to bring them more in line with the look, feel, and functionality of their Outlook.com online email and calendaring website.

Summary

It’s very easy to work with multiple people on a PC, and when you have your own files, documents, settings, and saved games on the PC, it’s a good idea for each person to have their own account too, or else they might change something in your account you would prefer they didn’t. Microsoft do make this very easy to do, though remember you will need Windows 10 Pro to use a local account.

The very next thing you will want to do with your PC though is to get online and to start browsing the Internet. In the next chapter then we’ll look at how you connect your PC to Wi-Fi and local networks, how to get started with Microsoft’s Edge web browser, and how to set up your online experience to be safe and secure.