Windows Inside & Out · Settings & Accounts · Lesson 1 of 5

A Tour of Settings

Find your way around Windows Settings and change the things you use most.

Finding your way around Settings

Settings is the app where you change how Windows looks and works. Almost every choice about your computer lives here. The fastest way to open it is the shortcut Windows+I. You can also open Start and click the gear icon.

Settings has a list of sections down the left side. Each one groups related choices:

• System: the screen, sound, notifications, power and storage.
• Bluetooth & devices: mice, printers, headphones and phones.
• Network & internet: Wi-Fi and wired connections.
• Personalization: the background picture, colors and the taskbar.
• Apps: installed apps and which app opens which kind of file.
• Accounts: your account, sign-in options and other people on the computer.
• Time & language, Gaming, Accessibility, Privacy & security and Windows Update.

You don't need to memorize this list. At the top left there is a search box. Type what you want, like "mouse" or "printer", and Settings shows matching pages. Searching is often quicker than clicking through menus, even for experts.

Looking around is safe. Opening a page changes nothing until you flip a switch or pick an option. If a page has a switch you don't understand, leave it alone and search the web for its exact name.

On a Mac, the same app is called System Settings. Open it from the Apple menu. It also has a list on the left and a search box at the top.

On the practice computer, search for "text size" and make the text bigger. Then set the PDF app in Default apps and quiet a noisy app's notifications.

Display, apps and notifications

Three areas of Settings come up again and again. Learning them saves a lot of frustration.

Text and screen size. If words look too small, go to Accessibility > Text size. Drag the slider and click Apply. This makes only the words bigger. To make everything bigger, including icons and buttons, go to System > Display and change Scale. Scale is a percentage, like 125% or 150%, that enlarges the whole picture.

Default apps. A default app is the app Windows uses automatically for a kind of file or link. For example, it decides which browser opens web links and which app opens PDF files. Go to Apps > Default apps, search for the file type, such as ".pdf", and pick the app you prefer. Some apps ask to become the default when you install them. You can always change it back here.

Notifications. A notification is a small message that pops up in the corner of the screen, like a new email or a reminder. Too many of them are distracting. Go to System > Notifications. You'll see a list of apps, each with its own switch. Turn off the ones that bother you and keep the useful ones. There is also Do not disturb, which silences all of them for a while.

None of these changes are permanent. If you don't like a result, come back and set it the way it was.

On a Mac, look in System Settings under Displays, Notifications, and in each app for its default choices.