Five Hidden Features of Windows 10

Windows 10 comes packed with features, some obvious, some hidden. Here are five terrific hidden features you may not discover on your own.

1. Scheduling Windows Updates at Your Convenience

We’ve all had the experience of merrily playing on our PCs only to have that loathed little notification pop up and tell us how much time we’d have to keep resetting the timer before Windows updates would run. In Windows 10, you can instead schedule your own Windows updates by scheduling restarts. The process is easy: just navigate to Settings, Updates and Recovery and then Windows Update and bid the old harbinger of forced updates farewell.

2. Xbox Streaming Capabilities

Windows 10 integrates beautifully with your Xbox Live account, and you can also stream Xbox One games to your local PC. This feature can be enabled on the Xbox One settings and it is quite handy for gamers. Mouse and keyboard integration is also enabled.

3. Customized Start Menu

Remember when everyone was mad at Windows 8 for the lack of a Start button and then not happy with the Start button in Windows 8.1? Windows 10 fixes that, combining some of the best elements of Windows 7 and Windows 8 while being fully customizable. You can resize the various tiles in the Start menu just by right-clicking them, as one example, and you can customize what you see in your feed.

4. Virtual Desktops and Task View

Windows 10 handles virtual desktops majestically. Task View is a function that plays nicely with that capability by letting you set up a series of tasks and windows all on your desktop. You can be browsing the web, playing a game, and updating Twitter, all simultaneously. For multi-taskers, this takes efficiency to the next level. Try it out and experience the multi-tasking bliss.

5. God Mode

Release the Kraken! Or, rather, create a folder on your root drive and rename it God Mode. This amped-up trick allows a special menu to be brought up that collects a bunch of settings into one glorious menu for god-like control (hence the name). Windows 10 gives back control to the user with such enthusiasm that they’re naming one of their own functions ‘godly.’ Have to give them credit for the awesome title to an awesome feature!

Windows 10 comes with many more features beyond these, of course. Whether it is Cortana, the new command prompt tweaks, being able to print to PDFs or anything in between, many people agree Windows 10 is a winner.