11 things to tweak when setting up a Windows 10 laptop – CNET

Get your new laptop set up just the way you want it. Here are 11 settings to check or change.

1. Check for updates

Microsoft releases a steady stream of Windows updates. Your new laptop checks for updates automatically, but you can check manually by going to Settings (click the gear icon above the Start button), choosing Update & Security from the left-hand column and then clicking the Check for updates button. (Or just type “updates” into the search box and click Check for updates.) You can update your laptop this way instead of waiting for updates to install the next time you shut down your laptop.

2. Turn on System Restore

It’s a good idea to make sure you have established a restore point should something go sideways with your laptop on down the road. To set up a restore point, search for “restore” and then click Create a restore point. You’ll be taken to the System Protection tab of the System Properties window.

From there you can choose your main system drive (likely the C: drive) and then click the Configure button. Click the radio dial for Turn on system protection if it’s not already on. And then you can choose how much disk space to reserve for your restore points. You don’t need more than 2 or 3 percentage points.

3. Adjust display settings

Congratulations on getting a laptop with a razor-sharp 1080p (or above) display. While your images will look incredibly crisp, text and icons may now be small and hard to read or click. Lowering the resolution won’t help because the resulting image will look fuzzy. Windows 10, however, lets you scale the size of text, icons and apps.

Right-click on the desktop and select Display settings. For Change the size of text, apps, and other items, you can select a higher percentage to increase the size of text in 25-percent increments or click Custom scaling to select your own percentage.

4. Choose a power plan

Your laptop doesn’t need to run at full power all the time. If you want to lengthen battery life, you can choose the Power saver power plan. Or you can choose the High performance plan when you’re engaged in serious graphics work. In the middle sits the Goldilocks-just-right Balanced plan. To choose a plan, click the battery icon in the system tray in the lower-right corner of the desktop and click Power & sleep settings. Next, click Additional power settings to select a power plan.

5. Set a default browser

If you want to use Chrome or a browser other than Microsoft’s Edge browser, you’ll need to install it yourself. Of course, if you do that, you’ll likely want to make it your default browser. After installing Chrome, the first time you launch it, it will ask you if you want to set it as your default browser. If you miss that offer, you can go to Settings > System > Default apps and click Microsoft Edge in the “Web browser” section to make a different selection.

6. Set app installation tolerance level

This one is for those who have upgraded to Windows 10 Creators Update or Fall Creators Update. Microsoft has borrowed a page out of Apple’s book with the addition of a setting that lets you control which types of apps are allowed to be installed on your PC. Similar to telling your Mac to install apps only from the Mac App Store or also from outside it, you’ll soon find similar options on your PC. Go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features and you can choose from where you can install apps — from anywhere, only from the Windows Store, or from anywhere but get a warning if they are from outside the Store.

7. Turn on your Night Light

Here’s another Creators Update feature. Staring at an unnaturally blue screen at night can shift your body’s natural clock and make it difficult to get a good night’s sleep. Your phone likely has a way to switch to warmer colors at night and now Windows does, too. In Creators Update, there’s a setting to lower the blue light of your PC. Head to Settings > System > Display > Night light settings. You can schedule it to come on at sunset or manually set hours. You’ll also find a new Night light button in the Action Center to toggle the setting on and off.

8. Show filename extensions

Is that image a JPEG or PNG? A Word.doc or a Word.docx? Windows 10 hides file name extension unless you ask it to show them. To do so, open File Explorer, click View from the top menu and then check the box for File name extensions.

9. Connect your phone to your PC

With the demise of the Windows phone, Microsoft has opened its arms to Android phones and iPhones ($699.00 at Apple). There’s a new Phone section in Settings that creates a meaningful connection between your phone and computer. Click Add a phone and follow the instructions to link your phone and PC. Reportedly, this connection will let you pick up on your PC where you left off on Office files on your phone, but I don’t use Word or Excel or any other Office files on my iPhone. I did install the Cortana app on my iPhone because with it I can read an article in Cortana and then tap a button to open that Web page in Edge on my PC. It’s helpful to send, say, a long-form article from my iPhone to the luxurious dimensions of my Windows desktop, but I’ll first need to get in the habit of using the Cortana app to get my news on my phone.

10. Remove bloatware

Many PC vendors package a new laptop with trial apps, but thankfully Windows 10 offers an easy way to see which apps are installed on your new laptop and a quick way to uninstall those you don’t want. Head to Settings > System > Apps & features and peruse the list. If you don’t want an app, click on it and then click the Uninstall button.

11. Anti-ransomware protection

Windows Defender gets a new weapon in the fight against ransomware. Open the Windows Defender Security Center and go to Virus & threat protection > Virus & threat protection settings. Here, you’ll be able to toggle on a new option called Controlled folder access. It protects you against ransomware attacks that can lock you out of your data. By default, the Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders are protected, but you can add others. If the setting is grayed out, then you may need to uninstall the trial version of McAfee or another security app that came pre-installed on your PC.

Editors’ note: This story was originally published on January 6, 2017 and has been updated to include new information about Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.