Ciprian Rusen

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-14-2022

Adjusting to a new operating system, whether you're upgrading from an old version of Windows to Windows 10 or you've purchased a new machine running Windows 10, isn't an easy thing to do. In this cheat sheet, you'll find out what you should do right away, what you shouldn't do, and how to find the features you're used to. You also will find some tips for keeping your sanity while adjusting to your new operating system.

Article / Updated 06-09-2021

How to link an Android smartphone to a PC When you install Windows 10, it asks you to link your phone with your PC, using the Your Phone app. When you go to Settings, there’s a Phone section that asks you to add your phone. Microsoft wants to be part of your phone too, no matter what you do with Windows 10. Because Microsoft has lost the mobile war, it decided to link Windows 10 to the Androids and iPhones of the world and annoy users in new ways. The Your Phone app sounds useful, at least in theory: It displays live notifications from your Android device and allows you to respond to messages from your computer and access the photos from your mobile device. And with select Samsung phones, you can even launch Android apps from Windows 10. Unfortunately, the Your Phone app is buggy, and it has the nasty habit of losing the connection exactly when you start to like it. But hey, Microsoft will improve it over time. Until then, here’s how to link your Android smartphone with your Windows 10 PC: Click Start, and then click the Settings icon. In the Settings app, go to Phone. Click or tap Add a Phone (on the right). The Your Phone app opens, asking you to choose whether you want to link an Android or an iPhone, as shown. Choose Android, and click or tap Continue. On your Android smartphone, open Google Play, and install the Your Phone Companion (or the Link to Windows) app. On new Samsung devices, the app is already installed. On your Android smartphone, open the Your Phone Companion app. On your Windows 10 PC, select the Yes, I Finished Installing Your Phone Companion option, as shown. In Windows 10, click or tap Open QR Code, and scan it with your Android smartphone, which should have the camera open, looking for the QR code. On your Android smartphone, tap Continue, and allow Your Phone Companion to receive all the permissions it requests: accessing contacts, managing phone calls, accessing files, and managing SMS messages. 8. On your Windows 10 PC, select Pin App to Taskbar, and click or tap Get Started. The Your Phone app opens on your Windows 10 PC, as shown, and you can start using it. If you want the Your Phone app to work, you must use the same Microsoft account on your Windows 10 PC and Android smartphone. How to link an iPhone to a PC The Your Phone app works with iPhones too—at least in theory. The problem is that the app doesn’t do much, even though the link process is similar to Android. You go through the same setup steps, but on your iPhone you install the mobile Microsoft Edge browser instead of the Your Phone Companion app. After the setup is finished, open the Your Phone app on Windows 1, and note how empty it is. At the time of this writing, it was literally lots of white space (as shown). The only functionality that Microsoft supports is sending links to web pages from the mobile Microsoft Edge to the desktop Edge in Windows 10. How to turn a smartphone into a webcam for your PC The COVID-19 pandemic has made webcams an expensive and difficult to find commodity. You can use your smartphone as a webcam for your PC. Simply install a specialized app both on your Windows 10 PC and your Android smartphone or iPhone. Many solutions are available; the one I like best is DroidCam. Download the app on both of your devices (PC and phone). The DroidCam setup is easy and involves having both your smartphone and your Windows 10 PC in the same network. If you need help setting it up, the folks at Digital Citizen have a detailed tutorial that’s updated regularly. DroidCam has both free and paid versions, and I have found that the free version has enough features for most people.

Article / Updated 06-09-2021

It's more important than ever to learn how to work from home or from other offsite locations. During the COVID-19 lockdown, millions of people suddenly required equipment that they may not have had in their homes before: a webcam, a second display, a better keyboard, a computer desk, or even an office chair. They also had to familiarize themselves with apps and tools for remote work. Learn more below about how to make these tools (both physical and technological) work for you. How to enable Remote Desktop connections Remote Desktop connections allow Windows devices to connect to one another through the internet or your local network. When you are connecting remotely to another Windows PC, you see that computer's desktop. You can also access its apps, files, and folders as if you were sitting in front of its screen. This is useful for IT professionals and business users who must work remotely. If you want to connect remotely to the Windows 10 PC you are on from another PC, or you want to let others connect to it, you must enable Remote Desktop. Here’s how: Click or tap the Start button, and then the Settings icon. The Settings app opens. Open the System category of settings, and on the left, click or tap Remote Desktop. On the right, you see the Remote Desktop settings, shown in the figure below. Click the switch to Enable Remote Desktop and confirm your choice. You may also want to dwell and click Advanced Settings, to see how Remote Desktop is configured to work in Windows 10. Close Settings. This procedure works only on Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. If you run another edition, such as Windows 10 Home, you can't enable this feature. In Windows 10 Home, if you open the Remote Desktop section in the Settings app, you see a message stating that Your Home edition of Windows 10 doesn't support Remote Desktop. Don’t forget that you turn on Remote Desktop to let other computers connect remotely to yours. You do not need to enable Remote Desktop if you want to connect from your computer to another. However, the computer to which you want to connect must have Remote Desktop enabled for the remote connection to work. How to connect with Remote Desktop Connection If Remote Desktop is enabled on the PC that you want to connect to and you know the IP address and details of a user account that exists on that computer, you can connect to it from your Windows 10 PC by using the built-in Remote Desktop Connection app. Here's how to establish a remote desktop connection from Windows 10: In the search box next to the Start button, type remote, and click or tap the Remote Desktop Connection result. The Remote Desktop Connection app opens, asking you to enter the address of the computer that you want to connect to, as shown. Enter the IP address of the computer you want to connect to, and click or tap Connect. Remote Desktop Connection may take some time to establish the connection, after which it asks for the username and password to use to connect to that PC. Enter the details of the user account to use to connect to the remote PC, and then tap or click OK. If you see a warning message that problems exist with the security certificate of the PC you want to connect to, tap or click Yes to continue. When the connection is established, you'll see the desktop of the remote PC as if it were your own. A toolbar at the top displays connection information, as shown. When you've finished working on the remote PC, click or tap the X button in the toolbar on the top of the screen. If you want to control how the Remote Desktop connection works, click or tap Show Options, and configure the available settings. You can also set the username so that you don’t have to enter it manually every time. Also, connect to only trusted computers. How to connect a second monitor Working on two screens at the same time can increase productivity, especially in times of lockdown, when you have to be working from home. To connect a second display to your Windows 10 laptop or PC, first check out the ports on the display and on your Windows device. The figure shows you how all the video ports look. There are two possible situations: Your monitor and your laptop or PC share the same video port. Buy a cable that has the same video port on both ends (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB Type-C, and so on). Your monitor and your laptop or PC do not share a common video port. Buy an adapter to convert the video signal from your laptop or PC to the external monitor. Depending on what video ports you have on your laptop or PC and monitor, you might need a DisplayPort-to-VGA, HDMI-to-DisplayPort, USB-C-to-HDMI, VGA-to-HDMI, DVI-to-HDMI, or Mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort adapter. You can find inexpensive adapters in electronics shops for almost any type of video connection. After you have the necessary cable, do the following to connect the second monitor: Using the appropriate cable, connect the monitor to your Windows 10 laptop or PC. Turn on the second monitor by plugging it into a power outlet and pressing its power button. Windows 10 takes a few seconds to detect the external monitor. Note that the external monitor may not display anything after it's detected. Press Windows+P to display the Project options. You can view the desktop only on your PC screen (the main display) or only on your second screen, view the same desktop on both screens, or extend the desktop and have two different desktops side by side. Press Windows+P to cycle through the Project options and view the results. You can also click to select an option. The image changes with each selection. If you want more help on this subject, check out a great Digital Citizen tutorial that covers all possible scenarios for connecting a second display, including establishing a wireless connection to a Smart TV or a Miracast-enabled display. How to install a webcam During the COVID-19 lockdown, webcams became a hot item. Millions of people began working from home and had to rely on webcams to join countless conference calls. If you are in the market for a webcam, realize that most people don’t need a high-end model with 4K video recording. A simple webcam with 720p or Full-HD video recording should suffice. Installing a webcam is as simple as plugging it into a USB port on your computer and waiting for Windows 10 to detect it and install its drivers. One of my favorite webcams is Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000. It covers the basics, is affordable, and is plug-and-play. Some webcams include software to activate features that may be useful to you. That’s why it's a good idea to do an internet search for the Support page of the webcam’s manufacturer and download from there the latest software and drivers for your webcam model. Install the webcam’s software, and you should have no problems using it for Skype, Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet video calls. How to add clocks to the Taskbar If you work with a team from a multinational corporation, it's a good idea to set Windows 10 to display a clock from that corporation's time zone. That way, you can quickly check the time in the country of your team members so you don't call someone as they're trying to get their beauty sleep! Here’s how it works: Right-click the clock in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A large menu appears, with many options for customizing the taskbar. Choose Adjust Date/Time. The Settings app opens, displaying options about adjusting the date and time. Scroll down to Related Settings on the right, and click Add Clocks for Different Time Zones. The Date and Time window appears, as shown. Select the first Show this Clock box, choose a time zone from the list, and enter the name of the city/country that interest you. Select the second Show this Clock box, choose another time zone from the list, and enter the name of the city/country that interest you. Click OK. To see the additional clocks, move your mouse cursor over the clock on the taskbar. You can also click the clock and see the additional clocks just above the calendar, as shown.