Windows 11 cheat sheet

For a variety of reasons — hardware incompatibilities, legacy software, the feeling that Windows 10 works just fine, thanks — both consumers and businesses have for years resisted Microsoft’s not-so-subtle nudges to upgrade from Windows 10 to its successor, Windows 11. But with the older operating system reaching end of support in October, many are conceding that the time has come to make the move.

Windows 11 was released more than six years after Windows 10, so you would expect dramatic changes between the two. But to a great extent, Windows 11 looks and works much like its predecessor, with one very big exception: the addition of Microsoft’s generative AI tool, Copilot.

Beyond that, there are quite a few minor differences between the two, and the newer OS may take some getting used to. I’m here to help. Whether you’ve upgraded a Windows 10 machine to Windows 11 or you’ve got it on a new PC, this cheat sheet will get you up to speed on it. I’ve also provided quick-reference charts listing useful keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures, and touchscreen gestures.

Since Windows 10 has been in use for so many years, I assume most readers are familiar with its features. See our Windows 10 cheat sheet for detailed instructions on using OneDrive, the Edge browser, the Windows Clipboard, Windows apps, and more. In this story I’ll focus on features that are new to Windows 11 or that have changed from Windows 10 — and only on features that are available to all Windows 11 users, not those that are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, such as Windows Recall and Click to Do.

In this article:

The new Start menu

Using search

Widgets, widgets, widgets

Copilot in Windows

Snap Layouts

Task view and virtual desktops

Handling Windows 11 updates

Quick Settings and notifications

Using Windows 11 on a tablet or 2-in-1

Security enhancements

Minor changes and missing features

Handy keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures, and touchscreen gestures

Keep in mind that as with Windows 10, if you want to get the most out of Windows 11, you’ll have to use a Microsoft ID (either a personal one or a Microsoft Entra ID in work or school environments) as your user account. Without a Microsoft ID, you won’t be able to use a number of apps or sync settings among multiple devices. So when you set up Windows 11 for the first time, sign in with an existing Microsoft ID or create a new one.

The new Start menu

The most visible change in Windows 11 from Windows 10 is front and center, literally. It’s the Start menu. You still click the Windows icon on the taskbar to invoke it, but instead of being anchored to the left side of the screen, as it was in Windows 10, it hovers just above the bottom center of the screen.

It’s much smaller than the Windows 10 Start menu, and you don’t scroll through it. Instead of large tiles, you get multiple rows of small application icons. Simply click the app you want to run.

The Windows 11 Start menu is simpler than Windows 10’s.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Windows 11 gives you control over how the app icons are organized on the Start menu — just drag and drop any icon to a new location. The applications you see are just some of those on your PC. To see them all, click All at the top right of the menu and they’ll appear in a scrollable vertical list in alphabetical order.

When you right-click an app icon, a menu pops up. Here’s where things get a bit confusing, because not every application has the same pop-up menu. Most have some combination of these options:

Move to front: Makes the app the first one on the Start menu (at the top left).

Move left/right: Move the app one place to the left or right.

Create a new app folder: This creates a new folder on the Start menu in which you can display a group of related app icons – for example, games in a “Games” folder.

Unpin from Start: Select this and the icon vanishes from the Start menu. (If you right-click an app that’s not pinned to the Start menu, you’ll see Pin to Start instead. Click this and the app will be added to the Start menu’s main apps list.)

Run as an administrator: This lets you run the app or application as an administrator.

Open file location: Opens File Explorer to the folder where the application lives.

Pin to taskbar: As it says, this pins the app to the Windows taskbar. If it’s already pinned, you’ll get an Unpin from taskbar choice.

App settings: This leads to a screen that lets you change the app’s settings, such as whether to allow it to run in the background or get access to your microphone.

Uninstall: This uninstalls the app. Some Windows apps created by Microsoft, such as Clock, cannot be uninstalled. Over time, however, Microsoft has let you uninstall more built-in apps than previously.

Rate and review: This option is available only for apps downloaded from the Microsoft Store. It brings you to a page that lets you rate the app and write a review. The rating and review appear in the app’s description in the Microsoft Store.

Share: This lets you share a link to the app using Mail or other methods. It only appears on apps you’ve downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

These are some of the choices that may pop up when you right-click an app’s icon on the Start menu.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Some Windows apps have other choices as well, depending on their purposes. For example, right-click the File Explorer icon and you get choices such as mapping or unmapping a network drive. And some productivity apps, such as Word, display your most recently used files. Click the file to open it in the app.

When you click the All icon to display your applications in a scrollable list, you can right-click any app icon to see some combination of these choices. On the menu you’ll also see a list of files you’ve recently opened in that app; click any to run it.

The bottom of the Start menu has an extremely useful section called Recommended. It includes a list of apps you’ve recently installed and files you’ve recently opened. So rather than having to open an application like Word and then browse for a file you’ve recently worked on, you can just click the file in Recommended, and it launches the application and opens the file in it. To see other files you’ve recently opened, click More for a longer, scrollable list.

You can right-click any file on either the Start menu or the scrollable list, and you’ll find some combination of these options:

Open in web browser: This is available only if you’re clicking an Office file stored in OneDrive. It will open the file in the web version of the appropriate Office app.

Open file location: Opens File Explorer to the folder where the file lives.

Remove from list: Removes the file from the Start menu and the scrollable list.

Share: Lets you share the file or app.

Windows Search is integrated directly into Start via a text box running across the top of the screen. At first, it’s a bit confusing to use, because clicking the box doesn’t place a cursor in the text box and let you start searching. Instead, a search screen pops up — the same one you’ll see when you click the in the Search box on the taskbar. It takes some getting used to. (You’ll find out more about Search in the next section of this article.)

You can also manage your user account from Start by clicking your account icon at the bottom left of the screen. Choose Change Account Settings and you’ll be able to change the photo associated with your account or take a new one, switch to a local account, and more. When you click your account icon, you can also lock your PC and sign out of Windows.

To put your PC to sleep, shut it down, or restart it, click the power button at the bottom right of the Start menu.

You have a great deal of control over how you’d like the Start menu to appear and work. Go to Settings > Personalization > Start. From there you can control whether to display recently added apps, most used apps, and more, including whether to show calls, texts, and other mobile device notifications as well.

You can also change the balance of how many recommendations are shown and how many pinned apps are shown in the menu. Choose More pins to increase the number of pinned apps and reduce the number of recommendations, More recommendations to increase the number of recommendations and reduce the number of pinned apps, or Default to return to the original mix. When you make these changes, the Start menu may slightly change its vertical size, depending on the mix.

Using search

In Windows 11, Search has gotten a thorough redesign and may confuse people who are used to searching in Windows 10. To do a search, click in the search bar (it has a magnifying glass icon in it) on the taskbar.

A rectangular pane pops up that shows you past searches, recent news, trending searches, and search recommendations. Unlike in Windows 10 Search, there’s no search box on that pane. To search, you type into the search bar on the taskbar.

Windows 11 Search shows recently used apps, past searches, news, and search recommendations.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

When you type in a search term, Windows Search uses the Bing search engine to look through your files, your Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage, your videos, music and photos, the apps on your PC, your settings, your Outlook email, the web, and more.

Search results in Windows 11.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

You can target your search by clicking any of the buttons at the top of the search pane:

All displays all search results.

Apps shows any app-related matches.

Documents shows documents on your PC that match the search.

Web displays results from the web.

Settings shows matching results in Settings.

Folders displays folders that match the search.

Photos display photos whose file names match the search.

Depending on the size of your screen, not all categories may be displayed. Click the arrow at the right of the tabs to unveil categories you don’t initially see. Also, depending on where you store your music, it may or may not be searched when you perform a search. If you keep music on a OneDrive folder on your PC, it’s likely to be included in your search. But if you use a music streaming service like Spotify, it won’t be.

Also by default, Windows Search only looks through a limited selection of default libraries and folders including OneDrive, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop. It won’t find files kept in other locations on your PC. However, you can change that. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Searching Windows, and in the “Find My Files” section, select Enhanced. That will tell Windows to search through your entire PC. If there are folders you want to exclude from the search, go to the “Excluded Folders” section, then click Add an excluded folder and browse to the folder you don’t want to search.

Widgets, widgets, widgets

Windows 10 has always offered widgets such as a news feed, weather, and more. You could run them individually, but they never had a home of their own.

In Windows 11, that’s changed. Hover over or click the Widgets icon on the taskbar (it’s at the bottom far left of the screen and displays changing information from a widget, such as stock quotes or weather) and a large panel appears on the left side of the screen showing a preselected set of them, including weather, news, sports, and others.

In Windows 11, widgets get a place of their own.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Note: If the Widgets icon doesn’t appear, right-click the taskbar, select Taskbar settings, and in the Widgets setting, make sure the slider is set to On. If the icon still doesn’t display, you can display the Widgets panel by pressing the Windows key + W.

Each widget shows changing information, such as stock prices or the weather. Click one and you usually are sent out to the web for more details. You can change the size of each widget, remove it, and customize it by clicking the three-dot menu icon at its upper right. The menu typically offers some combination of these choices:

Customize widget: Leads to a screen that lets you change how the widget works. It’s generally different for each widget. For example, in the Sports widget, you can choose to get news about specific teams or specific leagues. And in the “Watchlist” stock-tracking widget you can add new stocks to watch.

Remove widget: Removes the widget from the pane.

Hide this widget: Hides the widget so you no longer see it.

Pin widget: Pins the widget to the pane.

Many information providers such as news organizations and websites have widgets as well. When you click any of their three-dot menus, you can typically follow them and unfollow them. You can also select Manage Interests to tell Windows what kind of information you want delivered via widgets.

To add a widget, click the Widget settings icon (it looks like a gear) in the top right corner of the pane, click Discover new widgets, then browse through the widget categories and click the + button next to the widget(s) you want to add.

Copilot in Windows

Microsoft’s genAI tool Copilot takes center stage in Windows 11 — the icon for launching it is pinned right in the middle of the taskbar. Describing what Copilot does and how it works is a moving target, because Microsoft constantly updates it and has even changed its purpose.

When Copilot first came to Windows, Microsoft pitched it as an assistant that could take actions to make Windows run smoother, or that would customize the OS the way you’d like. Those days are gone. You can ask Copilot for help in changing Windows settings, but it won’t perform those actions for you. You have to do them. (A new AI agent that can perform some of these tasks in the Settings app is beginning to roll out to users with Copilot+ PCs, but not to the rest of us.)

It does far more than that, though. It’s a chatbot that answers questions, does research for you, and drafts documents and emails. It works in a straightforward way. You ask it questions or feed it prompts, and it generates responses. For basic requests, such as a simple question, you ask it something, it answers, and you’re done. However, for more complicated requests or research, you can engage it in a conversation by asking a series of follow-up questions.

Copilot answers questions, drafts documents and emails, and can remember past chats if you’re logged into your Microsoft account.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Although Copilot is simple to use, there are a few things you should keep in mind when using it. First is that it is prone to what researchers calls “hallucinations,” but the rest of us call telling lies. I’ve found it makes things up more frequently that you might imagine. So if you’re using it to do research or find information, always double-check its answers. It’s simple to do that because it typically includes links to the places online it finds that information.

I’ve found that not uncommonly, it gives out false or out-of-date information when it’s asked about how to use Windows or other pieces of software. When it gives you an incorrect answer, you should always tell it it’s incorrect and ask it to find you the right answer. Sometimes you might have to tell it several times that its response is incorrect before you get the answer you’re looking for.

When querying it, you have a choice about how deeply it should “think” before answering you. At the bottom left of the text box where you input your query or prompt, there’s a dropdown menu from which you can choose whether you want a quick response, which you’ll get in two to three seconds, or instead whether you want it to “Think Deeper,” which takes up to 30 seconds, or to do “Deep Research,” which can take up to 10 minutes and gives you a detailed report with a solid list of references. The longer it “thinks,” the more accurate and comprehensive answer you’ll get.

When using it to draft documents or emails, provide as much detail as possible, including length, and make sure to tell it what kind of tone you want to use — formal, informal, and so on. Telling it the purpose of the document will help it more effectively draft what you want.

It’s rare you’ll get the precise draft you want first time around, so fine-tune the drafts by telling Copilot what you’d like done — provide more details, delve more deeply into a certain section, and so on.

You should also make sure to be logged into your Microsoft account when using Copilot, because that way you’ll be able to go back to previous chats with it. And if you’re always logged in no matter what device you’re using, you’ll be able to go back to chats you’ve had with it on other devices.

For more help with Copilot, see “Microsoft Copilot tips: 9 ways to use Copilot right.”

Snap Layouts

If you’re the kind of person who likes their apps arranged on the desktop just so, you’ll likely be interested in Snap Layouts. With it, you group your open windows into one of eight pre-built screen layouts, such as having two apps side by side, each taking up half the screen. Or you might have one app on the left and two stacked vertically on the right, or four apps in a grid. The hope is that you’ll be able to find a layout that fits the way you work.

To use Snap Layouts, open the applications you want to be arranged in it, then hover your mouse over an application’s maximize icon on the upper right of the screen, located between the minimize and close icons. Choose the layout you want and which position you want the application to be in, and the app window snaps into that position. Then you can choose from your other open apps to fill in the rest of the spots in the layout.

You can arrange app windows side by side or in several other configurations.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

Once all the places in a Snap Layout are filled, that app grouping is saved as a Snap Group that you can quickly return to later if you’ve opened other apps or minimized any of the app windows in the group. Hover your mouse over the taskbar icon of any of the applications in a Snap Group, and you’ll see two small popups — one that’s a thumbnail of what’s open in the application itself, and another that shows the Snap Group. Choose the Snap Group icon, and you’ll switch to the whole group in the layout you set up previously, rather than to the individual application.

Task View and virtual desktops

In Windows 11, Microsoft redesigned its Task View feature for creating multiple virtual desktops, and it’s now more useful than ever.

To activate Task View, click its icon (two overlapping squares) in the taskbar just to the right of the Search box, or press the Windows key + Tab. When you do, Task View springs into action.

(Note that Task View no longer includes Windows 10’s Timeline feature that displayed snapshots of the files you worked on recently.)

Task View is divided into two sections. At the top of the screen, you see your currently running applications arrayed against a fuzzy version of the desktop so you can quickly see what you’ve got running. Click any thumbnail to switch to that app. If you hover your mouse over any thumbnail, an X appears in its upper-right corner. Click the X to close that app. For those used to using the old Alt + Tab key combination to cycle through open apps and applications, you can still do that as well. Press the Esc key to leave Task View and return to where you were.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see thumbnails of any virtual desktops you’ve created, along with a “New desktop” button. You can run a different set of apps inside each virtual desktop — for instance, you could dedicate one desktop to work-related apps, and another desktop to entertainment-related apps. To create a new desktop, activate Task View and click New desktop at the bottom of the screen.

The bottom of the Task View screen shows all your virtual desktops, and the main area shows the apps running in the current desktop.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

To switch between desktops, click the Task View icon and click the desktop to which you want to switch. You can keep creating new desktops this way and switch among them. To close a virtual desktop, hover your mouse over it in Task View and click the X on its upper right.

There’s also a quicker way to switch to switch to a virtual desktop (or to create or close one) without activating Task View. Hover your mouse over the Task View icon in the taskbar and you’ll see thumbnails of all of your virtual desktops. Click the one you want to switch to. To close one, hover your mouse over its icon. To create a new one, click the New desktop button.

Handling Windows 11 updates

As with Windows 10, using Windows 11 involves managing updates to the OS on an ongoing basis. In a business or school environment, your IT department will likely handle these updates. Otherwise, you’ll manage them through Windows Update.

There are two main types of Windows updates: Feature updates introduce major new features, get a new version number like Windows 11 24H2, and are released once a year, typically in the fall. Quality updates are issued much more frequently (twice a month or more) and include security patches, bug fixes, and some new features and enhancements.

When Microsoft releases its annual Windows 11 feature update to the public, it isn’t automatically installed. Instead, Windows notifies you that it’s available with a message and a “Download and install” link in the Windows Update pane in Settings. If you don’t want to install it, ignore the message and your PC stays as it is. Whenever you want to install an update, just click the link and follow the instructions.

There is one caveat. When your current version of Windows 11 (such as Windows 11 23H2) reaches what Microsoft calls “end of service” — the point at which Microsoft no longer supports it — Windows will install a more recent feature update automatically. For Windows 11 Home and Pro users, that’s usually 24 months after your current Windows version’s initial release date. For Windows 11 Enterprise and Education users, that’s typically 36 months.

Even so, it’s theoretically possible to skip over some feature updates entirely. Since they’re released every year, you could install one version, decline to install the next one that’s released, and then install the one after that.

You have control not just over the annual Windows 11 feature updates, but also over the quality updates that Microsoft issues in between them. You can pause these smaller updates for up to 35 days.

To do it, go to Settings > Windows Update and next to “Pause updates,” click Pause for 1 week. You can keep doing this every seven days a total of five times to delay it for 35 days.

You can delay minor Windows 11 updates a week at a time for up to 35 days.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

If you’ve installed an update and found that it’s causing problems with your PC, you can uninstall it. To do it, go to Settings > Windows Update > Update history > Uninstall updates. That brings you to the Control Panel and a list of updates. Select the update you want to uninstall and click Uninstall.

Note that not all updates can be uninstalled. Typically, when you go to this screen, you’ll see only the most recent updates. In addition, you won’t be able to uninstall some updates, such as some that include security patches.

You can also ask Windows to alert you, via a system tray icon, when you need to reboot your PC in order to finish an update. Go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options, and next to “Notify me when a restart is required to finish update,” move the slider to On.

Quick Settings and notifications

Windows 11 does away with the Windows 10 Action Center and instead gives you two separate taskbar flyouts, one for your notifications, and the other to make changes to your system via Quick Settings.

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Preston Gralla / Foundry

To check your notifications, click the date and time on the taskbar or press the Windows key + N. A flyout pops up with a calendar of the current month and with any notifications above it, for things such as your news feed, new emails, and security and maintenance messages. You’ll know when you have new notifications, because a small blue icon with the number of new notifications appears in the date and time area on the taskbar.

Security and system notifications are generally well worth heeding. For example, you may be told that you can speed up your PC by stopping unnecessary programs from launching at startup. Tap the notification and you’ll be sent to the Task Manager, which lets you stop them from running. The alerts also tell you when you’ve got printer woes, issues with Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud-based storage or similar problems. So overall, you’ll probably find it worth your time to regularly check your notifications.

As for email, you might find those notifications less than useful, because the Notifications feature doesn’t always play well with your mail provider. If you’ve set up the Mail app to hook into your Gmail account, you will see a notification when that account gets new email. When you click the notification, the Mail app launches and you can read the message there. But the system doesn’t take into account whether you’ve already checked your Gmail account in a browser, so you’ll continue to see notifications for messages you’ve received, even if you’ve already read them in Gmail and deleted them.

You can change which notifications show up or turn them off completely. Go to Settings > Notifications and turn the slider to Off in the Notifications section at the top of the screen. If you want have some appear and some not appear, first turn the slider to On. Then scroll down and next to the notifications you don’t want to see, turn the slider to Off.

The Quick Settings pane gives you instant access to some of your most commonly used settings.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

To get to Quick Settings, click the network, volume, and battery set of icons on the taskbar or press Windows key + A. Six icons appear in two stacked rows and typically include things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, Accessibility, Energy saver, and Focus assist. The exact icons you see depend on your computer and setup.

You can use Quick Settings not just to turn settings on or off, but to customize how you use some of them. Those that allow for customization have a right arrow next to them. So, for example, click the Wi-Fi icon to show all available Wi-Fi networks and select which you want to use.

On the right of the Quick Settings pane you’ll see a small icon of two dots and a down arrow. Click the down arrow to access more settings. The down arrow turns to an up arrow when you display more settings. Click that arrow to go back to the original settings you were viewing.

To rearrange the settings icons in the pane, drag and drop any to their new place. So, for example, if you want the mobile hotspot quick setting icon be at the top upper left of the display, drag it there.

Below the icons is a volume control for your speakers. Beneath the volume control you’ll find a link to the Windows Settings app.

Using Windows 11 on a tablet or 2-in-1

Windows 11 does away with the separate tablet interface of Windows 10. Gone is the Windows 10 feature called Continuum that automatically sensed the device you were using and switched Windows 10’s interface to match it. In Windows 11, tablet users see more or less the same interface as desktop and laptop users.

There is at least one very minor change in how Windows 11 looks on a tablet versus a desktop or laptop — the taskbar icons are slightly wider apart to accommodate tapping with a finger rather than clicking with a mouse. If you use a 2-in-1, you won’t have to do anything when you detach or attach your keyboard; Windows 11 automatically makes the switch.

Probably the biggest change in Windows 11 for users with touchscreens is that you can use three-finger and four-finger gestures on the screen itself, not just the touchpad:

Three-finger gestures

Swipe left/right: Switch to the last used app window

Swipe up: Show all open app windows

Swipe down: Show the desktop

Four-finger gestures

Swipe left/right: Switch to the previous/next virtual desktop

(See below for more touchscreen gestures, along with keyboard shortcuts and touchpad gestures.)

To turn on touch gestures, go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touch > Three- and four-finger touch gestures and turn the switch on.

Security enhancements

Under the hood, Windows 11 has several important new security enhancements:

Wake on approach: You can have your device automatically lock when you walk away from it and wake when you approach it. (Note that this only works if you have a device that has sensing features.) To turn it on if available, go to Settings > Power & battery > Screen and sleep, then turn on Automatically wake up my device when I approach.

Passkeys: These allow you to sign into your Microsoft account by authenticating your identity on a trusted device (like your phone), typically via a face or fingerprint scan. They’re more secure than passwords, because face or fingerprint scans can’t be phished, guessed, or hacked as easily as passwords. You can create passkeys on multiple devices so you won’t be locked out if one device is lost or stolen. See “Passkeys: How they work, how to use them” for more details.

Smart app control: This lets you allow only trusted apps (as determined by Microsoft’s app intelligence services) to be installed on your PC. See “Smart App Control Overview” on Microsoft Learn for details about how to use it.

Minor changes and missing features

Some familiar features from Windows 10 have been tweaked slightly in Windows 11, usually for the better.

Settings: Windows 11 reorganizes and streamlines the Settings app somewhat, but in general it’s the same app as in Windows 10. Get to it by clicking the Start button, then clicking Settings, or pressing the Windows key + i. You can also get to it from various places throughout Windows by clicking on a gear icon, such as on the lower right of the screen in Quick Settings.

The Settings app, the control center for all your system settings, sports a new streamlined look that makes it easier to get to the setting you want.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

(See our Windows 10 cheat sheet for general information about using the Settings app.)

Paint: Microsoft has powered up Paint considerably using AI. You can create images from scratch by describing them to Copilot, as well as easily remove background objects and backgrounds. Click the Copilot icon on the top right of the screen to do it.

Snipping tool: This has been powered up since it was introduced in Windows 10. It can now capture video clips and use OCR to recognize text in an image, and then copy it or delete private info like email addresses and phone numbers in clips.

Clipboard: In Windows 11, the Clipboard gets a particularly useful new feature — the ability to paste emojis, Kaomojis, symbols, and GIFs from preselected libraries. A row of symbols at the top of the Clipboard lets you access any of the libraries. Scroll or search through any and click what you want to paste.

The Windows Clipboard has a new toolbar for pasting emojis, Kaomojis, symbols, and GIFs from pre-selected libraries.
Preston Gralla / Foundry

File Explorer: Finally, File Explorer gets tabs in Windows 11, a feature that should have been added years ago. Not only can you switch back and forth between them to more easily browse your files, but you can also easily drag files between folders on different tabs.

In addition to those changes, Microsoft streamlined Windows 11 by cutting out several features from Windows 10. Here are the most obvious ones:

Cortana: Microsoft’s little-loved digital assistant is gone forever, and few people will miss it.

People: In Windows 10, this feature let you pin contacts to the Windows taskbar, and then communicate with them without having to open a separate app. It’s no surprise People is gone — Microsoft said some time ago that it would kill the feature. It’s been replaced with a stripped-down version of Teams, Microsoft’s collaboration app. Note that Teams, which originally shipped with Windows 11, is no longer pre-installed, but you can install it by downloading it from the Microsoft Store.

Skype: Microsoft’s legacy chat and videoconferencing tool no longer works and can’t be downloaded, because Microsoft is trying to move as many people as possible to Teams.

Timeline: Timeline, a Windows 10 feature that let you review and resume activities as well as open files you’ve started on any of your Windows PCs, has also been axed.

Handy keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures, and touchscreen gestures

Windows 11 supports a variety of keyboard shortcuts as well as gestures for touch-based devices. Try them out a few times, and before long they’ll become second nature.

First let’s look at the most useful keyboard shortcuts — get to know these and you’ll save oodles of time as you zip around Windows 11 without taking your hands off the keys.

Windows 11 keyboard shortcuts

KEY COMBINATIONWHAT IT DOESWindows keyShow/hide the Start menu (toggle)Windows-AOpen Quick SettingsWindows-CLaunch Microsoft TeamsWindows-DShow the desktop or go to your previous locationWindows-EOpen File ExplorerWindows-HUse voice typingWindows-IOpen the Settings appWindows-KConnect to a wireless display or audio deviceWindows-LLock the device or switch accountsWindows-MMinimize all windowsWindows-OLock the screen orientationWindows-ROpen the Run boxWindows-SRun SearchWindows-TPut the focus on the taskbar and cycle through your running desktop appsWindows-XOpen a menu of tools for power usersWindows-TabOpen Task ViewWindows-Pause*Display System Properties screenWindows-1 through 9Go to the app in the corresponding position on the taskbarWindows-, (comma)Peek at the desktop (requires holding the Windows key down)Windows-up arrowMaximize a desktop app (or restore it if it’s minimized)Windows-down arrowMinimize a desktop app (or restore it if it’s maximized)Windows-F1Launch a new instance of Microsoft EdgeWindows-Ctrl-DAdd a virtual desktopWindows-Ctrl-F4Close the virtual desktop you’re working inAlt-TabCycle through thumbnails of open appsCtrl-ASelect allCtrl-CCopyCtrl-ESearch in EdgeCtrl-NOpen a new window in EdgeCtrl-RRefreshCtrl-VPasteCtrl-XCutCtrl-WClose the current tab in EdgeCtrl-YRedoCtrl-ZUndoCtrl-mouse clickSelect multiple items in File ExplorerCtrl-ShiftSelect a group of contiguous items in File ExplorerCtrl-Shift-EscRun the Task ManagerCtrl-Shift-NCreate a new folder in File ExplorerPrtScrnTake a screenshot and place it on the Clipboard * The Pause key is located to the upper right of most keyboards; however, some portable and laptop keyboards don’t have a Pause key.

Next up are touchpad gestures. Touchpads are standard equipment on laptops these days, and for everyday computing, a modern touchpad can do everything a mouse can, and more. (Note, however, that if you have an older machine, some or all of these gestures might not work.)

Windows 11 touchpad gestures

GESTUREWHAT IT DOESTap the touchpad with one fingerOpen or select an itemTap the touchpad with two fingersShow more commands (like right-clicking)Tap the touchpad with three fingersOpen CortanaTap the touchpad with four fingersOpen the Action CenterPlace two fingers on the touchpad and slide vertically or horizontallyScrollPlace two fingers on the touchpad and pinchZoom outPlace two fingers on the touchpad and spread them apartZoom inSwipe three fingers upShow thumbnails of your currently running apps in Task ViewSwipe three fingers downShow the desktopSwipe three fingers either left or rightSwitch between your open appsSwipe four fingers either left or rightSwitch between virtual desktops

Finally, if you’re working on a tablet or a touchscreen PC, here’s how to get around.

Windows 11 touchscreen gestures

GESTUREWHAT IT DOESTapOpen or select an itemTap the Windows buttonSwitch between the Start screen and the currently running appPress and holdPop up a menu to display more information about the itemPress and hold, slide and releaseMove an item to a new location (the equivalent of dragging an item with a mouse)Pinch with two fingersZoom out (used in apps such as Maps where you commonly zoom in and out)Spread two fingers apartZoom in (used in apps such as Maps where you commonly zoom in and out)Rotate with two fingersRotate the display in the direction you move your fingersSwipe horizontallyScroll sideways through a screenSwipe verticallyScroll up or downOn the lock screen, swipe up from the bottom edge of the screenDisplay the login screenSwipe in from the left edge of the screen to the centerShow thumbnails of your currently running apps in Task ViewSwipe in from the right edge of the screen to the centerDisplay the Action Center