Craig Chamberlin

This video is brought to you by: http://www.craigthetechteacher.com - Pinning (and Unpinning) items to the taskbar is an essential skill every Windows 10 user will need to know. This is extremely easy to do and allows you to quickly access any program right from the taskbar rather than go hunting for it.

I am notorious for having far too many items on my taskbar. Sometimes my taskbar is completely filled with items and I use it as a launcher. This launcher looks very similar to the Mac when it is completely filled.

The taskbar is a great part of the Windows 10 operating system and it offers a great amount of flexibility. You can even rearrange the icons using your own discretion.

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Cortana is a voice command system built into the Windows 10 operating system. For many of us, we have no interest in actually using Cortana voice search.

If you don't want the oversized search bar taking up a large chunk of your taskbar then you're in luck. Microsoft built in the ability to hide this search bar completely or simply reduce it down to the size of an icon.

My preference is to leave it as a search bar (unless there are so many icons I simply don't have room for it)

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We all love fast internet and internet browsing, it's true. But let's face it, not all browsers are created equal. This video is going to show how you can quickly download a fast, free browser alternative to the native Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 10

Althought Microsoft has done a tremendous job making sure the Microsoft Edge browser is clean, beatuiful and secure - they just can't compare when it comes to rendering websites quickly. You will actually see the difference in rendering speeds in this video as soon as I switch over to Chrome.

Chrome has other advantages too. You can use any Google account you may have (whether that is YouTube, Gmail or something else) and it will automagically synchronize all of your bookmarks, extensions and passwords between all of your devices. Pretty awesome, yeah?

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The Windows 10 App store has actually come a long way since it's conception. Is it as good as the Apple App store? Of course not. How about the Google Play App store? Not even close. Ok, so it's not the best, but it's built into your operating system so you might as well take advantage of it when you can.

Many people skip over the Microsoft Store features for app installation because they don't think there is any reason to run Apps on their desktop. I find that one of the major advantages are to get dedicated notifications for certain applications. For example, if you get the Facebook and Twitter app, you can setup desktop notifications on your computer.

You may also find some odds and ends, such as scientific calculators or niche software that fits an immediate need. It's a quick an dirty way to a solution sometimes.

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If you're like me, you didn't connect your initial user profile on Windows 10 to a Microsoft account. Unfortunatey many of the features of the Windows 10 operating system are actually tied to this account.

The good news is connecting your Microsoft Account to your Windows 10 operating system is a snap. To do this you will simply follow a few steps, either create or login to a Microsoft account, and verify it.

You'll want to connect your Microsoft account if you want to take advantages of things such as outlook e-mail integration, backups to OneDrive or even access to Microsoft Store items.

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Resetting a network IP address in windows is extremely easy. In fact, this particular tip isn't restricted to the Windows 10 operating system, it can be done on all Windows operating systems dating back to Windows NT.

Essentially your Windows 10 computer can sometimes have issues maintaining a connection to your router. If you just connected to a new network, or perhaps for some reason your network is not working, it may be worthwhile to attempt a refresh of your IP address to see if it solves the problem.

As a side note, if for any reason you receive an error message when attempting to refresh the IP address it could point to failed hardware, improperly installed network card drivers or a faulty network configuration on your system. This is not an exhaustive troubleshooting technique for network related issues. It's just one tool you can use.

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Tablet mode is a feature built into all Windows 10 operating systems. This mode essentially gives you the full screen touch interface for using your operating system. For some people who have a touch screen monitor, it may make sense to run in Tablet mode for day to day use.

Or perhaps you're not a fan of tablet mode and you want to turn it off. Whatever your preference, Windows 10 makes it extremely easy to turn on (or off) tablet mode any time you wish.

Tablet mode was originally forced on everyone in the Windows 8 operating system. Thankfully, Windows 10 brought back the standard desktop environment and now we can simply choose what works best for us.

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One of the more annoying features of the Windows 10 operating system is the requirement to input an e-mail address or phone number when creating a user account.

What's even more annoying, is this is a requirement for any additional users you add to your machine. Let's say you want to add your kids, for example. Well, according to Microsoft, your kids will need their own Outlook e-mail address.

Thankfully, there is a very easy way to bypass this whole feature and create a user profile for your computer. You can even assign that user as an Administrator.

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Every computer connected to a network is given a unique identifier for the network it is on. For most people, this comes in the form of an IPv4 or an IPv6 network address. This address is extremely important when it comes to troubleshooting network issues.

Identifying the IP address through the command prompt, as shown in this video, can help determine if your computer is properly connected to your local network. It can also determine if your network card is even installed (or is functioning) properly.

Depending on the network you are connected too you may see different numbers for your IP address. If you're connected to a home network, the first 3 sets of digits xxx.xxx.xxx will likely match the gateway address. If they do not, there may be an issue with your local network.

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The Windows network socket layer has been around since Windows began utilizing networking. This socket layer can sometimes become corrupted by bad network drivers, viruses, malware or even a Windows Update.

The good news is the Windows 10 Network Socket Layer (also known as Winsock) is extremely easy to reset on Windows 10. This fix is so common, in fact, that Windows decided to build this fix into their later operating system rather than requiring a third party piece of software.

If you have a previous version of Windows and this command does not work, remember to simply google "Windows X Winsock Repair" - quite often you can find a search result with a download that will bring you there.