Do You Need Windows Setup Files

Windows xi FAQ

Everything you need to know

What'southward new in Windows 11? What are its minimum hardware requirements? When volition your PC be eligible for the upgrade? We've got the answers to your questions.

Setting up a new Windows 11 PC is pretty easy. Deceptively piece of cake, in fact. After you click through the dialog boxes and arrange the few bachelor settings as function of the Out of Box Experience, you stop up at the Windows xi desktop.

Only your piece of work is not complete. Microsoft'south default settings aren't necessarily tuned for you, and a default setup comes with a scattering of annoyances that you can quickly set.

When you lot get to the Windows desktop, I recommend taking a few minutes to exercise these half dozen things before you lot go any further.

Use a Microsoft account for maximum security

On a system yous ain and manage personally, you have two choices for setting up your primary user business relationship: a Microsoft account or a local account.

(If your PC is in a managed corporate environs, you'll accept either a domain account or yous'll sign in with Azure Active Directory. Either fashion, your ambassador is the dominate, not you).

Old-timers will probably prefer a local account considering it'southward what they've used for decades. But it's the incorrect choice these days, at to the lowest degree if you lot care near security.

Using a Microsoft account gives yous three advantages you tin can't become with a plain-vanilla local account.

You tin can plow on 2-gene authentication and Windows Hello, which allows yous to sign in using fingerprint or face up recognition hardware.
You tin can plow on encryption for your system drive, even using the Windows 11 Home edition. (To make sure it's turned on, go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Device Encryption.)
You tin can recover your data if you forget your password using the Microsoft account recovery tools.

And, of course, if you take a Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription, y'all get access to Function apps and a terabyte of cloud storage.

Y'all're not required to use the Microsoft-supplied email address for anything but this single purpose. And if yous create a new Microsoft account as part of the Windows 11 setup, it's not linked to any existing phone number or email accost, which ways at that place'southward no tracking.

You tin create a new Microsoft business relationship during Windows 11 setup

For more details on the differences between each account type, see "Windows eleven setup: Which user account type should you choose?" For footstep-by-step instructions on securing your Microsoft account, run across "How to lock downwards your Microsoft account and proceed it condom from outside attackers."

Clean up the crapware

Equally was the case with its predecessor, Windows 11 makes coin for Microsoft thanks to shortcuts sprinkled across the Start menu on every new install, presumably in exchange for bounties paid past the owners of those third-party apps and services. Candy Vanquish and its ilk are gone on my recent test systems, replaced by streaming media options (Spotify, Disney+, Prime Video) and social media (TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook).

The skilful news is that these shortcuts are exactly that. They're not installed past default; they take up minuscule amounts of deejay infinite, and each i can be removed with ii clicks directly from the Showtime card.

It takes two clicks to uninstall an unwanted app directly from Start

Correct-click on the unwanted icon, click Uninstall. Confirm your choice in a dialog box. Repeat as needed.

Plough on the Windows Sandbox

This is a killer feature if you have Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Instruction. It allows y'all to instantly spin upwardly a secure virtual car without any circuitous setup. The VM is completely isolated from your master system, so you tin can visit a suspicious website or test an unknown app without gamble. When you lot're done, close the sandbox, and it vanishes completely, removing all traces of your experiment.

Although it uses the same virtualization features as Hyper-V, you don't need to plough on Hyper-V, and information technology uses only a tiny amount of system resource.

To become started, click Search and type Windows Features to find the Turn Windows Features On Or Off dialog box. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click the box to the left of the Windows Sandbox feature. Afterwards you lot restart, you'll find a Windows Sandbox shortcut on the Outset menu.

The Windows Sandbox includes nigh no apps, simply the Border web browser and File Explorer

Annotation that a Windows Sandbox session has most no Microsoft apps in it. Information technology is totally stripped-down. You can utilize the Windows Clipboard to paste a URL into Microsoft Edge or to copy a program file to the sandbox for further exploration.

Add folder shortcuts to the Showtime menu

The Windows eleven Offset carte is severely simplified. Information technology has a department for pinned icons at the top, and below that is a section for shortcuts to apps and documents you've used recently. At the bottom of the card are your contour motion picture and a power push button. That's it.

Unless you dig into the Settings menu and make a few customizations, that is. Go to Settings > Personalization > Start > Folders, and y'all'll find a menu that lets you add shortcuts to the bottom of the Starting time menu, giving you lot easy access to some common folders. These are the equivalent of the shortcuts that sit down in a column to the left of the Offset menu in Windows 10.

Add any of these shortcuts to a row along the bottom of the Windows 11 Outset menu

You'll also find I turned on nighttime mode for that system. It'due south much easier on the eyes, especially if you're working in a night or dimly lit room. Y'all'll find that option in Settings > Personalization > Colors > Cull Your Style.

Remove widgets and other unwanted taskbar items

Microsoft finds a new way to clutter upwards the taskbar with every new release. Fortunately, they also include the tools you demand to declutter things. In Windows 11, the default taskbar setup includes these four extraneous additions:

A search push button. (You don't need a search box. Just tap the Windows key and start typing to search.)
The Task View button. (You don't demand this, either. Apply Windows key + Tab to get to the same identify.)
Widgets. (Ugh.)
Chat. (Microsoft keeps trying to get people to use Teams even when they're not at piece of work.)

If you want whatever of those things, more than power to yous. But the balance of united states can make all iv shortcuts disappear with a quick trip to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. Slide all iv of these switches to the left and restore the taskbar to its original purpose.

Become rid of taskbar clutter by sliding those summit four witches to the Off position

There's some good stuff at the bottom of that Settings page, too. Aggrandize the Taskbar Corner Overflow section to control which icons appear on the right side of the taskbar by default. And if you take multiple displays, be sure to click Taskbar Behaviors to go through the options for how the taskbar works on a second monitor.

Configure OneDrive backup

You lot get at least 5GB of free cloud storage in Microsoft's OneDrive service when you sign in with a Microsoft business relationship. That feature includes a setting that tin can be confusing if you aren't paying attention.

If y'all click through the default options, Microsoft will redirect your Desktop, Documents, and Pictures binder to OneDrive, which effectively backs up everything you lot put in whatsoever of those folders. If you lot already have a solid backup strategy, y'all might want to turn that characteristic off. If you like the thought of having a cloud-based backup, yous might want to check its settings.

To do that, open up File Explorer, right-click the OneDrive shortcut in the folder pane on the left and then click OneDrive > Manage OneDrive Backup. That takes y'all to the dialog box shown here. (Annotation that the options will be disabled if y'all're using a system that'southward managed by your concern using a domain or Azure Advertizement account.)

When folder backup is enabled, these 3 folders are automatically relocated to OneDrive

You lot tin turn off backup for each of the three folders with a single click. (The blue checkmark in the top right corner means the folder is backed upwardly and synced.)