The Windows Settings utility provides a consistent user interface for configuring many operating system options. In this video, you’ll learn about Time and Language, Personalization, Apps, Privacy and Security, and more.
In a previous video, we described a number of different options that are available inside of the Windows Control Panel. But Microsoft has slowly been migrating a number of those settings to a new front end, known as the Windows Settings App. This settings app is one single place that you can go with a single consistent user interface. And there are a number of different parameters that you can configure to customize your specific Windows setup.
To find the Windows Settings, we simply go down to the Search option inside of Windows, and we look for Settings. And you can see that the Settings App is the option that is the best match in the system. This is the Settings App. You can see, along the left side, are a number of different categories. And the main part of the screen shows details for each of those categories. Let’s step through a number of these categories and see what options might be available to change within our Windows configuration.
Under the Time and Language category, you’ll see options for date and time, language and region, and more. Under the Date and Time Settings, you can configure Windows to set the date and time automatically, adjust for daylight saving time, set the time zone and the region you happen to belong in, and more configuration settings. This is a very important setting, especially on a corporate network because some of the encryption required by Microsoft’s Active Directory requires that the time be correct on your computer. So if you wanted to have Windows set this time automatically, you would change the option under Set Time Automatically to On.
Windows also has the ability to set different languages as part of the operating system. And under Language and Region, you can specify which language you would like to use for your Windows operating system. There is also an option for Windows Update within the Windows settings where we can choose to keep our operating system up to date with all of the latest patches and latest updates to the operating system.
You can set Windows to install these updates automatically so you don’t even have to think about them. Your system will constantly keep itself up to date with all of the latest updates available from Microsoft. You can also select active hours so that these updates don’t occur during your normal workday. If you’d like Windows to avoid making any of these updates when you’re normally working, you can configure those within your active hours.
If you’re using Windows at home, you might even have options to change the personalization of your operating system. This allows you to change the colors in your operating system, the background that’s shown, and information that’s displayed as part of your lock screen. In a corporate environment, some of these features may not be enabled on your Windows system. But if you’re using Windows at home, you can customize Windows to look and feel exactly the way you’d like.
The Windows settings also allow us a way to configure what applications might be installed in our system. That is done in the apps category. You can uninstall, install, or modify an existing application from this list. You can also add other Windows features. So if you’d like to install other services or include other fonts to be included as part of your operating system, you can enable or disable those under the Windows features.
The Privacy and Security category is one screen that allows you access to a number of different security features. For example, inside of Privacy and Security, you can enable antivirus, firewall settings, and change how network protection is being used on your Windows device. We can also specify how much information we would like to share from this Windows operating system. For example, you might want to choose to share your application activity so that you get customized advertising on the Windows desktop.
You also have the ability to share what language you might be using so that other websites know what type of content to present to you. And you can also determine whether speech recognition is something you’d like to enable or disable. Often, the speech recognition requires a third-party site to send this audio so that it can be processed. And from a privacy perspective, you might not want to send that information to a third party.
To be able to manage all of the different pieces of hardware connected to your Windows computer, you can use the Bluetooth and Devices category. From inside of this category, you can manage audio settings, information about Bluetooth configurations, and manage other devices such as printers that you might be using. You can also manage mouse settings from inside of this category. So if you want to change what the buttons are doing on your mouse, you can do it within Bluetooth and Devices.
We also have options for your typing and writing. So if you’re using keyboard functions, they can be customized inside of this view. And this is also where you can customize your Windows Pen or Windows Ink if you’re using a tablet or a device that takes advantage of a stylus.
If you need to make changes to the network configuration, you’ll find it in the Windows Settings under the category for Network and Internet. Inside of this category, you have options for your Ethernet connectivity. You have VPN configurations, any proxy settings, and, if you’re still using dial-up, all of your dial-up configurations can be found in this category.
From here, you can easily see if your internet connection is up and running. For example, on this particular system, my Ethernet is connected to the rest of the world. You can also change any IP settings. So if you’d like to manage your IP configurations, change the DNS servers that you’re using, that can all be done from inside of this category.
Microsoft has been working inside of the Windows Settings to integrate their PC gaming world with their console gaming world. So you’ll find, under the Gaming category, options for an Xbox Game Bar, and you can view and save any of your capture settings inside of this category.
And the settings also gives us a useful front end to be able to modify information about our user accounts. We can manage both our Microsoft account and our local user accounts in this single view. This also allows us to configure email information. We can specify what email app we would like to use. And we can modify sign-in options. So if you’d like to use some type of personal identification number or additional multifactor authentication, you can configure that inside of the account settings.