Securing Windows 10 against a universe of
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 3
Foolish Assumptions 4
Icons Used in This Book 5
Beyond the Book 6
Where to Go from Here 6
Book 1: Starting Windows 10 7
Chapter 1: Windows 10 4 N00bs 9
Hardware and Software 12
Why Do PCs Have to Run Windows? 12
A Terminology Survival Kit 17
What, Exactly, is the Web? 21
Getting inside the Internet 22
What is the World Wide Web? 24
Who pays for all this stuff? 25
Buying a Windows 10 Computer 26
Inside the big box 29
Inside a touch-sensitive tablet 32
Screening 36
Managing disks and drives 36
Making PC connections 40
Futzing with video, sound, and multitudinous media 44
Ultrabooks and convertibles 46
What’s Wrong with Windows 10? 46
Chapter 2: Windows 10 for the Experienced 49
If You Just Upgraded from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 50
A Brief History of Windows 10 52
Exploring the Versions of Windows 10 55
The Different Kinds of Windows Programs, Er, Apps 56
What’s New for the XP Crowd 60
Improved performance 60
Better video 62
A genuinely better browser is emerging 63
Cortana 63
Other improvements 64
What’s New for Windows 7 Users 65
Getting the hang of the new Start menu 66
Exploring new stuff in the old-fashioned desktop 68
What’s New for Windows 8 and 8.1 Users 69
What’s New for All of Windows 70
The Start menu 70
Microsoft Edge 71
Search 73
Cortana 74
Virtual desktops and task view 75
Security improvements 76
Game mode and Xbox 77
Other Windows 10 apps 78
What you lose 79
Do You Need Windows 10? 80
Chapter 3: Which Version? 83
Counting the Editions 84
Buying the right version the first time 87
Narrowing the choices 87
Choosing 32 Bit versus 64 Bit 89
Which Version of Windows Are You Running? 91
Book 2: Personalizing Windows 95
Chapter 1: Getting Around in Windows 97
Windows’ New Beginnings 98
A tale of two homes 99
Switching to tablet mode and back 102
Navigating around the Desktop 103
Keying Keyboard Shortcuts 109
Chapter 2: Changing the Lock and Login Screens 113
Working with the Lock Screen 114
Using your own picture 115
Adding and removing apps on the lock screen 118
Logging On Uniquely 120
Using a picture password 120
Creating a PIN 124
Windows Hello 125
Bypassing passwords and login 126
Chapter 3: Working with the Action/Notification Center 127
What is the Action Center? 128
What, Exactly, is a Notification? 129
Working with Notifications 131
Working with Settings Shortcuts 133
Chapter 4: Controlling Users 137
Why You Need Separate User Accounts 138
Choosing Account Types 139
What’s a standard account? 139
What’s an administrator account? 141
Choosing between standard and administrator accounts 141
What’s Good and Bad about Microsoft Accounts 143
Adding Users 145
Changing Accounts 148
Changing other users’ settings 148
Changing your own settings 153
Switching Users 154
The Changing Environment 154
Chapter 5: Microsoft Account: To Sync or Not to Sync? 157
What, Exactly, is a Microsoft Account? 158
Deciding Whether You Want a Microsoft Account 159
Setting Up a Microsoft Account 161
Setting up a Hotmail/Outlook.com account 163
Making any email address a Microsoft account 164
Stop Using Your Microsoft Account 166
Taking Care of Your Microsoft Account 167
Controlling Sync 168
Chapter 6: Privacy Control 171
Why You Should Be Concerned 172
Privacy Manifesto 174
The past: Watson to WER 175
Customer Experience Improvement Program 175
Feedback & Diagnostics tab and DiagTrack 176
Denial ain’t nuthin’ but a river 178
Knowing What Connections Windows Prefers 179
Controlling Location Tracking 180
Blocking all location tracking 183
Blocking location tracking in an app 184
Minimizing Privacy Intrusion 185
Book 3: Working on the Desktop 187
Chapter 1: Running Your Desktop from Start to Finish 189
Tripping through Windows 10’s Three Personas 190
Working with the Traditional Desktop 192
Changing the background 193
Cleaning up useless icons and programs 195
Mousing with Your Mouse 196
What’s up, dock? 197
Changing the mouse 199
Starting with the Start button 201
Touching on the Taskbar 204
Working with Files and Folders 205
Using File Explorer 207
Navigating 208
Viewing 210
Creating files and folders 211
Modifying files and folders 212
Showing filename extensions 212
Sharing folders 215
Using the \Public folder 216
Recycling 218
Creating Shortcuts 219
Keying Keyboard Shortcuts 221
Sleep: Perchance to Dream 222
Chapter 2: Personalizing the Start Menu 225
Touring the Start Menu 226
Modifying the Start Menu 228
Changing your picture 229
Manipulating the Most Used section 230
Controlling the left-side lists 230
Circumnavigating the Start apps list 233
Resizing the Start Menu 235
Changing Tiles on the Start Menu 236
Organizing Your Start Menu Tiles 238
Add, add, add your tiles 238
Forming and naming your groups 239
Chapter 3: Personalizing the Desktop and Taskbar 241
Decking out the Desktop 242
Resolving Desktop Resolution 247
Setting the screen resolution 247
Changing the size of text, apps, and other items 249
Using magnification 250
Putting Icons and Shortcuts on the Desktop 252
Creating shortcuts 253
Arranging icons on the desktop 255
Tricking out the Taskbar 258
Anatomy of the taskbar 259
Jumping 259
Changing the taskbar 261
Working with the taskbar 263
Chapter 4: Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox 265
Which Browser is Best? 267
Considering security 268
Looking at privacy 269
Picking a browser 270
Setting a browser as your default 272
Using Internet Explorer on the Desktop 274
Navigating in IE 275
Changing the home page 282
Dealing with cookies 283
Why you should stop using IE 285
Customizing Firefox 286
Installing Firefox 286
Browsing privately in Firefox 288
Bookmarking with the Fox 290
Changing the default search engine 292
Adding Firefox’s best add-ons 294
Optimizing Google Chrome 295
Installing Chrome 296
Navigating in Chrome 297
Searching on the Web 300
Finding what you’re looking for 301
Using Advanced Search 303
Pulling out Google parlor tricks 305
Referring to Internet Reference Tools 305
Internet speed test 306
DNSstuff 306
Monitis Traceroute 307
Down for everyone or just me? 308
The Wayback Machine 308
Chapter 5: Hey, Cortana! 309
The Cortana Backstory 311
Make Cortana Respond to “Hey, Cortana” 312
Setting up Cortana 316
Using Cortana Settings 317
Useful or Fun Commands for Cortana 320
Chapter 6: Maintaining Your System 323
Rolling Back with the Three Rs 324
Creating Password Reset Questions 326
Establishing password security questions 327
Using password recovery questions 329
Making Windows Update Work 330
Maintaining Drives 331
What is formatting? 331
Introducing hard-drive-maintenance tools 332
Running an error check 332
Defragmenting a drive 334
Maintaining Solid-State Drives 335
Zipping and Compressing 336
Compressing with NTFS 338
Zipping the easy way with compressed (zipped) folders 340
Book 4: Using the Built-in Windows 10 Apps 343
Chapter 1: Using the Mail and Calendar Apps 345
Choosing a Mail/Calendar App 347
Comparing email programs 348
Comparing Calendar apps 352
Choosing the right package 353
Drilling Down on Windows 10 Mail 354
Creating a new message 358
Searching for email in the Mail app 361
Mail Settings 361
Adding a new email account 362
Setting extra options 364
Avoiding Calendar App Collisions 365
Adding Calendar items 367
Struggling with Calendar shortcomings 368
Beyond Email 369
Chapter 2: Keeping Track of People 371
The Contact List in Windows 10 372
Putting Contacts in the People App 373
Adding accounts to People 373
Editing a contact 377
Adding people in People 379
Putting a Contact on the Taskbar 380
Alternatives to the Win10 People App 382
Chapter 3: Zooming the Photos App and Beyond 385
Discovering What the Windows 10 Photos App Can Do 386
Touring Photos 386
Editing Photos 389
Setting Settings 392
Adding Photos 394
Importing Pictures from a Camera or an External Drive 394
Working with Albums 395
Storing and Managing Photos Online 395
Chapter 4: Noting OneNote 401
Getting Started in OneNote with or without a Pen 402
Setting Up Notebooks, Sections, Pages 403
Embellishing on a OneNote Page 407
Sending to OneNote 409
Setting Settings 411
Chapter 5: Maps, Music, Movies — and TV 413
Making Maps 414
Basic map functions 414
Navigating with the Maps app 417
Taking a map offline 418
Get Your Groove Music On 420
Getting Your Music and Movies into the Apps 422
Running around the Groove Music App 425
Finding music and playlists 427
Running around the Movies & TV App 428
Book 5: Connecting with the Windows 10 Apps 431
Chapter 1: Introducing Edge 433
A Walk through Microsoft Edge 435
Working with the Immersive Reader 439
A Sampler of Edge Settings 440
Adding Edge Extensions 445
Chapter 2: Using Skype in Windows 10 449
Signing Up with Skype 450
Making First Contact 454
Adding a Contact 455
Settings 458
Making Group Calls 459
Recording Calls 460
A Few Tips from Skype-ologists 461
Exploring Skype Alternatives 463
Chapter 3: Navigating the Microsoft Store 467
Checking out What a Universal Windows App Can Do 469
Browsing the Microsoft Store 472
Searching the Microsoft Store 475
Updating Your Microsoft Store Apps 476
Chapter 4: Games, Games, and Games 479
Searching the Store for Games 481
Enabling Game Mode 483
Using the Game Bar 484
Testing Your Connection to Xbox Live Services 486
Bringing Back the Classics 487
Book 6: Socializing and Sharing from Windows 10 491
Chapter 1: Using OneDrive 493
What is OneDrive? 494
Setting Up a OneDrive Account 496
The Four States of OneDrive Data 498
Changing the States of OneDrive Data 505
Sharing OneDrive Files and Folders 506
Chapter 2: Getting Started with Facebook 509
Choosing a Facebook App 511
Signing Up for a Facebook Account 512
Choosing basic Facebook privacy settings 516
Interpreting the Facebook interface lingo 520
Building a Great Timeline 521
Using the Facebook Apps for Windows 10 525
Chapter 3: Getting Started with Twitter 527
Understanding Twitter 528
Setting Up a Twitter Account 532
Tweeting for Beginners 536
Beware hacking 536
Using the @ sign and Reply 537
Retweeting for fun and profit 538
Direct Messaging 538
Hooking Twitter into Windows 539
Chapter 4: Getting Started with LinkedIn 541
Signing Up for LinkedIn 542
Using LinkedIn for Fun and Profit 546
Book 7: Controlling Your System 549
Chapter 1: Settings, Settings, and More Settings 551
Introducing the Settings App 553
Spelunking through the Control Panel 556
Putting Shortcuts to Settings on Your Desktop 558
God Mode 562
Installing New Languages 563
Chapter 2: Troubleshooting and Getting Help 565
Troubleshooting the Easy Way 566
Troubleshooting the Hard Way 567
Tackling installation problems 567
Problems with installing updates 571
System Stability and Reliability Monitor 580
Windows Sandbox 582
Tricks to Using Windows Help 583
The problem(s) with Windows Help 584
Using different kinds of help 584
How to Really Get Help 585
Snapping and Recording Your Problems 588
Taking snaps that snap 588
Recording live 590
Connecting to Remote Assistance 593
Understanding the interaction 593
Making the connection 594
Limiting an invitation 598
Troubleshooting Remote Assistance 599
Getting Help Online 600
Chapter 3: Working with Libraries 603
Understanding Libraries 604
Making Your Libraries Visible 604
Working with Your Default Libraries 608
Customizing Libraries 610
Adding a folder to a library 611
Changing a library’s default save location 613
Creating Your Own Library 614
Chapter 4: Storing in Storage Spaces 617
Understanding the Virtualization of Storage 618
Setting Up Storage Spaces 621
Working with Storage Spaces 625
Storage Space Strategies 626
Chapter 5: Taking Control of Updates and Upgrades 627
The Case Against Windows Automatic Update 628
Terminology 101 629
The Great Divide: Home versus Pro 631
Keeping Your Windows 10 Machine Protected From Updates 632
Postponing Windows 10 Updates 636
Keep Up on the Problems 637
Stopping Windows 10 Updates from Rebooting Your PC 638
Chapter 6: Running the Built-In Applications 641
Setting Alarms & Clock 642
Getting Free Word Processing 645
Running Notepad 645
Writing with WordPad 647
Taming the Character Map 650
Calculating — Free 651
Painting 653
Chapter 7: Working with Printers 657
Installing a Printer 658
Attaching a local printer 659
Connecting a network printer 661
Using the Print Queue 663
Displaying a print queue 663
Pausing and resuming a print queue 664
Pausing, restarting, and resuming a document 665
Canceling a document 666
Troubleshooting Printing 667
Catching a Runaway Printer 669
Book 8: Maintaining Windows 10 671
Chapter 1: File History, Backup, Data Restore, and Sync 673
What Happened to the Windows 7 Backup? 674
The Future of Reliable Storage is in the Cloud 674
Backing Up and Restoring Files with File History 676
Setting up File History 676
Restoring data from File History 680
Changing File History settings 683
Storing to and through the Cloud 686
Considering cloud storage privacy concerns 687
Reaping the benefits of backup and storage in the cloud 688
Choosing an online backup and sharing service 689
Chapter 2: A Fresh Start: Restore and Reset 693
The Three R’s — and an SF and a GB 694
Resetting Your PC 697
Resetting Your PC to Factory Settings 701
Starting Fresh 703
Restoring to an Earlier Point 704
Enabling System Protection 706
Creating a restore point 706
Rolling back to a restore point 708
Entering the Windows Recovery Environment 710
Chapter 3: Monitoring Windows 713
Viewing Events 714
Using Event Viewer 714
Events worthy — and not worthy — of viewing 716
Gauging System Reliability 718
Chapter 4: Using System Tools 723
Tasking Task Manager 724
Task Manager Processes 726
Task Manager Performance 727
Task Manager App History 728
Task Manager Startup and Autoruns 728
Task Manager Details and Services 731
Managing Startup Apps from Settings 732
Installing a Second Hard Drive 733
Running a Virtual Machine 736
Book 9: Securing Windows 10 745
Chapter 1: Spies, Spams, and Scams Are Out to Get You 747
Understanding the Hazards — and the Hoaxes 748
The primary infection vectors 749
Zombies and botnets 751
Phishing 754
419 scams 758
I’m from Microsoft, and I’m here to help 761
0day exploits 762
Staying Informed 763
Relying on reliable sources 764
Ditching the hoaxes 764
Is My Computer Infected? 766
Evaluating telltale signs 767
Where did that message come from? 767
What to do next 769
Shunning scareware 771
Getting Protected 773
Protecting against malware 773
Disabling Java and Flash 774
Using your credit card safely online 775
Defending your privacy 777
Reducing spam 779
Dealing with Data Breaches 781
Chapter 2: Fighting Viri and Scum 785
Basic Windows Security Do’s and Don’ts 786
Making Sense of Malware 790
Deciphering Browsers’ Inscrutable Warnings 793
Chrome 793
Firefox 795
Chapter 3: Running Built-In Security Programs 797
Working with Windows Security 798
Adjusting Windows Security 800
Running Windows Security manually 802
Controlling Folder Access 804
Judging SmartScreen 806
Booting Securely with UEFI 810
A brief history of BIOS 810
How UEFI is different from/better than BIOS 811
How Windows 10 uses UEFI 813
Controlling User Account Control 813
Poking at Windows Defender Firewall 816
Understanding Firewall basic features 817
Speaking your firewall’s lingo 818
Peeking into your firewall 819
Making inbound exceptions 820
Chapter 4: Top Security Helpers 825
Deciding about BitLocker 826
Managing Your Passwords 829
Using password managers 829
Which is better: Online or in-hand? 830
Rockin’ RoboForm 831
Liking LastPass 832
Keeping Your Other Programs Up to Date 834
Blocking Java and Flash in Your Browser 835
Fighting Back at Tough Scumware 838
Securing Your Communication with PIA 839
What’s a VPN? 840
Setting up a VPN 841
Book 10: Enhancing Windows 10 843
Chapter 1: Working Remotely with Windows 10 845
Enabling Remote Desktop Connections 846
Connecting with Remote Desktop Connection 847
Connecting a Second Monitor 849
Installing a Webcam 851
Adding Clocks to the Taskbar 852
Chapter 2: Using Android, iPhone, and Kindle with Windows 10 855
What, Exactly, is Android? 856
Getting clear on Android 858
Making Windows talk to your Android phone or tablet 858
Linking an Android Smartphone to a PC 860
Linking an iPhone to a PC 863
Turning a Smartphone into a Webcam for Your PC 864
Running iTunes on Windows — or Maybe Not 865
Deciding whether to use iTunes for Windows 866
Installing iTunes 868
Setting up iTunes 869
Moving files from Windows 10 to an iPhone 870
Controlling Windows 10 from an iPhone or iPad 872
Wrangling E-Book Files 873
Introducing popular e-book formats 873
Reading e-book files on your PC 874
Organizing your e-book files with calibre 875
Getting Media from Your PC to Your Kindle 878
Emailing books from your PC to your Kindle 878
Receiving emailed books from a friend 879
Adding music to your Kindle 881
Chapter 3: Getting Started with Gmail, Google Apps, and Drive 883
Finding Alternatives to Windows with Google 884
Setting Up Gmail 888
Moving an Existing Account to Gmail 892
Using the Google Apps 894
Moving Your Domain to Google 898
Chapter 4: Using Web-Based Outlook.com (nee Hotmail) 903
Getting Started with Outlook.com 904
Bringing Some Sanity to Outlook.com Organization 909
Handling Outlook.com Failures 911
Importing Outlook.com Messages into Gmail 913
Weighing the Alternatives 915
Chapter 5: Best Free Windows Add-Ons 917
Windows Apps You Absolutely Must Have 918
File History 918
VLC Media Player 919
LastPass 920
Recuva 921
The Best of the Rest — All Free 922
Nextpad (Notepad replacement) 922
Ninite 923
Revo Uninstaller 924
Paint.net 925
7-Zip 925
qBittorrent 926
Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or 927
Other interesting free software 927
You may not need to buy Microsoft Office 928
Don’t Pay for Software You Don’t Need! 929
Windows 10 has all the antivirus software you need 930
Windows 10 doesn’t need a disk defragger 930
Windows 10 doesn’t need a disk partitioner 930
Windows 10 doesn’t need a Registry cleaner 931
Windows 10 doesn’t need a backup program 931
Don’t turn off services or hack your Registry 932
Index 933
