Paul McFedries - Windows 10 Portable Genius

Copyright 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-119-76357-4

ISBN: 978-1-119-76507-3 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-119-76360-4 (ebk)

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About the Author

Paul McFedries is a technical writer who has been authoring computer books since 1991 and has nearly 100 books to his credit. Pauls books have sold more than four million copies worldwide. These books include the Wiley titles Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows 10, Third Edition, G Suite For Dummies, iPhone Portable Genius, Sixth Edition, and iPad Portable Genius, Fourth Edition. You can visit Paul on the web at www.mcfedries.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/paulmcf .

Acknowledgments

The only thing more fun than using Windows is writing a book about it! Thats particularly true for an interesting project such as this book, which was made all the more pleasant by the great people I got to work with. They include Associate Publisher Jim Minatel, who was kind enough to ask me to write the book; Project Editor Kezia Endsley, whose just-so suggestions and penetrating questions made this a better book; Copy Editor Kim Cofer, whose eagle-eye for all things ungrammatical made me look like a better writer than I am; and Technical Editor Vince Averello, whose knowledge of the Windows world is nothing short of amazing. Many thanks to all of you for outstanding work on this project.

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12

If you head down to your local bookstore (assuming, of course, that by the time you read this, the entities known as local bookstores still exist) and peruse the Computer Books section, youll almost certainly see several Windows books that are nothing less than gargantuan. Were talking here about books that weigh in at well over a thousand pages and make even the thickest phone book (again, assuming such a thing exists in your time) look like a mere pamphlet.

Who would want to read such a book, much less write one? Well, as someone who has written more than one of them, I can tell you the answer with some authority: Windows is a sprawling, complex beast that some say is easily the most complicated piece of software ever created. If you want to teach people everything there is to know about Windows, then the resulting tome is going to be bigvery big.

Ah, but theres the rub: How many people want or even need to learn everything there is to know about Windows? Thats right: very few. The rest of us just want to know how to get things done using Windows with a minimum of fuss and as little bother as possible. The rest of us arent members of the Windows Fan Club; were not Windows geeks; we dont want to look under the hood to see what makes Windows run. The rest of us have a job to doa job that means using a Windows PCand we just want Windows to help as much as it can and then get out of our way. The rest of us, in short, dont need a massive, encyclopedic guide to all things Windows. What we Windows users really need is a reference thats easier to read, more convenient, and doesnt require a regular weight-training regimen to lift. What we really need is a portable reference that enables us to be more productive and solve problems wherever we and our PCs happen to be.

Welcome, therefore, to Windows 10 Portable Genius. This book is a Windows guide thats presented in an easy-to-use, easy-to-access, and eminently portable format. In this book, you learn how to get more out of Windows by learning how to access all the really powerful and timesaving features that arent obvious at a casual glance. In this book, you learn how to avoid the more annoying character traits of Windows and, in those cases where such behaviors cant be avoided, you learn how to work around them. In this book, you learn how to prevent Windows problems from occurring, and just in case your preventative measures are for naught, you learn how to fix many common problems yourself.

A few special elements provide guardrails and inspiration. Notes help you delve a bit deeper into some topics, Cautions give advice and help you steer clear of problems, and Genius boxes convey the pro tips that will make you more efficient, more productive, and more impressive in the results that you crank out from Windows.