geek rewind

This post shows students and new users steps to check display Capabilities for high dynamic range (HDR) in Windows 11.

HDR content on Windows offers better brightness and color capabilities compared to traditional content (sometimes called standard dynamic range [SDR] content).

Traditional content typically shows details in a bright part of a scene or a darker part of a scene, but not in both parts at the same time. HDR can show a wider range of colors and light and more details in between the extremes.

Unlike SDR, HDR shows details so that bright parts of a scene are brighter while dark parts can be darker, so you get to see all the details.

To play HDR video in Windows 11, your display, PC, and graphics card must meet certain requirements. Here are the requirements:

Your display can be a built-in display, like the kind on a laptop, tablet, or 2-in-1 PC, or it might be an external display that’s connected to your PC.

• Built-in displays. The built-in display needs to have a resolution of 1080p or more, and a recommended max brightness of 300 nits or more.
• External display. The HDR display or TV must support HDR10, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 or higher, USB-C, or Thunderbolt.

Continue reading “How to Check if Display Supports HDR in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to enable or disable high dynamic range (HDR) video on Windows 11 devices running on battery.

Windows lets you stream high dynamic range (HDR) video when your PC has a display that’s optimized for HDR video and you have Play streaming HDR video turned on in HDR settings.

Playing HDR content while running your laptop on battery can reduce battery life. Therefore, your PC manufacturer might have turned HDR off by default for when you’re running on battery.

If HDR is turned on when your laptop is plugged in and then you unplug your laptop, HDR will be turned off to help save battery power. If you plug in your laptop again, HDR will be turned on again automatically.

In our previous post, we showed you how turn On or Off Auto HDR in Windows.

Below is how to turn on or off HDR video on devices running battery in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off HDR on Battery in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to enable or disable high dynamic range (HDR) video streaming in Windows 11.

Windows lets you stream high dynamic range (HDR) video when your PC has a display that’s optimized for HDR video and you have Play streaming HDR video turned on in HDR settings.

In our previous post, we showed you how turn On or Off Auto HDR in Windows.

Not all displays are optimized for HDR video. If you have two displays and move the HDR video onto a display that’s not optimized for HDR video, you’ll get the appropriate standard dynamic range (SDR) video stream as soon as new content starts to play.

Below is how to turn on or off HDR streaming video in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off HDR Video Streaming in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to clear Activity history in Windows 11.

Microsoft uses the activity history data to provide you with personalized experiences, and relevant suggestions (such as anticipating what your needs might be based on your activity history).

Windows users can store their activity history on the local device or send to Microsoft if they are logged in with their Microsoft accounts.

If you’ve signed in to your device with a work or school account and turned on the setting to send Microsoft your activity history, Microsoft uses your activity history data to enable cross-device experiences.

Whether your activity history is stored on your local device on in Microsoft cloud, you can easily clear it, and the steps below will show you how to do that.

Continue reading “How to Clear Activity history in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to turn On or Off sending activity history to Microsoft in Windows 11.

Activity history helps keep track of the things you do on your device, such as the apps and services you use, the files you open, and the websites you browse.

Microsoft uses the activity history data to provide you with personalized experiences, and relevant suggestions (such as anticipating what your needs might be based on your activity history).

You can choose to store or not store your activity history on your local device if you are not signed into Windows with your Microsoft account.

When you sign into Windows with your Microsoft account, Windows sends your activity history to Microsoft with your permission.

Below is how to turn off on on sending your activity history to Microsoft in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Enable or Disable Sending Activity history to Microsoft in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to enable or disable “Let Windows manage my default printer” in Windows 11.

When you connect a printer to your PC or add a new printer to your home network, you can usually start printing right away. In many cases, you won’t have to install a printer drive for your printer to work.

Windows 11 comes with many printer drivers already installed and ready to use.

By default, Windows automatically make the last printer used as your default printer. Your default printer is automatically selected in your print dialog box.

Your default printer is selected because a feature to “Let Windows manage my default printer” is automatically turned on or enabled. With this, Windows sets your printer for you, even if it’s not your favorite printer.

Below is how to turn off or on “Let Windows manage my default printer” in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off Let Windows Manage my Default Printer in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to turn On or Off notifications if a PC is charging slowly over USB in Windows 11.

If you are charging your Windows 11 device using a USB charger, you may get a notification alerting you if the PC is charging slowly over USB. This by itself is nothing to worry about, since the device battery will eventually charged over time.

However, if want to reduce Windows notifications, this is one that you can do without. If this setting is disabled and you want to be notified, then simply turn it on, and the steps below will show you how to do that.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off Notification when PC is Charging Slowly over USB in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to turn On or Off USB battery saver in Windows 11.

Windows battery saver turns off some features, dims your screen brightness, reduces background activity, and limits most system notifications.

You can also enable USB battery saver stop USB devices when your screen is off to help save battery life.

External devices like USB draw power from your computers. When your Windows device is running on battery, USB and other connected devices may use up your battery faster.

So enabling USB battery saver may help preserve and extend your battery life. Below is how to enable or disable USB battery saver in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Turn On or Off USB Battery Saver in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to turn On or Off contributing voice clips to Microsoft in Windows 11.

Voice clips are audio recordings of what you say when you use your voice to interact with Microsoft products and services. When you use your voice to talk to your PC, Windows speech recognition technology automatically generates the audio of what you say into words.

Microsoft uses voice clips to help train their speech recognition technology to be better, more accurate, and more precise for you and everyone who speaks your language.

Windows has an opt-in voice settings allow you to give Microsoft permission to sample and listen to these voice clips to improve their speech recognition technology.

Below is how to enable or disable submitting voice clips to Microsoft.

Continue reading “How to Start or Stop Contributing Voice Clips to Microsoft in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to turn On or Off voice typing launcher in Windows 11.

With voice typing, you can enter text on your PC by speaking. Voice typing uses online speech recognition, which is powered by Azure Speech services.

Voice typing allows users to enter text on their PC by speaking into a microphone. Use voice typing commands to quickly edit text by saying things like “delete that” or “select that“.

When you enable voice typing, you can use its launcher to quickly access voice typing when your cursor is in a text box or text editor.

Below is how to turn on or off voice typing launcher in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Enable or Disable Voice typing Launcher in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to use voice typing to talk to their PCs instead of typing in Windows 11.

Dictation has been renamed to voice typing in Windows 11. With voice typing, you can enter text on your PC by speaking. Voice typing uses online speech recognition, which is powered by Azure Speech services.

Voice typing allows users to enter text on their PC by speaking into a microphone. Use voice typing commands to quickly edit text by saying things like “delete that” or “select that“.

To use voice typing, you’ll need to be connected to the internet, have a working microphone, and have your cursor in a text box.

You can add additional language to use with voice typing other than the display language in Windows.

Below is how to use voice typing in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to use Voice Typing to talk to your PC in Windows 11”

This post shows students and new users steps to always show File Explorer menu bar in Windows 11.

Computers that have enrolled in Microsoft Insider Program will see new features that are not yet available to all. File Explorer includes a new tabs browsing feature that helps users work with multiple locations at the same time.

Another feature recently introduced is the menu bar previously found in previous versions of Windows. You can have the menu bar always show up in File Explorer if you want.

The menu bar includes the File, Edit, View, and Tools. These menu items will vary depending on what is open and selected in File Explorer.

The steps below show you how to always show the menu bar in File Explorer in Windows 11.

Continue reading “How to Hide or Unhide File Explorer Menu bar in Windows 11”