14. Caring for Your Computer and Updating Windows
In this chapter, you learn how to care for your PC and solve problems when they arise by learning about these tasks:
Much of what you need to safeguard your Windows 10 computer or device happens behind the scenes in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. Microsoft regularly updates the software, which helps ensure that you have the latest bug fixes, the most recent security patches, and other healthy tweaks that can help protect your computer and prevent crashes and security risks.
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update also adds some new features that enable you to do some of the fixing yourself. The new Troubleshoot tool offers a slate of 19 ready-to-use tools that help you sleuth out any problems you’re having, whether they are hardware or software related. And although device encryption is turned on by default, you can tweak the settings or even disable the feature (although your device is safer with encryption on).
This chapter walks you through the Windows 10 tools you’ll use to make sure your computer is healthy, happy, and productive.
Checking for Windows Updates
With the last big update of Windows 10, developers decided to make updating the software a “have to” instead of a “want to.” They did this to ensure that all users got the security and functional patches they need to make sure the operating system is working at its optimal level. But not all people were thrilled with that—by and large, we like to make those kinds of choices ourselves.
Windows 10 Fall Creators Update does give you several options about how and when the updates are delivered, however. You can choose whether you want Windows to automatically download updates as soon as they become available; you can have Windows notify you before your system is restarted; and you can temporarily pause updates and delay them for up to seven days.
Checking for Updates
The Windows Update window lets you know when the operating system last checked for updates and gives you the option of checking again yourself. You can also set advanced update options from the Windows Update screen.
Display the Start menu.
Choose Settings.
Click or tap Update & Security.
Click the Check for Updates button. Windows Update displays a “Checking for updates” message while the operating system checks for any program changes.
Windows Update begins to look for available updates. If the tool finds program updates that can be downloaded, it provides information about the update and begins the download process.
Setting Advanced Update Options
Even though you can’t completely opt out of Windows updates, you can make some choices that enable you to manage your update experience. You can change when the updates are installed on your computer, and you can delay updates for a period of time.
Display the Windows Update screen as described in the previous task.
Click to specify the hours during which you don’t want updates to restart your computer.
Click to indicate an assigned restart time (for example, 3:00 a.m.) when the restart won’t affect your work.
Click Advanced Options.
If you want to pause upgrades so that the updates are postponed for a period of seven days, slide the setting to On.
Click to allow Windows 10 to update other Microsoft products (such as Windows Defender) along with Windows 10 updates.
Backing Up and Restoring Your Files
Hopefully, you are already saving copies of important files and folders—perhaps you’re saving them to your OneDrive account or backing them up on a flash drive. Making regular backups of your files helps you feel secure knowing that your files are protected and that you have an extra copy, just in case something happens. You can make these simple file backups yourself by using File Explorer to copy the files to the folder or device where you want to store the backup files.
Windows also provides a backup utility you can use to back up everything on your hard disk. You should do this larger backup regularly—perhaps once a week or so. This ensures that your files have been saved so that if something unexpected happens to your computer—for example, you wind up with a virus that damages important files—you can restore the files from your backup and go on as usual.
To get started using the Backup tool, you need to set up the utility to run the way you want it to. This tells Windows where you want to save the backup files and when you want to do the backup. You can change those settings at any time, but Windows takes care of the backup automatically from here on out on the day and time you specify.
Backing Up Your Files with File History
To back up your data, follow these steps:
Display the Update & Security screen in the Settings window.
Click Backup.
Click Add a Drive. Windows scans your system to find a drive where the backup can be stored.
Click the drive you want to use as a backup drive.
Windows shows the Automatically Back Up My Files control set to the On position. If you later want to suspend backups, you can drag the slider to Off.
Restoring Files
You might never use the files you backed up, but it can be reassuring to have them in case you need them. If you do need them, the tool for restoring your files is in the same place you discovered the Backup tool.
In the Update & Security screen in Settings, choose Backup.
Click More Options.
Scroll to the bottom of the Backup Options screen.
Click Restore Files from a Current Backup. The Home–File History window appears.
Click the folders you want to restore.
Click the Restore to Original Location button, and Windows 10 restores the backed up files for you.
Troubleshooting Your Computer
In Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, a new Troubleshoot category in Update & Security enables you to sleuth out problems you may be having with Windows 10. Nineteen different troubleshooters are available to help you fix everything from audio that won’t play to Bluetooth troubles to issues with Windows apps.
Launching a Troubleshooter
In earlier versions of Windows, troubleshooters were around, but they were scattered throughout the operating system and not located in one handy place that was easy to find. Now Windows 10 Fall Creators Update takes the guesswork out of troubleshooters.
In the Update & Security screen, click Troubleshoot.
Scroll through the list of troubleshooters to find the one you need.
Click or tap the troubleshooter to select it.
Click Run the Troubleshooter. The troubleshooter runs a set of diagnostics and then displays a results page.
Click to see the details of the troubleshooting process.
Click to close the troubleshooter.
Optimizing Your Computer
In addition to regular updates and backups, you can help Windows work efficiently by optimizing the way files are stored on your computer. As part of the normal use of your computer, file bits get scattered around the hard drive. When you look at the folders in File Explorer, everything looks nice and neat, with folders and files in nice little columns. But the way your computer is actually storing the data behind the scenes isn’t quite that linear. Your computer knows where everything is, thanks to the way it indexes information, but over time, bits and pieces of files can be saved in various places all over the drive. This kind of fragmentation can slow down the time it takes your computer to process regular tasks—hence the need for a tool that defragments the data your computer stores.
You can use the settings in the Optimize Drives dialog box to clean up your hard drive by consolidating those bits of files and putting them back together in one place. This can help your computer run faster and better, which is a good thing.
Optimizing Your Hard Disk
Although it runs automatically by default, running the Optimize utility fairly regularly—such as once every month or two—helps ensure that you’re making the most of the available storage space on your hard drive.
In the Search box on the taskbar, type optimize.
Tap or click Defragment and Optimize Drives.
In the Optimize Drives dialog box, click Analyze to do a check on the selected drive to see whether optimizing it will save you any space.
Click Optimize to defragment the selected disk.
After the process is finished, click Close.
Encrypting Your Device
Encryption is a file protection protocol that secures your files so that others can’t get into them without authorization. By default, device encryption is turned on in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. You can change that setting if you like (although for the best security, that’s not recommended).
Changing Encryption Settings
You can change your encryption settings—turning encryption off if you choose–by making a change in Update & Security settings.
Display the Update & Security window in Settings.
Click Device Encryption.
Click Turn Off. Windows 10 prompts you to confirm that you want to disable encryption.
Click Turn Off if you are sure you want to turn off encryption.
Click Cancel to leave encryption in place.
