Windows 11 Personalization First Steps (24H2)

After you upgrade to or install Windows 11, or have signed in to a new Windows 11 PC for the first time, you should ensure that everything is working properly and prepare your PC for the work ahead. This chapter can help: Here, we provide a list of several post-install tasks to perform as soon as you finish the Windows Setup Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE) and arrive at the Windows 11 Desktop for the first time.

The tasks in this chapter are grouped logically and can generally be completed in any order.

Configure the Desktop

When you first view your new Windows 11 Desktop, it’s likely that you will see several things that were configured for you by Microsoft or your PC maker that you wish to change immediately. The tasks in this section can help you decide which changes to consider across the Desktop itself, plus the Taskbar, Start, File Explorer, OneDrive, and more.

Configure the date and time settings

In decades past, new Windows installations would often default to Pacific Time (where Microsoft’s headquarters are) or to whatever time zone your PC maker may have configured. But Windows 11 tries to detect your location automatically and then set the time and date accordingly. This usually works, but it’s smart to make sure.

First, check the time/date display in the far right of the Taskbar.

Even if both are correct, right-click the date/time display and select “Adjust date and time” in the context menu that appears to open the Settings app to its Time & date settings page.

Here, you should examine two options, “Set time zone automatically” and “Set time automatically” to make sure both are set to “On.” If not, make that change.

Turn off Do not disturb

New to Windows 11, Microsoft enables a feature called Do not disturb the first time you boot into your new Desktop. It’s not clear why it made this change, but you will not receive most notifications until you disable it.

To do so, select the date/time display in the far right of the Taskbar to display the Notifications and Calendar panes. Then, click the “Do not disturb” toggle button in the top right of the Notifications pane.

Of course, you may enjoy the peace and quiet, too. In that case, simply leave Do not disturb as-is.

You can learn more about Do not disturb–and a related feature called Focus–in the Do Not Disturb and Focus chapter.

Configure the Desktop theme

In addition to supporting Dark and light modes like Windows 10, Windows 11 also supports themes, which combine a background, an accent color, a sound scheme, and a mouse cursor into a single item you can enable or change.

The default Windows 11 theme displays in Light mode and uses a dynamic background called Windows spotlight, a specific accent color, the default sound scheme, and the default mouse cursor. But it could be different: PC makers often configure the default theme, and if you restored from a backup during Windows 11 Setup, your configured theme should be in-place.

You can change the theme at any time, but there’s no time like the present if you’re not happy with how it looks.

You do so in the Settings app (WINKEY + I) by navigating to Personalization > Themes. This page lets you save the currently configured background, colors, sounds, and mouse cursor as a new theme, switch between any available themes, and get more themes from the Microsoft Store.

You can learn more about themes and the individual settings each includes in the Desktop chapter.

For the most part, we try to stick with a non-distracting theme for the images in this book, but you can get a lot more creative with your own PC.

Configure File Explorer

While many will find that the Windows 11 file manager, called File Explorer, works fine in its default configuration, others may wish to make a few changes based on their needs. Key among these changes are configuring which view File Explorer displays as its home page and determining whether the app displays recently accessed files and folders.

These and other File Explorer features are configured using Folder Options. To access this window, open File Explorer, click the “See more” (“…”) button in the command bar, and then choose “Options” from the menu that appears.

You can also open File Explorer by typing WINKEY + E.

You can learn more about File Explorer customization in the File Explorer chapter.

Configure OneDrive

Most people sign in to Windows 11 using a Microsoft account (MSA). Among other things, that means that OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service, will be configured for that account and available in the file system via File Explorer and to compatible apps. But it’s likely that you will want to perform some additional configuration related to two specific OneDrive features right away: Folder backup and Files on demand.

We explore both features in more detail in the OneDrive chapter.

Configure OneDrive Folder backup

OneDrive Folder backup syncs up three important folders on your PC–Desktop, Documents, and Pictures–to identically named folders in your OneDrive cloud storage. And it will keep those folders synced across multiple PCs if you always sign in to them with your Microsoft account. This can be useful, of course, but it’s not always configured in an ideal way.

Here’s the problem: When you first set up Windows 11, you were either given the option to enable OneDrive backup (if you are using Windows 11 Pro) or it was simply enabled for you without giving you a choice (if you use Windows 11 Home). This may not be what you want, but you can configure OneDrive Folder backup the way you prefer once you’re using Windows 11.

To do so, find the OneDrive system icon in the system tray area, which can be tricky since it’s hidden by default. (You can display hidden system icons by selecting “Show hidden icons,” the caret-shaped icon to the left of the Network, Volume, and Power icons.)

Once you find the OneDrive icon, click it to open the OneDrive pane, and then navigate to “Help & Settings” (the gear-shaped button) > Settings. When the OneDrive Settings window opens, navigate to the Sync and backup tab and click “Manage backup.”

Here, you can easily configure which top-level OneDrive folders are synced between this PC and the cloud. If you don’t wish to sync any of these folders with OneDrive, for example, simply toggle each to “Off” and then click “Save changes.”

You can learn more about OneDrive Folder backup in the OneDrive chapter.

Configure OneDrive for offline use

As noted above, Windows 11 makes the contents of your OneDrive storage available in File Explorer by default. But whatever files and folders you have in OneDrive are not fully downloaded to your PC because that could take up a lot of space, take a long time, and use a lot of bandwidth. Instead, they are all available on-demand by default. This way, you can see your files and folders, and when you try to open a file, it will be downloaded to your PC and will then be available at all times, even when your PC is offline, and any changes you make will be synced to OneDrive.

This system may work well for some. But you may also want to mark some individual files or, more likely, some selection of OneDrive-based folders that could be full of files, to be available at all times.

To do so, find the files/folders in File Explorer–your OneDrive-based content is available via the “OneDrive – Personal” link in File Explorer’s navigation pane–and then right-click them in turn and select “Always keep on this device” from the context menu that appears.

There is a lot more to this feature, but OneDrive file access is covered in much more detail in the OneDrive chapter.

Clean up the Desktop

Microsoft puts a superfluous Microsoft Edge shortcut on the Desktop by default, and your PC maker may have added a few app shortcuts of their own. This isn’t rocket science, but take a moment to delete them. It’s good for your soul and your well-being.

Configure Taskbar items and app shortcuts

Microsoft puts three Taskbar items–Widgets, Search, and Task view–and five app shortcuts for Copilot, File Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Store, and Microsoft Outlook on the Taskbar by default, and your PC maker can add a few more app shortcuts of its own. If you find any of these items to be unnecessary, you can remove them. Or, in some cases, configure them to work differently.

To remove one or more of the default Taskbar items, right-click an empty area of the Taskbar and choose “Taskbar settings.” The Settings app appears with the Taskbar settings page displayed.

We discuss these Taskbar items and why you may not need them in the Taskbar chapter if you’re not sure about this.

Here, you can toggle the Task view and Widgets Taskbar items, while Search has four display choices: “Hide,” “Search icon only,” “Search icon and label,” and “Search box” (the default).

We discuss the different Search item display options and how they impact the user experience in the Search chapter.

The Widgets item also supports additional display options, but these are found elsewhere, in Widget settings. To access this interface, open Widgets (by clicking the Widgets item in the Taskbar or typing WINKEY + W) and click your profile picture in the upper right of the widget board.

We typically disable the option “Open Widget board on hover,” but it may also be worth examining the options under “Notifications”: Widgets will notify you all kinds of things, many not useful, unless you tell it not to.

You can learn more about this feature in the Widgets chapter.

Removing Taskbar app shortcuts works as it did in previous Windows versions: Just right-click any you do not want and choose “Unpin from taskbar” in the context menu that appears.

Again, be sure to check out the Taskbar chapter for more information.

Make Windows 11 even more secure

Windows 11 includes a dashboard called Windows Security that provides a front-end to all the security capabilities of your PC. And while the system is of course configured securely by default, there are additional steps you can take to improve security even further by enabling some optional features that need to share anonymous information with Microsoft to function properly.

To see this, locate the Windows Security icon in the system tray’s hidden icons flyout. In a new Windows 11 installation, this icon, which resembles a blue shield, will often have a yellow “bang” overlay, indicating that there are improvements to be made.

To address the issue(s), click the icon to open Windows Security.

Here, you will see a grid of high-level security features. Those with a green checkmark are working optimally, but those with a yellow bang need attention. That is, you might need to enable one or more security features, which usually just involves clicking a button and approving a User Account Control (UAC) prompt.

What you see here can vary by PC–some security features are dependent on specific hardware components–but Reputation-based protection and Memory integrity are among the most common features you might need to manually enable. When you do so, Windows Security will be happy and its system tray icon will display a green checkmark overlay.

And, yes, you want to make Windows Security happy.

You can learn a bit more about these features and why you should enable them in the Windows Security chapter.

Configure Start

The Windows 11 Start menu is a major departure from its predecessors and may require a bit of time before you feel comfortable with it. But you can also configure its layout, which app shortcuts appear there, and other options. Some of this customization occurs directly in Start, as you can right-click and drag-and-drop many of the items it contains. But others occur in Start settings, which you can access in the Settings app by navigating to Personalization > Start.

We cover Start customization in some detail in the Start chapter, but here are some ideas to get started:

Customize the layout. Start settings gives you three basic layouts to choose from, but you can also choose whether to display recently added and most-used apps in the Recommended section and configure one or more icons for system folders that can appear next to the Power button.

Remove or uninstall unwanted app shortcuts from the Pinned section. In addition to its so-called in-box apps, Windows 11 also includes a strange selection of sponsored app shortcuts–what we would call “crapware” or “bloatware”–supplied by Microsoft and/or your PC maker. You can easily remove any unwanted app shortcuts from the Pinned section in Start–just right-click each in turn and select “Unpin from Start”–but you can alternatively uninstall these app shortcuts for good as well. To do so, right-click the offending shortcut and choose “Uninstall”; if that option is not available, that means only the shortcut is present, so just choose “Unpin from Start.”

Some PC makers use a familiar trick to make it harder to remove certain crapware from your PC. If you can’t uninstall as described above, try right-clicking its shortcut and choosing “Open file location.” Then, just delete the shortcut in the File Explorer window that appears.

Add shortcuts for apps you use a lot to Pinned. You can also add shortcuts for the apps you use the most to the Pinned area in Start. The easiest way is to view the All apps list by clicking “All apps,” find the apps you wish to pin, and then right-click each in turn and choose “Pin to Start.” Once you have the app shortcuts you want in Pinned, you can drag and drop them to arrange them in the order you like.

You can also create folders in Pinned to organize shortcuts further: Just drag one app shortcut on top of another to get started.

Customize what appears in the Recommended section By default, the Recommended area is a curious mix of recently added apps and recently accessed documents and other files. But you can configure what displays here to some extent by toggling the “Show recently added apps” and “Show most used apps” options “On” or “Off.”

Again, we discuss Start customization more in the Start chapter.

End the nagging

Microsoft displays various nagging advertisements–what Microsoft calls “suggestions”–throughout Windows 11 in the form of banner notifications, in-line notifications in Start and Settings, and even full-screen experiences. But you don’t have to put up with these unnecessary distractions.

To disable this behavior, open Settings, navigate to System > Notifications, and then scroll down to the Additional settings section. Here, you will see three options to consider disabling: “Show the Windows welcome experience after updates and when signed in to show what’s new and suggested,” “Suggest ways to get the most out of Windows and finish setting up this device,” and “Get tips and suggestions when using Windows.” We recommend setting each to “Off.”

Update and configure the system

Windows 11 will keep itself up-to-date via automatic update downloads and installs, but it’s a good idea to get this process started and perform a few other related system maintenance tasks whenever you start using a PC or upgrade to the latest version of Windows 11.

Use Windows Update to get Windows 11 up-to-date

Check Windows Update–found in Settings (WINKEY + I) > Windows Update–for any software updates, rebooting as required, and rechecking until there are no more updates to install.

You can learn more about Windows Update and how it keeps Windows 11 up-to-date in the Windows Update chapter.

Run your PC maker’s support/driver update application

If you have just set up a new PC, check to see whether your PC maker provides a custom application–Dell Support Assist, HP Support Assistant, Lenovo Vantage, or similar–for delivering software and driver updates specific to your PC. After Windows Update is completely up-to-date, use this application to install any updates your PC maker provides as well.

If your PC uses an Intel microprocessor and your PC maker doesn’t supply its own software and driver updater, you may also want to install the Intel Driver & Support Assistant, which provides regular updates for Intel microprocessors and other chipsets.

Not sure what kind of microprocessor your PC uses? No worries, there are several ways to find out quickly. The easiest, perhaps, is to right-click the Start button in the Taskbar to open the Quick link menu, choose “System” and then view the “Device specifications” section in the About page that appears. The “Processor” entry there will identify your PC’s microprocessor, including the name of its maker, which will typically be AMD, Intel, or Qualcomm.

Create a recovery drive

Windows 11 includes built-in recovery tools, accessible in the Settings app and in a special boot environment called the Windows Recovery Environment. But because it’s possible that a future misconfiguration could make it impossible to boot the PC successfully, you should also have a way to run those recovery tools externally.

For this reason, Windows includes a utility that helps you make a USB-based recovery drive that you can use to boot your PC and fix problems. You can find this tool by searching for recovery drive with Search.

Because there is a better option, we recommend that you do not create a recovery drive. You should instead create USB-based Windows 11 installation media, a more versatile option that includes all the Windows 11 recovery tools and the latest version of Windows Setup, so you can easily reinstall Windows 11 if needed.

Like a recovery drive, Windows 11 installation media requires a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of storage.

We explain how to create this installation media in the Create Windows 11 Install Media chapter.

Configure Windows Hello and Presence sensing

If your PC is outfitted with a Windows Hello-compatible fingerprint reader or webcam, you can configure it to sign you into your Microsoft account using either of these biometric security features. This is quicker and more convenient than using a password or PIN. It’s also more secure.

To do so, open Settings and navigate to Accounts > Sign-in options. Here, you will see entries for Facial recognition (Windows Hello) and/or Fingerprint recognition (Windows Hello), depending on your PC.

Your PC may also ship with presence sensors that can detect when you or anyone else approaches or leaves the PC. If so, you can also configure the PC to optionally wake up when you approach–which makes Windows Hello facial recognition even more seamless–and dim the screen and go to sleep when you leave.

You also configure these features in the Settings app by navigating to System > Power & battery and expanding the “Screen, sleep, and hibernate” item under “Power.”

There, you might find three options, “Turn off my screen when I leave,” “Wake my device when I approach,” and “Dim my screen when I look away,” each of which open a separate Presence page in the Settings app with multiple settings for each when selected.

You can learn more about these features in Windows Hello, Presence Sensing, and Dynamic Lock.

Rename your PC

If you didn’t name your PC during the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE), Windows Setup will create a unique but nonsensical name–like DESKTOP-TAKKU2G or similar–for the PC for you. You should rename it now because you will see your PC’s name referenced by OneDrive and other Microsoft services on the web and elsewhere, and it’s helpful to know at a glance which PC they’re referring to.

You rename your PC with the Settings app. There are several locations to do so, but the most obvious is on the home page, right at the top. Just click the “Rename” link, provide a new name–perhaps Pauls-PC, Laptop, or whatever–in the dialog that appears, and click Next. You’ll be told you have to reboot the PC. Do so.

Sorry, you can’t use spaces or most special characters in the PC name. Someone please tell Microsoft it’s the 21st century.

Fix a new mouse cursor bug

Windows 11 version 24H2 introduces a curious bug in which the default mouse cursor visually disappears when you’re editing text anywhere in the system (as you might in Notepad). The problem is that the system is using the wrong default “i-beam” cursor in this situation.

To fix this, open the Settings app (by typing WINKEY + I) and navigate to Bluetooth & devices > Mouse. Then, click the item “Additional mouse settings” to open the legacy Mouse Properties control panel. Open this window’s Pointers pane and then locate and select the “Text Select” cursor in the list of cursors under “Customize.”

Click “Browse” to choose a different mouse cursor for “Text Select.” A Browse windows appears with the system Cursors folder displayed. Locate the cursor named “beam_r” in the list–this is the correct default cursor for this situation–select it, and click “Open.”

Then, you can close Mouse Properties and Settings.

Update and configure apps

Once the system is fully up-to-date and configured, you can turn your attention to the apps you will use. This includes in-box apps included with Windows 11 and those you download and install from the Microsoft Store and the web.

Update the in-box apps with the Microsoft Store

With the notable exception of Microsoft Edge, which provides its own updating mechanism, most of the Windows 11 in-box apps are updated through the Microsoft Store, and the system will automatically keep those apps up-to-date over time. But most of these apps will be out-of-date when you first set up Windows 11. So it’s worth manually updating them all this one time.

To do so, open the Microsoft Store app, select “Downloads” in the navigation pane on the left, and click the “Get updates” button. If there is an “Update all” link next to that button, click that too.

You can learn more about the Microsoft Store app in the Microsoft Store chapter.

Install the applications you need

While Windows 11 ships with a fairly robust selection of apps, everyone using this system relies on other apps, too, most of which aren’t made by Microsoft. These apps–the full versions of Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro, Google Chrome, Notion, and so many others–are typically downloaded from their respective websites and installed one by one as needed.

But you may not know that many of the apps you rely on can also be found in the Microsoft Store as well. And if you’ve purchased or downloaded those apps from the Store in the past, they will be available in your library so you can find them again more easily.

To find your previously purchased and downloaded Microsoft Store apps, open the Store app, click “Library” in the navigation pane, and click the “Apps” button to display only your apps. Then, click “Soft and filter” and ensure that “Sort by name” is selected and “Show installed products only” is deselected. There it is, your personal apps library.

You can also select “Games” to see just the games in your library.

Configure auto-start apps

Once you have installed all the apps you need–and have removed all those you do not–you should examine which of them are configured to run automatically at startup and make some decisions: Many apps configure themselves to auto-start every time you sign in to Windows, and if you don’t need them to do so, they will just take up system resources like microprocessor, RAM, and storage for no good reason.

There are a few places where you can configure this behavior, but the most obvious can be found in the Settings app by navigating to Apps > Startup.

You can sort this list by “Status” so you can more easily see which apps are starting up automatically, all next to each other (as above).

We discuss this process in more detail in the Apps Basics chapter.

More Windows 11 personalization and configuration tasks

Windows 11 offers many customization capabilities, so be sure to check out the Personalization section in the Settings app (WINKEY + I). But we cover many aspects of personalization throughout this book as well, including how you can customize your PC’s display(s), lock and sign-in screens, and privacy settings.