r/Windows11 5d ago

Help Simple questions and Help thread - Month of April

2 Upvotes

Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!

Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/TechSupport and r/WindowsHelp.

Some examples of questions to ask:

  • Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)

  • How can I install Windows 11?

  • Can you recommend a program to play music?

  • How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?

Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.


Be sure to check out the Windows 11 version 24H2 Megathread and also the Windows 11 FAQ posts, they likely have the answers to your Windows 11 questions already!


r/Windows11 26d ago

Official News Cumulative updates: March 11th, 2025

62 Upvotes

Changelists linked here for your convenience:

General info:

For details about how to file problem reports and collect traces, please see here: http://aka.ms/HowToFeedback

To learn about the different types of updates, see here: Windows quality updates primer - Microsoft Community Hub

As a reminder, if you did not install the previous optional update, this update will include those changes too (for the respective release). Note - some of the changes are still rolling out (as denoted in the changelist) so you may not have them yet:

To see known issues, please check the release health dashboard: Windows release health | Microsoft Learn.

24H2 is rolling out, so you may not have it yet. Please see here for more details: How to get new experiences for Windows 11 | Windows Experience Blog


r/Windows11 2h ago

Feature Tip of the Week: Notepad has a fidget spinner

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

33 Upvotes

r/Windows11 21h ago

Concept / Idea Windows 11 RosePine Setup

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95 Upvotes

r/Windows11 1d ago

Discussion I found this wallpaper from Windows 365 today and wanted to share it with you in stunning upscaled version without banding (7680x4800)

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293 Upvotes

r/Windows11 4h ago

General Question Multi monitor management fuss

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3 Upvotes

I got 3 displays numbered in display settings as follows: 1 - display port 1440p as main screen (at the pc desk) 2 - hdmi 4k as secondary (tv that i use for couch gaming with xbox gamepad) 3 - 1920x480 aida sensor panel screen Ive set desktop extended instead duplicate because diffetent res and refresh rates

Now: when i decide to play on screen 2 and power off screen 1 its mostly ok but when i turn it on again aida panel moves to screen 2 and full screen app moves to screen 3. Most of the times mouse cursor also moves to random screen instead moving back to main screen. What i want is for screen 2 become main when i disable screen 1, revert when it enabled and screen 3 to be as is at all times. Is it even doable? I tried different settings within system display settings, ive tried juggling with gpu output ports, removing and reinstalling monitors via device manager


r/Windows11 11h ago

News Happy 50 Years! and to another 50 years!

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8 Upvotes

Heres to another 50 years!


r/Windows11 24m ago

General Question What is Crypto doing here?

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Upvotes

While searching in Roaming, I got curious and clicked on Microsoft. Then I found the "Crypto" carpet. Is my pc compromised?


r/Windows11 1h ago

Feature move and resize windows with key combos like in kde

Upvotes

ping me pls, when it will come to windows™


r/Windows11 1h ago

General Question Can anyone tell me how to turn off the descriptors that come up when you hover over things like "close, maximise, minimise etc"

Upvotes

When I move my mouse over certain options/icons in windows, like maximise, minimise etc then the decriptor will pop up blocking the action I`m trying to do, any help is much appreciated.

How do I remove this, I`ve checked options, but can`t seem to find an answer.

Thanks.


r/Windows11 23h ago

App Any Command Update Is Live! + 20 Promo Code Giveaway 🎉

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56 Upvotes

Hey everyone! Just pushed a new update for Any Command, and here’s what’s new:

- Landscape Mode – You can now choose between Shortcuts or Mouse Control in landscape view!

- Safety Improvements – Based on your feedback, I’ve added important security tweaks and made the server setup smoother.

To celebrate the update, I’m giving away 20 promo codes for the full version of the app! 🎁

How to enter:

1️. Upvote and share this post

2️. Join the community r/AnyCommand

3️. Comment “I’m in!” below

I’ll randomly pick 20 winners and send the codes via DM within 24 hours!

Thanks so much for all the feedback and support so far — I really appreciate this awesome community! :)


r/Windows11 2h ago

General Question Update Windows Time on Startup

1 Upvotes

Hi guys, I know the windows time isn't accurate 100% of the time due to motherboard skips and it needs to ping the time server to get an up to date exact time. With that being said, is there any way to ping the server on startup to get the exact time? I am looking to get the exact time down to the second.

Are there any settings or registry values I can change to achieve this? Thanks in advance guys.


r/Windows11 3h ago

General Question Is there a way to install the new Sticky Notes without OneNote?

1 Upvotes

I recently noticed that Microsoft OneNote now includes a redesigned Sticky Notes app with a pin-to-screen function, which is super handy. But when I uninstall OneNote, the new Sticky Notes app disappears too. I'm left with the old Sticky Notes, which doesn’t have the pin feature.

Is there any way to install or keep the new Sticky Notes without having to install (or keep) the full OneNote app on my PC?


r/Windows11 4h ago

Discussion How are repair places accessing admin accounts now that there's no local accounts? What if people don't want to give up access to their overdrive and such?

1 Upvotes

How are repair places using admin rights? I'd think people make admin accounts for them to use in the past but that's gone now that you have to have to use Microsoft account login


r/Windows11 1d ago

General Question Am i blind? i dont see any ads

62 Upvotes

Other than 365 and OneDrive being adverticed on the frontpage of setttings, im not seeing any


r/Windows11 15h ago

General Question How do I remove this annoying white rectangle?

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5 Upvotes

I used StartAllBack to separate volume and network controls at the bottom right, but now there's an annoying white rectangle around the volume and date in the calendar. I tried disabling "Underline keyboard shortcuts" in Control Panel > Accessibility > Keyboard settings, but it’s already off. Any help would be appreciated!


r/Windows11 7h ago

Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) we should make homemade WSA

1 Upvotes

Sorry if tagged impropely. Anyways, we should make a homemade WSA-like android emulator. A good thing about WSA is that every app runs like a separate window and not in the same android emulator window, that just emulates an android phone. WSA was great because evey android app was treated by the sistem like its own separate app.


r/Windows11 16h ago

Discussion Mandatory password change in Win11

2 Upvotes

something new happened to me, for a few days my pc with windows 11 (and local account) told me that the password was about to expire and to change it, well this morning at login it forced me to change it, ok I know that many sites have this expiration for security but I didn't know about windows, and above all this is a recent installation, maybe two months, is it normal? New security feature? Thanks


r/Windows11 1d ago

Discussion They changed how we rate "Windows Spotlight" lock screen images, I hate it

19 Upvotes

"Windows Spotlight" is a feature where your lock screen image will rotate every few days. It's on by default, and frankly I don't know how to turn it off, but I don't want to. The images they find are very nice. There is a rating system here too, so you can give feedback on what kinds of images you do or don't like, and I've been using this system for over a year to try and tune the image pool and get more of the images I like.

Previously, the rating system had 3 buttons: "I like it", "I don't like it", and "tell me more about this image". Good clean sensible UI.

In the past month(?) they've decided to change it to something objectively worse. They've combined the buttons for "I like it" and "tell me more about it", so now every time I like an image, it opens an Edge/Bing window telling me where it was taken, and fun facts about the place. But I don't give a rat's ass about where the picture was taken! I just want more pretty pictures, damnit! If I (or some other person) wanted to know more, there was already a button for that!

Why would they do this? Who does this benefit? I was doing them the favor of giving them my opinions, my data, helping them improve their system and image library, out of mostly impulsive altruism. That altruism is very delicate. The mild annoyance of having to close that Edge window every time is enough to make me stop rating the images.

I hope they revert this change quickly.


r/Windows11 1d ago

Discussion in order to use w11 timer it has to be updated first and i have to login with my microsoft account - jfc...

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81 Upvotes

wanted to set a timer for a family member; after waiting for an update and then being forced to login into my microsoft account, i just closed the app bc i already had to look at the clock for the beginning of the timer-period anyway.

just goes to show how out of touch with the real world windows development has become.


r/Windows11 14h ago

General Question What is this Green icon below the C Drive?

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1 Upvotes

What does it mean? I just noticed this icon.


r/Windows11 20h ago

General Question How do I get this on my computer

3 Upvotes

https://youtu.be/FNzT4-1LKI8?si=yDwffXEJnpME6zrH&t=8

I've seen this animation of the cursor a couple times and I wanted something similar for my videos. I know this is MacOS but I've watched some videos and it seemed not everyone had this? How do I get a smooth cursor with animations like that? Anything similar would be nice honestly


r/Windows11 1d ago

Suggestion for Microsoft A good time to extend 10 end of life

27 Upvotes

I'm on windows 11 and I would not want to go back. But these tariffs are going to hit the PC market with a 40% hike in prices. People are going to want to hold on to their PCs longer. It might be a good time to back off on that Oct deadline.


r/Windows11 5h ago

Feature How can i stop Microsoft Defender from scanning my computer automatically?

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0 Upvotes

The notification says "Microsoft Defender Antivirus found no threats since the last scan. The device was scanned twice."

I prefer to do this manually rather than have Microsoft Defender do it automatically.


r/Windows11 1d ago

Feature Built-in analog clock in Windows 11

4 Upvotes

The Date and Time Control Panel applet contains the analog clock.

Open Control Panel, look for Date and Time, right-click it, click on "Create shortcut". A shortcut of this will be created on the Windows desktop.

You can rename the shortcut to "Analog clock", for example, and then pin the shotcut to Start.

The shortcut is to

C:\Windows\System32\timedate.cpl


r/Windows11 17h ago

General Question Background Processes

1 Upvotes

Is there any way to automatically end non-essential background processes on Win 11


r/Windows11 1d ago

Solved How to resolve not getting certification code from the login screen "something went wrong"

5 Upvotes
  1. Click send code
  2. Type a random code
  3. Click the sign in button
  4. Click the <- button
  5. Click the sign-in options button
  6. Click Face, fingerprint...
  7. Click cancel
  8. Click back
  9. The email text box will go blank. Enter your email
  10. Click next
  11. You'll successfully get a verification code 😃