Windows has dozens of built-in features that most people never touch. Not because they're hidden, but because nobody told them they exist. Here are ten that will actually save you time — no third-party apps required (well, mostly).
1. Clipboard History
You copy something. Then you copy something else. The first thing is gone. We've all been there.
Press Win+V to open Clipboard History. It keeps a running list of everything you've copied — text, images, links. You can scroll back and paste any of them. You can also pin items you use often, like your email address or a frequently used snippet.
To enable it: Settings → System → Clipboard → Clipboard history → On.
Once you start using this, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.
2. Snap Layouts
Dragging windows around to tile them side by side is fine. But there's a faster way.
Hover over the maximize button of any window (or press Win+Z), and you'll see Snap Layouts — a set of preset arrangements for your screen. Pick one, and Windows will guide you through filling each zone with a different app.
On a wide monitor, the three-column layout is especially useful: browser on the left, document in the middle, chat on the right. No more alt-tabbing back and forth.
3. Virtual Desktops
If your taskbar looks like a parking lot, Virtual Desktops can help.
Press Win+Ctrl+D to create a new desktop. Use Win+Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow to switch between them. You can keep work apps on one desktop, personal stuff on another, and a research project on a third.
To see all your desktops at once, press Win+Tab. From there you can drag windows between desktops, rename them, and close the ones you don't need.
It's like having multiple monitors — without the monitors.
4. Focus Assist (Do Not Disturb)
Notifications are the enemy of deep work. A Teams ping here, an email alert there, and suddenly you've lost 20 minutes.
Open Settings → System → Focus (called "Focus Assist" in Windows 10). You can set it to block all notifications, or only allow priority ones. You can also schedule it automatically — for example, every day from 9 to 12 AM.
In Windows 11, you can also start a Focus session directly from the clock area in the taskbar. It pairs with the Clock app's timer so you can do proper Pomodoro-style work blocks.
5. Quick Settings and Shortcuts You Should Actually Know
Press Win+A to open Quick Settings — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Night Light, volume, and more, all in one panel. It's much faster than digging through Settings every time.
A few more worth memorizing:
- Win+Shift+S — Screenshot tool. Select a region, window, or full screen. The screenshot goes straight to your clipboard.
- Win+. (period) — Emoji picker. Also has GIFs, kaomoji, and symbols.
- Win+L — Lock your PC instantly. Get in this habit.
- Win+E — Open File Explorer.
These aren't fancy. But using them consistently shaves seconds off every task, and seconds add up.
6. PowerToys
PowerToys is a free Microsoft utility pack that adds features Windows probably should have had all along. You install it once from the Microsoft Store and get access to a whole set of tools.
The highlights:
- FancyZones — like Snap Layouts, but customizable. Create your own window grid.
- PowerToys Run (Alt+Space) — a fast app launcher, similar to Spotlight on Mac. Type an app name, a calculation, or a file name, and it finds it instantly.
- Text Extractor — OCR. Select a region of your screen and it extracts the text. Handy when you need to copy text from an image or a video.
- File Locksmith — right-click a file to see which process is using it when you can't delete or move it.
There's more (Color Picker, Image Resizer, Keyboard Manager), but those four alone are worth the install.
7. God Mode
This one sounds ridiculous, but it's real. Create a new folder on your desktop and name it:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
The folder icon changes, and when you open it, you get a flat list of every single Control Panel setting in one place — over 200 of them. No more hunting through nested menus to find that one display setting or power option.
It's been in Windows since Vista and Microsoft never removed it.
8. Startup Apps Management
Your PC boots slowly? It's probably because 15 apps are launching at startup and you only need 3 of them.
Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, then click the Startup apps tab. You'll see every app that runs at boot, along with its impact on startup time. Right-click anything you don't need immediately and disable it.
Spotify, Discord, Adobe updaters, OneDrive — most of these can wait until you actually open them. You'll notice the difference on your next restart.
9. File Explorer Tabs and Quick Access
Windows 11 added tabs to File Explorer. Press Ctrl+T to open a new tab, just like in a browser. No more opening five separate Explorer windows.
Also, take five minutes to customize your Quick Access sidebar. Pin the folders you use most — your project folder, Downloads, shared drives. Remove the ones you don't. Right-click any folder in Explorer and select "Pin to Quick Access."
Small setup, big payoff. You shouldn't have to click through six folders to reach something you open every day.
10. Use AI Where You Write
You've optimized your window layouts, tamed your notifications, and streamlined your startup. But there's one time sink that no Windows setting can fix: writing.
Drafting emails, polishing Slack messages, rewriting a paragraph for the third time — it all adds up. And switching to a browser to paste text into ChatGPT breaks your flow every time.
Schriftly is a desktop app that works directly inside whatever app you're already using. Select a rough sentence in Teams, Outlook, or any other program, press Ctrl+Shift+G, and the text is fixed instantly — grammar corrected, phrasing cleaned up, tone adjusted. No copy-pasting, no tab switching.
It runs on Windows and macOS, and you can either bring your own API key ($39 one-time) or use the hosted plan ($9/month).
If you spend any meaningful amount of your day writing — and most of us do — this one pays for itself fast.