Windows Blog by Brink – Tutorials for Windows

Enable and Disable Services in Windows 11

Services are an application type that runs in the system background without a user interface. Services provide core operating system features (such as printing, networking, remote access, File Explorer, Windows Search, updates, etc.) and apps to operate as intended.

Usually, Windows does a great job of automatically managing services, but sometimes you may need to manually enable or disable a service on demand.

  • If you disable a service, any dependent services are also affected. Enabling a service does not automatically restart its dependent services.
  • Changing the default service settings may prevent key services from running correctly. It is especially important to use caution when changing the Startup type setting of services that are configured to start automatically.

Startup Type for services

  • Automatic – A service in this state will start at boot time. Some services, when no longer required, will also automatically stop when not needed. If you find you do not need a service, place it into Manual or Disabled.
  • Automatic (Delayed Start) – A service in this state will start just after boot time. Some services, when no longer required, will also automatically stop when not needed. If you find you do not need a service, place it into Manual or Disabled.
  • Automatic (Delayed Start, Trigger Start) – A service in this state will start just after boot when specifically called.
  • Manual (Trigger Start) – This is a version of Manual mode that allows Windows to start a service when specifically called and Microsoft’s answer to “too many services running all the time”.
  • Manual – Manual mode allows Windows to start a service when needed. However, very few services will start up when required in Manual mode. If you find you need a service, place it into Automatic.
  • Disabled – This setting will stop a service from starting, even if needed. Errors in the Event Viewer will show up complaining of that fact. Some services, while Disabled, will constantly complain. However, this situation is taken care of if placed in Manual. The service descriptions identifies those that should be in Manual vice Disabled.

This tutorial will show you how to enable and disable services in Windows 11.

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Change Copy Name Extension in Windows 11

When you copy a file or folder to the same location, a copy of that file or folder will be created with the – Copy extension added at the end of the filename by default.

This tutorial will show you how to change the default Copy name extension template to what you want for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Change Default New Folder Name in Windows 11

A folder is a location where you can store your files. You can create any number of folders and even store folders inside other folders (subfolders).

When you create a new folder, it is named New folder by default.

This tutorial will show you how to change the default New folder name template to create new folders with a custom name by default for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Add or Remove Duplicate Drives in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11

Removable drives are shown as separate groups in the navigation pane of File Explorer by default in addition to being shown under the This PC group in the navigation pane.

OS drives and fixed drives (ex: internal drives) will only be shown under This PC, and not separately in the navigation pane.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the drives showing twice in the navigation pane of File Explorer for all users in Windows 11.

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Change Shortcut Name Extension in Windows 11

When you right click or press and hold on a file, folder, or drive and click tap on either Show more options > Create shortcut or Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut), a shortcut to that file, folder or drive will be created with the – Shortcut extension added at the end of the filename by default.

This tutorial will show you how to change the – Shortcut extension being added to the filename of newly created shortcuts for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Change Default Location in Windows 11

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

Location services is a device-wide setting that can be controlled by the device administrator. When turned on, it enables certain Windows features—such as auto-setting the time zone or Find my device—to function properly. When this location setting is enabled, the Microsoft location service will use a combination of global positioning service (GPS), nearby wireless access points, cell towers, and your IP address (or default location) to determine your device’s location. Depending on the capabilities of your device, your device’s location can be determined with varying degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be determined precisely.

You can set a default location for your device that Windows, apps, and services can use when a more exact location can’t be detected using GPS or other methods.

This tutorial will show you how to change the default location for your Windows 11 device for your account.

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Clear Default Location in Windows 11

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

Location services is a device-wide setting that can be controlled by the device administrator. When turned on, it enables certain Windows features—such as auto-setting the time zone or Find my device—to function properly. When this location setting is enabled, the Microsoft location service will use a combination of global positioning service (GPS), nearby wireless access points, cell towers, and your IP address (or default location) to determine your device’s location. Depending on the capabilities of your device, your device’s location can be determined with varying degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be determined precisely.

You can set a default location for your device that Windows, apps, and services can use when a more exact location can’t be detected using GPS or other methods.

This tutorial will show you how to clear the default location for your Windows 11 device for your account.

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Set Default Location in Windows 11

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

Location services is a device-wide setting that can be controlled by the device administrator. When turned on, it enables certain Windows features—such as auto-setting the time zone or Find my device—to function properly. When this location setting is enabled, the Microsoft location service will use a combination of global positioning service (GPS), nearby wireless access points, cell towers, and your IP address (or default location) to determine your device’s location. Depending on the capabilities of your device, your device’s location can be determined with varying degrees of accuracy and may in some cases be determined precisely.

You can set a default location for your device that Windows, apps, and services can use when a more exact location can’t be detected using GPS or other methods.

This tutorial will show you how to set a default location for your Windows 11 device for your account.

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Clear Location History from Windows 11 Device

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

When location services is turned on, each user on the device can allow apps to use their device’s location and location history to deliver location-aware services as precisely as the device supports. If you grant a specific app access to your device’s location on the settings page, that app will have access to precise location information. Otherwise the location information provided to the app has lower accuracy. When your location is used by a location-aware app or Windows service or feature, your location information and recent location history are stored on your device.

Locations looked up by apps or services will be stored and available on the device for a limited time (24 hours), then deleted.

This tutorial will show you how to clear your device location history on demand for your account in Windows 11.

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Turn On or Off Let Apps Access Location in Windows 11

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Let apps access your location for your account Windows 11.

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Posted in Windows 11 | Tagged

Enable or Disable Location Services in Windows 11

Microsoft operates a location service that helps determine the precise geographic location of your Windows device. The precise location of your device allows apps to give you directions, show shops and restaurants that are near you, and more.

Many apps and services request location information from your device, and the Windows location service gives you control over which apps are allowed to access your precise location.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable location services for all users on your Windows 11 device.

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Compare Windows 11 Editions

This tutorial will show you a comparison of available features between Windows 11 editions to help find out which Windows is right for you.

Windows 11 Home
The best Windows ever keeps getting better, offering home users, students, and gamers a calm, creative space to think, express, and create.

Windows 11 Pro
Designed for the hybrid workplace, Windows 11 Pro has the business and management features your team needs to work more efficiently, seamlessly, and securely almost anywhere.

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
Designed for people with advanced workloads and data needs such as data scientists, CAD professionals, researchers, media production teams, graphic designers, and animators.

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Add or Remove Search Index Locations in Windows 11

Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected locations[/B] by default. These locations can be filtered for what file types (extensions), file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

  • Classic = Search only you Documents, Pictures, and Music folders plus the desktop.
  • Enhanced = Search your entire PC (may affect battery life and CPU consumption). PC must be plugged in for initial indexing.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove locations to be excluded or included in the search index in Windows 11.

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Turn On or Off Respect Power Settings when Indexing in Windows 11

Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected locations by default. These locations can be filtered for what file types (extensions), file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

Respect power settings when indexing can change how and when search indexing happens based on power and battery settings. This can be handy to help save battery life.

If you turn on Respect power settings when indexing, search indexing stops searching and updating the database with new information in the background or throttle it down during certain times. For instance, when the PC is in battery saver mode, best power efficiency power mode, or game mode. Or when the processor usage peaks 80 percent, or disk usage goes up above 70 percent.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Respect power settings when indexing for all users in Windows 11.

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Reset and Rebuild Search Index in Windows 11

Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected locations by default. These locations can be filtered for what file types (extensions), file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

The index uses the Windows Search service and runs as the Searchindexer.exe process in the background. The index will automatically rebuild and update for changes made to the included locations since the last index rebuild to increase search result accuracy.

By default, the search indexer backoff feature will reduce indexing speed while rebuilding the index when there is user activity, and will automatically continue at full speed when no user activity is detected.

If you are getting search results that are missing, no longer valid, or incorrect, then the search index may not be up to date. You can rebuild the index to force it to update now. You can also reset search index locations to default before rebuilding the search index.

This tutorial will show you how to manually reset and rebuild the search index for accurate search results in Windows 11.

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Enable or Disable Search Indexing in Windows 11

Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected locations by default. These locations can be filtered for what file types (extensions), file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

The index uses the Windows Search service and runs as the Searchindexer.exe process in the background. The index will automatically rebuild and update for changes made to the included locations since the last index rebuild to increase search result accuracy.

By default, the search indexer backoff feature will reduce indexing speed while rebuilding the index when there is user activity, and will automatically continue at full speed when no user activity is detected.

If you prefer to search without using the index, then you could completely disable search indexing. If you disable search indexing, searches will take longer to finish, but search results will always be up to date and accurate.

If you do a lot of file content searching, then you may not want to disable search indexing since it will take a lot longer to search file contents without the index.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable search indexing for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Posted in Search, Windows 10, Windows 11

Turn On or Off Enhanced Mode for Search Indexer in Windows 11

Indexing the content of your PC helps you get faster results when your searching it for files, emails, or other local content.

The search index only includes your selected locations by default. These locations can be filtered for what file types (extensions), file properties, and file contents you want indexed.

You can choose to use Classic or Enhanced search indexing mode for where your PC will search for files.

  • Classic = Search only you Documents, Pictures, and Music folders plus the desktop.
  • Enhanced = Search your entire PC (may affect battery life and CPU consumption). PC must be plugged in for initial indexing.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off Enhanced mode for search indexer for all users in Windows 11.

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Posted in Search, Windows 11

Add Install CAB Context Menu in Windows 11

A cabinet is a single file, usually with a .cab extension, that stores compressed files in a file library. The cabinet format is an efficient way to package multiple files because compression is performed across file boundaries, which significantly improves the compression ratio.

You can use the DISM /Add-Package command with Windows cabinet (.cab) files to install or remove updates, service packs, language packs, and to enable or disable Windows features.

This DISM command can be used to make installing a Windows Update CAB file easy with a single click in the CAB file context menu.

This tutorial will show you how to add Install to the context menu of .cab files for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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Change Default Drag and Drop Action in Windows 11

When you drag and drop files and folders in Windows, they will get moved or copied by default based on the source and destination locations.

  • If you drag and drop a file/folder from a location on one drive to another drive, then the default action will be to copy the file/folder to the drop location.
  • If you drag and drop a file/folder from a local location to a network location, then the default action will be to copy the file/folder to the drop location.
  • If you drag and drop a file/folder from or to a CD/DVD or Blu-ray, then the default action will always be to copy the file/folder to the drop location. This cannot be changed.
  • If you drag and drop a file/folder from a location to another on the same drive, then the default action will be to move the file/folder to the drop location.
  • If you drag and drop a file/folder to the Recycle Bin, then the default action will always be to move the file/folder to the drop location. This cannot be changed.

You can also use any of the keyboard shortcuts below to temporarily change the default drag and drop action for this instance.

  • Press and hold the Ctrl key while you drag and drop to always copy.
  • Press and hold the Shift key while you drag and drop to always move.
  • Press and hold the Alt or Ctrl + Shift keys while you drag and drop to always create a shortcut.

This tutorial will show you how to change the default drag and drop action to always copy, move, or create shortcut for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

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