From the course: Windows 11: Administration

Overview of the settings interface - Windows Tutorial

From the course: Windows 11: Administration

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Overview of the settings interface

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- [Male Instructor] In this section, we're going to talk about the settings interface in Windows 11. There's a few different ways to get to this interface. The first one is off the Start menu. I can click on the gear icon and go to Settings. That'll pull up the System settings, but also give me a menu on the left-hand side to look at other settings. I can also get to that exact interface a different way. Typically, off the Start menu, I just type in settings and that'll give me the option for the Settings app, which takes me to the exact same place I was before. The third way to get to some of these settings is, off the Start menu, type in a phrase that deals with the specific setting we're looking for. For example, storage. So if I type in storage, it gives me the option to go specifically to the Storage Settings. And when I click on that, I get into the settings interface, but not the top-level System page I was at before. Instead, it took me deeper into the settings. So again, off the Start menu, click on the gear icon. That takes me to the top level of the Settings interface. In here, we can administer a wide variety of items dealing with the configuration of the PC, and although the interface is different, the functionality is very similar to Control Panels. Remember, we had Control Panels in Windows 7 and Windows 8. Actually, those Control Panels still exist in Windows 11, and here in the search box, if I type in control panel, I will be given an option where I can go to Control Panels. Very similar to what we had in Windows 7 and Windows 8. But in Windows 11, we prefer to use the Settings area. It has a few additional features, and according to Microsoft, it's easier to use. So for each of these top-level items down the left-hand menu, I can click on one, for example, Network and Internet, and it'll take me to an interface that provides more detail. Most of the interfaces are very similar, with a left-hand menu that allows me to select subcategories, and a right-hand panel where we perform most of our actions. Many of these items on the right can be expanded down further to give us additional information and expose additional controls. One thing you may not notice at first in the very upper-left-hand corner, there is a back button. So right now I'm in Network and Internet and the subsection of ethernet. If I click back, I go back up to Network and Internet. If I click back again, I go to the top-level System. So upper-left-hand corner, there's a little arrow pointed to the left, and that will take us back, or one level higher. In the upcoming sections, I'll be looking at some areas of Windows settings that do some interesting things. And really, throughout the course, we're going to be going back and forth with various options in the Windows Setting app.

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