Cure Your Windows 10 Scrolling Woes by Reversing the Touchpad | Dramel Notes

Have you ever switched to a new laptop and found that the touchpad scrolled in the opposite direction from what you’re used to? If you come from a Mac, you might find the way you scroll in Windows 10 just feels downright wrong.

You don’t need to suffer through a miserable existence of backwards scrolling, though. We are here to show you how to fix the problem and reverse it, leaving you with an overwhelming feeling of Windows 10 bliss!

First, you’ll need to launch a Run box by typing “Run” into Cortana. Enter Main.cpl, which will bring you to the Mouse Properties screen. You’re going to want to access the tab on the far right side of the screen. What it’s called will vary from computer to computer, but it will be something like Device Settings, Touchpad Settings, TouchPad, or ThinkPad.

On the bottom of that tab, click Settings. From there, look for an option labeled Scroll. It should say something like Switch Direction, Reverse Direction or Reverse Scrolling Direction. Remember, the exact options and wording will be slightly different depending on what company makes your computer, but the method to get this area remains the same. This only applies to Synaptics TouchPad, specifically.

In some cases, if you have a different type of touchpad, you won’t need to do this and instead you’ll be able to change the settings by just going to Settings, then Devices, followed by Mouse and Touchpad. Towards the bottom of the page is a tick box for Reverse Scrolling Direction.

Again, which method you use depends on your computer, but between the two, you’ll be able to get the direction you want.

Have you ever felt the misery of scrolling the wrong way? This can be terrible, we know. Share your horror stories in the comments!

Image Credit: goldyg via ShutterStock

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Never Lose Your Windows 10 Laptop Again With This One Feature | Dramel Notes

As part of the recent November Update to Windows 10, a new feature became available that lets you track your laptop wherever it goes. The next time you leave your laptop somewhere — or if someone steals it — you now have a way to get it back.

But before you can use it, you have to first enable it on your system.

Launch the Settings app by searching for it in the Start Menu, and once launched, navigate to the Update & Security section. There you’ll find a subsection called Find My Device. (If you don’t see it, make sure you’re on Windows 10 version 1511.)

There are two things you have to do:

1. Sign in with a Microsoft Account.
2. Turn on location settings.

With those two prerequisites fulfilled, you should be able to enable the Find My Device setting by clicking on Change. While enabled, this feature periodically reports your device location to Microsoft.

Finally, visit the My Microsoft Devices page to see the locations of all devices that have the Find My Device feature on.

Will you use this feature? Or is your privacy more important than the convenience? Let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Laptop Map by Georgejmclittle

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How to Choose Whether Your Function Keys are F1-F12 Keys or Special Keys | Dramel Notes

Modern laptop and desktop keyboards have a multi-purpose set of keys in the “function” row. These keys can perform special actions related to the audio volume, playback, and hardware features. They can also function as the classic F1-F12 keys — but not at the same time.

These keys will often perform special actions by default, but you may want to use them as standard F-keys — for example, for PC gaming. Rather than holding down the Fn key every time you press a key, you can choose what they do by default.

Toggle Fn Lock

This can often be toggled with an “Fn Lock” key, which functions like a Caps Lock key. Toggle the Fn Lock on and the keys will function as if you’re holding down the Fn key all the time, just as the Caps Lock key makes your letter keys function as if you’re holding down the Shift key all the time.

Depending on your keyboard, you may actually have a dedicated “Fn Lock” key. If you don’t, you may have to press the Fn key and then press an “Fn Lock” key to activate it. For example, on the keyboard below, the Fn Lock key appears as a secondary action on the Esc key. To enable it, we’d hold Fn and press the Esc key. To disable it, we’d hold Fn and press Esc again. It functions as a toggle just like Caps Lock does.

Some keyboards may use other combinations for Fn Lock. For example, on Microsoft’s’ Surface keyboards, you can toggle Fn Lock by holding the Fn Key and pressing Caps Lock.

Change an Option in the BIOS or UEFI Settings

Many laptops that ship with built-in keyboards often have an option for this in their BIOS or UEFI setup screen. Reboot the computer and press whatever key it asks you to press while it’s booting up to access this screen — often F2, Delete, or F10 — or use the new method to access UEFI firmware on Windows 8 and 10. If you’re not sure how to access this screen, perform a web search for the model of PC you have and “Access BIOS” or “access UEFI.” You could also just look in the PC’s manual. (If you built your own PC, look in the motherboard’s manual.)

Look for an option that controls this feature and you can change it. For example, we found this option under Advanced > Function Key Behavior on one modern Dell laptop.

Change the Option in a Control Panel

You may also see this option in various places throughout Windows. For example, if you’re using Windows in a Boot Camp configuration on a Mac, you can open the  Boot Camp configuration panel from your system tray and you’ll find this option named “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” under the Keyboard tab.

On Mac OS X, this option can be found in the System Preferences window. Click the Apple menu and select “System Preferences” to open it, click the “Keyboard” icon, and then click the “Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” option.

Dell inserts this option into the Windows Mobility Center, and some other PC manufacturers may also do this. To access it on Windows 10 or 8.1, right-click the Start button and select “Mobility Center.” On Windows 7, press Windows Key + X. You’ll see the option under “Fn Key Behavior.”

This option may also be available in a keyboard settings configuration tool installed by your computer manufacturer. You might find it in your system tray or Start menu, and it might offer a similar option for controlling this. It’s not standardized.

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In general, you can often change this setting right ont he keyboard itself via the Fn Lock key or a hidden Fn Lock shortcut. On many laptops, it’s available as an optoin in the BIOS or UEFI settings screen you can access during boot-up. If all else fails, dig through your keyboard-configuration panels in the operating system itself.

If you still can’t find the option, perform a web search for your manufacturer of laptop or keyboard and “fn lock” or something similar. The information you find online may point you in the right direction.

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How to Take Photos and Record Videos With Your Computer’s Webcam | Dramel Notes

 

Whether you have a laptop with an integrated camera or a webcam that plug in via USB, you can use the applications included modern operating systems to easily take photos and record videos. With Windows 10, this is now built into Windows and no longer requires third-party applications.

This sounds simple, but it’s actually been difficult in the past. To do this on Windows 7, you’ll need to either hunt down a third-party application or dig through your Start menu and look for a manufacturer-provided utility that will be different on different PCs.

Windows 10

Windows 10 includes a “Camera” app for this purpose. Tap the Windows key to open the Start menu, search for “Camera”, and launch it. You’ll also find it under the list of All Apps.

The camera app allows you to take photos and record videos. It also provides a timer feature and other options, although it’s still a fairly simple application.

Photos you take will be stored in the “Camera Roll” folder in your user account’s “Pictures” folder.

Windows 8 and 8.1

Windows 8 inludes a Camera app, too. Open the Start screen by tapping the Windows key and type “Camera” to search for it. Launch the Camera app and use it to record photos and take videos. It work similarly to Windows 10’s Camera app, and will save photos to the “Camera Roll” folder in your user account’s “Pictures” folder.

Windows 7

Windows 7 doesn’t provide a built-in way to do this. If you look through your Start menu, you might find some sort of webcam utility that came installed with your computer. That utility might provide a way to do this without installing any more software. Search for “webcam” or “camera” in your Start menu and you might find such a utility.

Mac OS X

You can do this with the “Photo Booth” application on a Mac. To open it, press Command+Space to open Spotlight search, type “Photo Booth”, and press Enter. You can also open Launchpad and click the “Photo Booth” icon, or open the Finder, click “Applications”, and double-click the “Photo Booth” application.

Use the icons at the bottom-left corner of photo booth to choose either a grid of four photo taken successively, a single photo, or a video. You can then click the red button in the middle of the Photo Booth window to take photos or record videos. The “Effects” button will let you apply filters to the photos and videos.

Photos you take will be stored in your Photo Booth Library, and you can also right-click (or Command-click) them in the Photo Booth window to export them and save them elsewhere.

Chrome OS

On a Chromebook, you’ll find a “Camera” app installed by default. Open the application launcher and search for “Camera” to find it. If you don’t see it, you can install it from the Chrome Web Store.

Like on other operating systems, the Camera app allows you to take photos and apply  filters to them. However, it doesn’t provide a way to record videos. Open the Chrome Web Store and look for another app if you want to record videos.

Photos are stored in the Camera app itself. You can open its gallery — click the button at the bottom-right corner of the Camera app — and you’ll be able to save photos from the gallery to your Chromebook’s local storage or your Google Drive account.

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Linux distributions also offer similar applications. For example, if you’re using the GNOME desktop, you may have the “Cheese” application installed. You can probably install this application from your Linux distribution’s package manager if you don’t. It provides an easy interface for taking photos and recording videos with your webcam.

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