Saturday, July 10, 2021

Windows 11 - How to adjust Taskbar position

Hi Friends,

In the new edition of Microsoft Windows i.e. Windows 11, the taskbar along with start menu and search button has a new position i.e. in middle of the screen.

Taskbar in center

As per your preference, this might not be most desirable setting. However, Windows 11 currently provides you with choice to change it to left align or keeping it in centre.  

To do so, you can right click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.

Image showing the option to open Taskbar settings after right click on the taskbar

Clicking on the Taskbar settings opens corresponding Personalization settings in the settings app.

Image showing the Taskbar settings

Now scroll all the way down and expand the "Taskbar behaviours" setting by clicking on it. This has an option named as "Taskbar alignment" which comes with a drop-down menu.

Image showing "Taskbar alignment" options
Using this drop-down menu you can toggle between Left and Centre position of the Taskbar .
Image showing "Taskbar alignment" options

Once you select the "Left" position, the Taskbar will move to left position.

Image showing "Taskbar alignment" options with left selected

In case you want to revert back the Taskbar position back to centre, you can simply follow-up the same steps shown above to toggle to "Centre" position.

Please note that currently although it is not possible to move the taskbar to top or to left/right of screen, the feature is in high demand among the people who are testing the developer build of the Insider Preview of Windows 11. So, in future, we might be able to switch it to more locations.


Friday, July 9, 2021

Enabling TPM for Windows 11 on Dell laptop

Hello Friends,

As you all might be aware that Microsoft has announced its latest version of Windows i.e. Windows 11 during their recent event of 24th June,2021. 

This new version of Windows comes with lot of changes including a new look, a redesigned start menu, an easy to use settings app and new icons as well. 
Most importantly, Microsoft has build this new version with a focus on securing the Windows Platform. They have done this by introducing a mandatory requirement of having TPM 2.0 chip. Although, this could come as a setback for many of you, this has to be the way forward keeping in mind the recent exponential increase in cyber attacks. Specially, with a lot of people opting to "work from home" due to the covid-19 pandemic, this move of Microsoft is definitely going a lot of way towards building a secure environment.

So, how you can check if you are compatible with this new requirement from Microsoft for Windows 11 ? The easiest way to check it will be to open the run command by pressing the Windows button along with R ( Win + r ) and running the command tpm.msc. Please do note that executing this command would require elevated administrator rights.
Once, you run the command it will open the TPM module section of Windows management console and their you can easily see if the TPM chip is enabled or not along with the TPM version. 
In case, it shows a TPM module not detected screen, then also all hope is not lost as the TPM module could be set disabled via the BIOS or UEFI settings. To check this, simply reboot your laptop and press F2 function key to.enter the UEFI settings. From there look for either TPM or PTT in security settings, PTT is the intel format for the TPM. As per Dell knowledge base article , "Some Dell systems do not ship with a TPM(Trusted Platform Module) module, and instead, use PTT (Platform Trust Technology). PTT is a lower-cost solution that supports the same functions of the TPM. From an OS perspective, there is very little difference between how TPM and PTT interact with bit locker."
Under the PTT security settings,you can check if it is enabled or not. In case it is enabled, you will see the check box✅ against the PTT on.
If it is not selected then please do so to enable the TPM/PTT module .

Once, you have done this,once you login back to Windows 10, you can check the version of the TPM chip by re-running the tpm.msc command.

Once this is done, you have moved ahead one step towards installing/upgrading the Windows 11 on your machine.
 
Further reading ( External website Links ) :