How to Change the Default File Name Used When Saving Word Documents

When saving a file for the first time, you may have noticed Word suggesting a file name to you in the “Save As” dialog box. This file name is typically taken from the first paragraph in your document. However, this is actually Word’s second choice for suggested file names.

If you’ve set the “Title” property for the document, Word uses that as the suggested file name when you first save the document. For example, we set the “Title” property for this article to the title of the article.

When we save the article the first time (press “Ctrl + S” and select a location or click “Browse” on the “Save As” screen), that “Title” property is entered in as the file name in the “File name” edit box on the “Save As” dialog box.

NOTE: You do not need to add the file extension (.docx) to the “Title”. Word automatically adds that to every file name.If you want the same default file name to be used for all documents of a specific type, you can create a template for use with those documents and set the “Title” property in the template.

When you create a new document with that template attached…

…and you save the document for the first time, the text you entered into the “Title” property is entered as the default file name in the “File name” edit box on the “Save As” dialog box.

You can simply add to or change the file name for each document when you save it.

NOTE: If your document does not have any text in it and you haven’t set the “Title” property, Word inserts “DocX.docx” as the file name, where the “X” is a number that depends on how many new documents you have created during your current Word session. This number is set back to “1” after you close all open Word documents.

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How to Set Your Default Apps in Windows 10

The Default Apps setting is not exclusively new to Windows 10 but, much like many of the other Control Panel staples of previous versions, Microsoft has worked in an almost total rehaul of the old system in favor of something a little more streamlined and a lot more functional.

Here’s how to configure which programs open which files, links, and protocols in the Windows 10 OS.

Entering Settings

The first step to getting your default applications configured properly is to enter the Settings app through the revamped Start Menu.

In Settings, click on the “System” icon, and scroll down to “Default Apps” in the left-hand side menu.

Configure Stock Default Apps

On the splash page of the Default Apps section, you’ll see several different applications which have already been pre-selected to automatically use integrated Windows applications for seven of the main activities you’ll participate in while using the OS. At stock config, any email links clicked on or offline will launch using the default Windows Mail app, web links will open in Microsoft’s new web browser Edge, photos will be routed through the internal Photo Viewer, movies and video files will open in the Video Player app, and Map requests will automatically route to Bing Maps (from within a new tab of Edge).

The only command left up to you by default is Calendar links, which can be tied to your email provider or a third-party scheduling application that’s been installed at a later date.

Though these are the original options you’ll find on a fresh install of Default Apps, you can always use the following options to customize exactly how Windows 10 will handle different requests based on the file type, the program, or an underlying launch protocol.

Choose Default Apps by File Type

Overall, how you choose to organize your app commands is a matter of personal preference, but certain options such as “Default Apps by File Type” can usually tend to be a bit easier to manage for the average everyday user.

To choose which apps launch which types of media or link by the type of file, select the “Choose Default Apps by File Type” option. Here you’ll be greeted by a two-tiered menu, the first containing every file type that Windows 10 is designed to handle, and the second with the list of apps you currently have installed on the machine.

Say for example you want to launch .mkv files in Windows Media Player rather than the in-house Movies app. To change this, just scroll down to “.mkv” on the left, and once selected, choose the corresponding application on the right that you’d like to set as the default.

And that’s it! In theory you could customize all the possible app combinations from this section alone, but in case you prefer a different system of app management, Microsoft has included two other pathways to keeping your default launch instructions in check.

Manage Launch Options by Protocol

Back in the Default Apps section, you’ll find a second section directly underneath the first option, labeled “Choose default apps by protocol”.

In this section, you’ll find a greater level of control over exactly how your computer handles specific requests from global programs and networked devices like Xboxes, remote desktops, and external email clients.

In general, the types of options included here are commands that you would want routed to Windows applications anyway, unless you have a specific need for URL links to launch in separate programs. Examples of protocol configurations include actions like a specific keyboard command launching into the Windows Search feature, links that contain content from MSN channeling into Windows apps, or .zip files being extracted via the stock archive reader instead of third-party software like WinRar or 7Zip.

Last, But Not Least

Finally, if all these new app settings are a little too jarring for you and you’d rather manage your default apps the old fashioned way, Microsoft has been kind enough to still include the original Windows 7/8 configuration interface for anyone who prefers to keep it old school.

“Set defaults by app” is the last, but also most extensive method of managing which files are handled by the apps installed on your computer. Here you’ll find a familiar face with the list of programs available on your machine pinned to the left, and the list of various commands that will open them individually buried under the “Choose defaults for this program” button.

If you want to make things easy, all you’ll need to do is click “Set this program as default”, after which Windows will automatically set that program as the go-to for any protocols, links, or files it’s designed to open on its own. I.e- Microsoft Edge will swoop up any HTTP links, FTP commands, or attached PDFs.

If you want to dig in and get more particular about these commands, you can click the “Choose defaults for this program” option, which will take you to this prompt:

Here you’ll find a list of all the protocols and extensions that the app has been coded to recognize on its own. As an example, you can see below that the Edge browser is already set to look out for any links that contain the HTTP or HTTPS protocol, as well as files ending in .htm or .html. You’re free to pick and choose from these at your own discretion, in case you have multiple web applications that you’d like to spread responsibility around to based on personal preference or daily working requirements.

Reset Default Apps

And as always, if your configurations get a bit too convoluted or you just want to send your account back into the same state as it was when you first booted up, resetting any changes is a quick and painless operation.

In the main Default Apps window, scroll down to the bottom of the sub-menu, and find the “Reset to Microsoft recommended defaults” option. Click the Reset button, and any alterations you’ve made to the options above will be undone in an instant.

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Microsoft has made a lot of changes to the way we manage our applications for the release of Windows 10, but thankfully there isn’t anything too confusing about making sure that your files open flawlessly in the programs you want them to every single time.

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How to Hide or Delete the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 7, 8, or 10

I’ve never found the recycle bin on the desktop very useful, so I almost always disable it as one of the first things that I do. The only problem is that every new version of Windows makes it take more steps to get rid of it, and Windows 10 is even more confusing than the rest. Here’s how to hide it in any version of Windows.

Why they couldn’t let people just right-click and choose Delete like they did back in Vista I’ll never know.

Deleting the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 10

Unfortunately Windows 10 makes getting rid of that Recycle Bin a lot more confusing for the average user — in fact, they’ve changed the location of the screen entirely. Thankfully we’ve figured it out for you.

First, right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize.

Now select Themes on the left-hand menu, and then once you are there, you can select Desktop icon settings under the “Related Settings” section.

And now you can uncheck the box for Recycle Bin and then click Apply at the bottom of the window to finally hide that Recycle Bin icon.

Alternatively you can just hide all of your desktop icons by right-clicking on the desktop and clicking View -> Show desktop icons.

Deleting the Recycle Bin from Windows 7 or Windows 8

Right-click on the desktop, choose Personalize, then choose Desktop Icon settings on the left-hand side.

Then simply remove the check from the box:

Note that you can also configure this from the Desktop Icon Settings in Personalization.

Deleting in Vista

Just right-click on the icon and select delete from the menu. It’s as simple as that.

If you’ve removed or lost system icons on your desktop, you can restore them easily.

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How to Hide or Delete the Recycle Bin Icon in Windows 7, 8, or 10

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How to Get the Page Counts for Multiple Word Documents at Once

Finding out how many pages are in a Word document is really easy when the document is open. However, what if you have a lot of documents in one folder for which you want to find out page counts? This is easily done in Windows.

Because this is done in Windows, close all open Word files. Open a File Explorer window (Windows 8 and 10) or a Windows Explorer window (Windows 7). If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, click the “View” tab on the ribbon.

NOTE: The “View” tab is available whether the ribbon is visible or hidden.

In the “Layout” section of the “View” tab, click “Details”.

NOTE: If you’re using Windows 7, click the “More options” down arrow button (right next to the “Change your view” button) and select “Details” from the popup menu.

Right-click on the headings bar in the file list pane. A popup menu displays listing information that can be displayed in columns on the Explorer window and two options that allow you to size columns to fit the content in them. Select “More” from the popup menu.

On the “Choose Details” dialog box, find “Pages” in the “Details” list and select the check box next to “Pages” so there is a check mark in the box. Click “OK”.

The “Pages” column is added to the far right of the current columns. The number of pages in each document displays.

NOTE: If there are any files, such as text files or graphic files, which do not have page counts, the “Pages” column is blank for those files.

Turning on the “Pages” column only affects the current folder. If you’re using Windows 8 or 10, and you want the “Pages” column available for any other folder you open, click the “View” tab again and click the bottom part of the “Options” button. Select “Change folder and search options” from the drop-down menu.

NOTE: If you’re using Windows 7, click the “Organize” button on the toolbar and select “Folder and search options” from the drop-down menu.

On the “Folder Options” dialog box, click the “View” tab.

In the “Folder views” section, click “Apply to Folders”.

A dialog box displays asking if you want to change all folders to match the current folder’s view settings. Click “Yes”.

Click “OK” to close the “Folders Options” dialog box.

NOTE: If you don’t see the page counts for your files after you activate the “Pages” column, you may need to close and reopen the Explorer window.

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Bring The Windows 7 Start Menu to Windows 10 with Classic Shell

If there’s one complaint you can expect to hear when a new version of Windows rolls out, it’s “What did they do to the Start Menu?” If you just want the start menu in Windows 10 to look and function the way the Windows 7 Start Menu did, we’re here to help.

Why Do I Want To Do This?

Maybe you love the Windows 10 Start Menu, which is essentially an extension and revision of the Windows 8 Start Menu. Perhaps the tile-based Metro UI system doesn’t irritate you and you don’t have a problem with the removal of the traditional Start Menu styling. If so this tutorial certainly isn’t for you and it’s great that the new layout doesn’t bother you or fill you fits of nostalgia for the GUIs of yesteryear.

Not everyone (and we’ll include ourselves in that group), however, is such a fan of the new Start Menu system. Some people learned how to wrestle with the Start Menu back in Windows 8 and they’ll take that experience with them to Windows 10. Most people skipped Windows 8 altogether though and the massive rollout of Windows 10 is going to send them slamming headlong into a totally new Start Menu paradigm that doesn’t suit their workstyle or sensibilities about what a Start Menu should be in the first place. If you’re among those new Windows 10 users that want nothing to do with the new menu, we’re here to help sort things out.

Now, before we proceed, we do want to make it clear that just because we’re not huge fans of what Microsoft has done with the Windows 10 Start Menu (and the Windows 8 menu before that) doesn’t mean we’re outright negative toward Windows 10 in general. We’ve installed Windows 10 on everything from desktop PCs to our aging ultrabook laptop and have been rather impressed with the improvements found therein (that old ultrabook hasn’t run so snappy since, well, ever).

What Do I Need?

Thankfully we won’t be doing any mucking about in the registry, there’s no hand-editing of any variables or values, and you won’t have to make any sacrifices to ensure the process works smoothly.

The only thing we need, besides your Windows 10 installation, is a very handy little program known as Classic Shell. The Classic Shell program includes both an overhaul to the Start Menu system that allows you to switch out the Windows 8/Windows 10 system for the classic single column Start Menu that harkens all the way back to Windows XP, a two-column arrangement, and the Windows 7 style.

In addition to adjusting the Start Menu, the focus of our tutorial today, the Classic Shell system includes not only the Classic Start Menu but Classic Explorer (a package of tweaks and adjustments for the Windows Explorer experience). So far we haven’t felt much compulsion to dig into changing the way Windows 10 handles Windows Explorer but the tweaks are there if you’d like to dig into them.

You can download Classic Shell at the project homepage here. As of the publication of this article we recommend using the beta release as it will have the most current adjustments for Windows 10. Once Windows 10 has been officially released for awhile the changes will be less frequent and the beta adjustments in the program will be folded into the stable release.

Before we jump into the actual process though, we’d like to take a minute to encourage you to donate a few buck to the Classic Shell project if you find the Classic Shell useful. The program has been chugging along for years (since 2009), it’s free, and it’s maintained and curated by a single guy. It’s a lot easier to keep maintaining and updating a long running project when enough of your users care enough to help keep the lights turned on.

Installing and Configuring Classic Shell

Download the installation executable from the project homepage, linked in the previous section, and run it. While you can opt to not install individual elements (like the Classic Explorer components) they aren’t activated until you turn them on so there is little harm in installing the entire package in one swoop.

Once the installation is complete, you begin the Start Menu configuration process by, intuitively, clicking on the Start Button on the toolbar. The following menu will pop up.

Here you can opt to adopt the Classic, Classic with two columns, or Windows 7 style menu. As the goal of this tutorial is to recreate the Windows 7 style, we’ll leave it as the default. We’ll return to this menu in a moment, but for now simply confirm you have Windows 7 selected and click OK.

Now let’s open up the Start Menu by clicking on the Start Button again.

We kept the screenshot above to the exact same scale as the Windows 10 Start Menu screenshot in the introduction of article. Not only is the Start Menu nice and compact but the Classic Shell team has thoughtfully included a Metro-themed skin (that sets as the default at that). We get exactly the same layout and comfortable familiarity of the Windows 7 menu but in a nice theme that meshes with the other UI tweaks in Windows 10.

And, super convenient, we didn’t lose the Windows 10 Start Menu at all. If you need anything in the Windows 10 menu that isn’t in the Classic Shell menu (or you’re having trouble locating it at any rate) all you need to do is click on the entry at the very top of the Windows 7 Classic Shell menu labeled “Start Menu (Windows)” as seen in the screenshot above and it kicks you immediately (and temporarily) into the true Windows 10 Start Menu. The next time you click the Start Button, however, you’ll be right back in the Windows 7 style menu without a hitch.

Tweaking The Classic Menu

Many people will be thrilled with just the default settings (the Windows 7 style menu + the Metro theme). If you’d like to do some further tweaking you can simply right click on the Start Button and access the Classic Start Menu settings via the “Settings” option as seen below.

That selection will send you right back to the menu we saw when we first ran Classic Start Menu and you can make adjustments like switching to the “Classic with two columns” setup. By digging further into the additional tabs you’ll find a huge number of tweaks and settings you can play with.

In addition to switching the column-style of the menu you can also swap out the actual Start Menu button icon itself if you’re so inclined. You can do so by checking “Replace Start button” at the bottom of the default “Start Menu Style” tab. Select from Aero, Classic, or supply a custom image.

Don’t worry, you’re not on the hook for designing your own custom image/animation, there are thousands of people online that have shared their creations. You can find new Start Menu buttons simply by searching in Google for “Classic Start Menu buttons” and then some descriptor like “Windows 10″ if you’re looking for buttons with a Windows 10 theme. You can also hit up the official forum here.

Under the “Basic Settings” tab you can adjust Start Menu related functions like what happens when you press the Windows key or combinations thereof. You can also adjust how the Programs Menu opens on the Start Menu, swap the shutdown button default (we always switch ours to Hibernate so we don’t accidently shut our PCs down), and tweak the on-menu search box.

Under the “Skin” tab you can swap out the skin on your Classic Shell Menu from the default Metro theme to other themes like Windows Aero. We’ll be honest though, while we really like the Windows 7 style menu once you’ve seen the clean UI update to Windows 10 (ugly Start Menu aside) you probably won’t want to go back to the now-fairly-dated-looking Aero look. The Areo theme, in our opinion, just looks out of place among all the other GUI improvements.

Finally, and we highly recommend you check this tab out even if you’re happy with everything else, the “Customize Start Menu” tab.

Here you’ll find a big old pile of fun things you can toggle on and off. Miss a direct link to your default Downloads directory? Turn it on. Don’t care about your Music or Games folders? Turn them off. Actually use Metro apps? (We won’t judge.) There’s a toggle for that too: you can directly access the Metro app links off the Classic Shell without opening the default Windows 10 Start Menu up.

Finally if you want to get really crazy and micromanage every aspect of the Start Menu experience from the millisecond timing of the menu to the infotip popup delay to the way icons load, then you need to check “Show all settings” at the top of the menu. You’ll go from four tabs to 13 and gain the ability to tweak things most users never even consider modifying. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to pick every setting from scratch when you switch over to the all-settings mode it keeps all the current defaults and just gives you the option to tweak them. If you do take the time to tweak the menu that in depth, however, we’d strongly encourage you to use the backup button at the bottom of the menu and backup all the tweaks you’ve made to an XML file you can save and then import later if the need should arise.

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With Classic Shell all you need is a few minutes to install things, another minute or two to tweak the basic settings, and you’re in business. The Windows 10 Start Menu looks like Windows 7 and all the stuff on it is right where you want it: not a tile in sight.

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