Apple and Google are launching a joint COVID-19 tracing tool for iOS and Android

Apple and Google’s engineering teams have banded together to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whether they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Contact tracing is a useful tool that helps public health authorities track the spread of the disease and inform the potentially exposed so that they can get tested. It does this by identifying and ‘following up with’ people who have come into contact with a COVID-19 affected person.

The first phase of the project is an API that public health agencies can integrate into their own apps. The next phase is a system level contact tracing system that will work across iOS and Android devices on an opt-in basis.

The system uses on-board radios on your device to transmit an anonymous ID over short ranges — using Bluetooth beaconing. Servers relay your last 14 days of rotating IDs to other devices which search for a match. A match is determined based on a threshold of time spent and distance maintained between two devices.

If a match is found with another user that has told the system that they have tested positive, you are notified and can take steps to be tested and to self quarantine.

Contact tracing is a well known and debated tool, but one that has been adopted by health authorities and universities who are working on multiple projects like this. One such example is MIT’s efforts to use Bluetooth to create a privacy-conscious contact tracing tool that was inspired by Apple’s Find My system. The companies say that those organizations identified technical hurdles that they were unable to overcome and asked for help.

The project was started two weeks ago by engineers from both companies. One of the reasons that the companies got involved is that there is poor interoperability between systems on various manufacturer’s devices. With contact tracing, every time you fragment a system like this between multiple apps, you limit its effectiveness greatly. You need a massive amount of adoption in one system for contact tracing to work well.

At the same time, you run into technical problems like Bluetooth power suck, privacy concerns about centralized data collection and the sheer effort it takes to get enough people to install the apps to be effective.

Two Phase Plan

To fix these issues, Google and Apple teamed up to create an interoperable API that should allow the largest number of users to adopt it, if they choose.

The first phase, a private proximity contact detection API, will be released in mid-May by both Apple and Google for use in apps on iOS and Android. In a briefing today, Apple and Google said that the API is a simple one and should be relatively easy for existing or planned apps to integrate. The API would allow apps to ask users to opt-in to contact tracing (the entire system is opt-in only), allowing their device to broadcast the anonymous, rotating identifier to devices that the person ‘meets’. This would allow tracing to be done to alert those who may come in contact with COVID-19 to take further steps.

The value of contact tracing should extend beyond the initial period of pandemic and into the time when self-isolation and quarantine restrictions are eased.

The second phase of the project is to bring even more efficiency and adoption to the tracing tool by bringing it to the operating system level. There would be no need to download an app, users would just opt-in to the tracing right on their device. The public health apps would continue to be supported, but this would address a much larger spread of users.

This phase, which is slated for the coming months, would give the contract tracing tool the ability to work at a deeper level, improving battery life, effectiveness and privacy. If its handled by the system, then every improvement in those areas — including cryptographic advances — would benefit the tool directly.

How it works

A quick example of how a system like this might work.

1. Two people happen to be near each other for a period of time, let’s say 10 minutes. Their phones exchange the anonymous identifiers (which change every 15 minutes).
2. Later on, one of those people is diagnosed with COVID-19 and enters it into the system via a Public Health Authority app that has integrated the API.
3. With an additional consent, the diagnosed user allows his anonymous identifiers for the last 14 days to be transmitted to the system.
4. The person they came into contact with has a Public Health app on their phone that downloads the broadcast keys of positive tests and alerts them to a match.
5. The app gives them more information on how to proceed from there.

Privacy and Transparency

Both Apple and Google say that privacy and transparency are paramount in a public health effort like this one and say they are committed to shipping a system that does not compromise personal privacy in any way.

There is zero use of location data, which includes users who report positive. This tool is not about where affected people are but instead whether they have been around other people.

The system works by assigning a random, rotating identifier to a person’s phone and transmitting it via Bluetooth to nearby devices. That identifier, which rotates every 15 minutes and contains no personally identifiable information, will pass through a simple relay server that can be run by health organizations worldwide.

Even then, the list of identifiers you’ve been in contact with doesn’t leave your phone unless you choose to share it. Users that test positive will not be identified to other users, Apple or Google. Google and Apple can disable the broadcast system entirely when it is no longer needed.

All identification of matches is done on your device, allowing you to see — within a 14-day window — whether your device has been near the device of a person who has self-identified as having tested positive for COVID-19.

The entire system is opt-in. Users will know up front that they are participating, whether in app or at a system level. Public health authorities are involved in notifying users that they have been in contact with an affected person. Apple and Google say that they will openly publish information about the work that they have done for others to analyze in order to bring the most transparency possible to the privacy and security aspects of the project.

“All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems,” the companies said in a statement. “Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate the return of everyday life.”

You can find more information about the contact tracing API on Apple’s page here including specifications.

Read Full Article

uDepth: Real-time 3D Depth Sensing on the Pixel 4

Posted by Michael Schoenberg, uDepth Software Lead and Adarsh Kowdle, uDepth Hardware/Systems Lead, Google Research

The ability to determine 3D information about the scene, called depth sensing, is a valuable tool for developers and users alike. Depth sensing is a very active area of computer vision research with recent innovations ranging from applications like portrait mode and AR to fundamental sensing innovations such as transparent object detection. Typical RGB-based stereo depth sensing techniques can be computationally expensive, suffer in regions with low texture, and fail completely in extreme low light conditions.

Because the Face Unlock feature on Pixel 4 must work at high speed and in darkness, it called for a different approach. To this end, the front of the Pixel 4 contains a real-time infrared (IR) active stereo depth sensor, called uDepth. A key computer vision capability on the Pixel 4, this technology helps the authentication system identify the user while also protecting against spoof attacks. It also supports a number of novel capabilities, such as after-the-fact photo retouching, depth-based segmentation of a scene, background blur, portrait effects and 3D photos.

Recently, we provided access to uDepth as an API on Camera2, using the Pixel Neural Core, two IR cameras, and an IR pattern projector to provide time-synchronized depth frames (in DEPTH16) at 30Hz. The Google Camera App uses this API to bring improved depth capabilities to selfies taken on the Pixel 4. In this post, we explain broadly how uDepth works, elaborate on the underlying algorithms, and discuss applications with example results for the Pixel 4.

Overview of Stereo Depth Sensing
All stereo camera systems reconstruct depth using parallax. To observe this effect, look at an object, close one eye, then switch which eye is closed. The apparent position of the object will shift, with closer objects appearing to move more. uDepth is part of the family of dense local stereo matching techniques, which estimate parallax computationally for each pixel. These techniques evaluate a region surrounding each pixel in the image formed by one camera, and try to find a similar region in the corresponding image from the second camera. When calibrated properly, the reconstructions generated are metric, meaning that they express real physical distances.

Pixel 4 front sensor setup, an example of an active stereo system.

To deal with textureless regions and cope with low-light conditions, we make use of an “active stereo” setup, which projects an IR pattern into the scene that is detected by stereo IR cameras. This approach makes low-texture regions easier to identify, improving results and reducing the computational requirements of the system.

What Makes uDepth Distinct?
Stereo sensing systems can be extremely computationally intensive, and it’s critical that a sensor running at 30Hz is low power while remaining high quality. uDepth leverages a number of key insights to accomplish this.

One such insight is that given a pair of regions that are similar to each other, most corresponding subsets of those regions are also similar. For example, given two 8x8 patches of pixels that are similar, it is very likely that the top-left 4x4 sub-region of each member of the pair is also similar. This informs the uDepth pipeline’s initialization procedure, which builds a pyramid of depth proposals by comparison of non-overlapping tiles in each image and selecting those most similar. This process starts with 1x1 tiles, and accumulates support hierarchically until an initial low-resolution depth map is generated.

After initialization, we apply a novel technique for neural depth refinement to support the regular grid pattern illuminator on the Pixel 4. Typical active stereo systems project a pseudo-random grid pattern to help disambiguate matches in the scene, but uDepth is capable of supporting repeating grid patterns as well. Repeating structure in such patterns produces regions that look similar across stereo pairs, which can lead to incorrect matches. We mitigate this issue using a lightweight (75k parameter) convolutional architecture, using IR brightness and neighbor information to adjust incorrect matches — in less than 1.5ms per frame.

Neural depth refinement architecture.

Following neural depth refinement, good depth estimates are iteratively propagated from neighboring tiles. This and following pipeline steps leverage another insight key to the success of uDepth — natural scenes are typically locally planar with only small nonplanar deviations. This permits us to find planar tiles that cover the scene, and only later refine individual depths for each pixel in a tile, greatly reducing computational load.

Finally, the best match from among neighboring plane hypotheses is selected, with subpixel refinement and invalidation if no good match could be found.

Simplified depth architecture. Green components run on the GPU, yellow on the CPU, and blue on the Pixel Neural Core.

When a phone experiences a severe drop, it can result in the factory calibration of the stereo cameras diverging from the actual position of the cameras. To ensure high-quality results during real-world use, the uDepth system is self-calibrating. A scoring routine evaluates every depth image for signs of miscalibration, and builds up confidence in the state of the device. If miscalibration is detected, calibration parameters are regenerated from the current scene. This follows a pipeline consisting of feature detection and correspondence, subpixel refinement (taking advantage of the dot profile), and bundle adjustment.

Left: Stereo depth with inaccurate calibration. Right: After autocalibration.

For more details, please refer to Slanted O(1) Stereo, upon which uDepth is based.

Depth for Computational Photography
The raw data from the uDepth sensor is designed to be accurate and metric, which is a fundamental requirement for Face Unlock. Computational photography applications such as portrait mode and 3D photos have very different needs. In these use cases, it is not critical to achieve video frame rates, but the depth should be smooth, edge-aligned and complete in the whole field-of-view of the color camera.

Left to right: raw depth sensing result, predicted depth, 3D photo. Notice the smooth rotation of the wall, demonstrating a continuous depth gradient rather than a single focal plane.

To achieve this we trained an end-to-end deep learning architecture that enhances the raw uDepth data, inferring a complete, dense 3D depth map. We use a combination of RGB images, people segmentation, and raw depth, with a dropout scheme forcing use of information for each of the inputs.

Architecture for computational photography depth enhancement.

To acquire ground truth, we leveraged a volumetric capture system that can produce near-photorealistic models of people using a geodesic sphere outfitted with 331 custom color LED lights, an array of high-resolution cameras, and a set of custom high-resolution depth sensors. We added Pixel 4 phones to the setup and synchronized them with the rest of the hardware (lights and cameras). The generated training data consists of a combination of real images as well as synthetic renderings from the Pixel 4 camera viewpoint.

Data acquisition overview.

Putting It All Together
With all of these components in place, uDepth produces both a depth stream at 30Hz (exposed via Camera2), and smooth, post-processed depth maps for photography (exposed via Google Camera App when you take a depth-enabled selfie). The smooth, dense, per-pixel depth that our system produces is available on every Pixel 4 selfie with Social Media Depth features enabled, and can be used for post-capture effects such as bokeh and 3D photos for social media.

Example applications. Notice the multiple focal planes in the 3D photo on the right.

Finally, we are happy to provide a demo application for you to play with that visualizes a real-time point cloud from uDepth — download it here (this app is for demonstration and research purposes only and not intended for commercial use; Google will not provide any support or updates). This demo app visualizes 3D point clouds from your Pixel 4 device. Because the depth maps are time-synchronized and in the same coordinate system as the RGB images, a textured view of the 3D scene can be shown, as in the example visualization below:

Example single-frame, RGB point cloud from uDepth on the Pixel 4.

Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the contributions of many, many people, including but not limited to Peter Barnum, Cheng Wang, Matthias Kramm, Jack Arendt, Scott Chung, Vaibhav Gupta, Clayton Kimber, Jeremy Swerdlow, Vladimir Tankovich, Christian Haene, Yinda Zhang, Sergio Orts Escolano, Sean Ryan Fanello, Anton Mikhailov, Philippe Bouchilloux, Mirko Schmidt, Ruofei Du, Karen Zhu, Charlie Wang, Jonathan Taylor, Katrina Passarella, Eric Meisner, Vitalii Dziuba, Ed Chang, Phil Davidson, Rohit Pandey, Pavel Podlipensky, David Kim, Jay Busch, Cynthia Socorro Herrera, Matt Whalen, Peter Lincoln, Geoff Harvey, Christoph Rhemann, Zhijie Deng, Daniel Finchelstein, Jing Pu, Chih-Chung Chang, Eddy Hsu, Tian-yi Lin, Sam Chang, Isaac Christensen, Donghui Han, Speth Chang, Zhijun He, Gabriel Nava, Jana Ehmann, Yichang Shih, Chia-Kai Liang, Isaac Reynolds, Dillon Sharlet, Steven Johnson, Zalman Stern, Jiawen Chen, Ricardo Martin Brualla, Supreeth Achar, Mike Mehlman, Brandon Barbello, Chris Breithaupt, Michael Rosenfield, Gopal Parupudi, Steve Goldberg, Tim Knight, Raj Singh, Shahram Izadi, as well as many other colleagues across Devices and Services, Google Research, Android and X. 

How the world could change after the coronavirus pandemic | Fareed Zakaria

How the world could change after the coronavirus pandemic | Fareed Zakaria

The coronavirus pandemic is more global, dramatic and unusual than any crisis we've seen in a long time, says journalist Fareed Zakaria. Listen as he shares his perspective on how we can recover from the economic fallout, why certain countries were able to avoid major outbreaks and what this might mean for the balance of global power. (This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers. Recorded April 9, 2020)

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Google starts highlighting virtual care options in Search and Maps

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on virtual care options as both doctors and patients try to reduce in-person visits for routine care as much as possible. Patients aren’t always aware of what’s available to them, though, so over the course of the next two weeks, Google will roll out new features in Search and Maps that will highlight telehealth options.

Hospitals, doctors and mental health professionals can now add details about their virtual care offerings to their Business Profile in Search and Maps, for example. When a patient then searches for them, they’ll see a ‘get online care’ link that will take them to their provider’s website with more information.

In the U.S., Google will also start showing virtual care platforms when people use search queries like ‘immediate care.’ The search results page will now highlight both in-person and virtual care options, something that wasn’t previously the case. Uninsured users will also see more details about out-of-pocket prices for their visits.

In addition, Google will now also automatically try to surface a link to a health care provider’s COVID-19 page, where they can highlight their own policies for walk-in visits or updates to their operating hours, for example.

Read Full Article

How the coronavirus is impacting India -- and what needs to happen next | Gayathri Vasudevan

How the coronavirus is impacting India -- and what needs to happen next | Gayathri Vasudevan

The coronavirus pandemic put India's population of 1.3 billion into an extreme and sudden lockdown. Social entrepreneur Gayathri Vasudevan explains how the situation is impacting the country's migrant workers, who are stuck far from home with limited access to food and shelter, and calls for an overhaul of India's social infrastructure in order to get people the essentials they need right now. (This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers. Recorded April 9, 2020)

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

What Is Jitsi and Is it More Secure Than Zoom?

Online conference apps help to maintain business and family connections when you can’t all appear in the same room. There is a wealth of video conferencing and video chat apps to choose from. However, if you’re talking about personal matters or discussing the details of a business contract, you need to know the service you’re using will protect your privacy.

Jitsi is an encrypted open-source video conferencing app you can use to protect your privacy. So, how does Jitsi compare to Zoom? Is Jitsi easy to use? Should you switch to Jitsi?

Let’s take a look.

What Is Jitsi?

Jitsi Meet is a secure video conferencing app you can use to chat with people from a web browser, Android, or iOS app.

The version included in the link is the web deployment of the Jitsi Meet software. Anyone can click the link, create a video call, and begin chatting. However, for the more technically minded, you can download and install the Jitsi Meet software to a private server, drastically increasing your privacy. For the majority of users, the regular Jitsi video web chat and smartphone apps are perfect.

Jitsi Meet supports up to 75 participants at the current time. However, for best results, the development team suggests limiting that number to a maximum of 35 participants otherwise, “the experience will suffer.”

You can work around this limitation using the integrated live-streaming option. Jitsi allows you to live-stream your video conference to an external streaming service, such as YouTube, to increase your number of viewers without negatively impacting on the video conferencing quality.

The Jitsi Meet web app and smartphone apps are incredibly simple to use. You don’t have to worry about having a username or signing up for the service. Type a name for your Jitsi video conferencing room, and press Go. Share the name of the room with your friends, family, or colleagues, and they can begin joining you.

Jitsi Meet Features

Jitsi comes with a substantial list of features, some of which are only available as premium tools in other video conferencing apps. Here are some of Jitsi’s features:

• Screensharing and live chat
• Dial-in option
• Livestreaming
• Blur my background (currently in beta)
• Slack integration
• Jitsi Meetings Google Chrome extension to integrate Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar

Does Jitsi Use Encryption?

One of the most important Jitsi features is privacy. Jitsi uses hop-by-hop encryption to protect your video conference.

Hop-by-hop encryption means each stage of the video call is encrypted in part. Your video call to the server carries encryption. The server decrypts the video call, then re-encrypts it and forwards it to the video participants.

Hop-by-hop encryption isn’t perfect, by any means. It means that the server owner could eavesdrop on your conversation if they wish. The way around this is to host a Jitsi Meet server for total privacy. Of course, that isn’t possible for everyone. However, there are no indications that Jitsi’s owners, 8×8, are eavesdropping on private video conversations.

Still, the increase in privacy is significant, especially as the volume of video calling increases.

How to Use Jitsi for Video Calling

As mentioned above, Jitsi makes video calling a cinch. Here’s how you start a Jitsi Meet video call using the web app and smartphone apps.

Using the Jitsi Web App

1. First up, head to Jitsi Meet.
2. In the white box, type your meeting room name. Then hit Go.
3. When your meeting begins, select the white i icon in the bottom right corner. Add a secure password. Do this, or people can access your video chat.
4. Press the copy to clipboard icon, then paste the meeting details to whoever you want to invite to your chat.

That’s it. A Jitsi Meet chat is that straightforward to get up and running.

Using the Jitsi Android or iOS App

You need to download the Android or iOS app to follow this section. The images are taken from the Android app, but the iOS app is the same.

Download: Jitsi Meet for Android | iOS (Both Free)

1. Open the Jitsi Meet Android or iOS app.
2. Type your meeting room name, then select Create/Join.
3. Tap the three-dot settings menu in the bottom right corner, then drag the settings panel upward to reveal more options.
4. Select Add meeting password, then add your secure password. Do this, or people can access your video chat.
5. From the same settings menu, select Invite someone. You can invite people from your contacts list, or share the meeting invitation on a different service.

There is one thing you should also note. The Jitsi meeting room doesn’t close automatically after the host leaves. No option appears to the host or other users to close the call, either.

Is Jitsi More Secure Than Zoom?

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom saw a drastic uptick in subscribers, rising from 10 million users to over 200 million users in just a few weeks. Suddenly, the eyes of the world were focusing on Zoom.

Unfortunately for Zoom, it wasn’t ready for the level of scrutiny that would follow. Privacy and security issues abound, and the management and development teams are left scrambling to fix a raft of issues.

Eric S. Yuan, chief executive of Zoom Video Communications, openly admits that the sudden stratospheric rise of Zoom caught the team napping. If not for the coronavirus, Zoom probably wouldn’t have taken such a deep delve into the security and privacy issue for some time.

But, what does that mean for Jitsi Meet? Is it truly more secure than Zoom?

Jitsi Meet has a few security and privacy measures that set it aside from Zoom. For once, Jitsi Meet is an open-source project, meaning anyone can download and vet the project. At the time of writing, there are no security warnings relating to Jitsi Meet sending data to external sources or leaking private information elsewhere.

The level of encryption is what most people want to know about. Jitsi Meet does not use end-to-end encryption (E2EE), like FaceTime, Signal, or WhatsApp. Because Jitsi Meet uses the WebRTC protocol, there is no way of implementing E2EE, at least not at the current time.

That doesn’t mean Jitsi Meet is insecure. Far from it. But there is a definite weak point in the privacy process, and that is the decryption and re-encryption of data on a Jitsi Meet server. The way around this is to install the Jitsi Meet software on a private server that you control, which means all of the data remains secure.

What’s the Best Video Conferencing App?

Many privacy advocates suggest using Jitsi Meet instead of Zoom or other video conferencing alternatives, including the Tor Project:

If you want an alternative to Zoom: try Jitsi Meet. It's encrypted, open source, and you don't need an account. https://t.co/ydA10G0hfZ

— The Tor Project (@torproject) March 31, 2020

Other security researchers aren’t so sure, reasoning that although Jitsi Meet is open source, it still suffers from similar limitations to Zoom (as it uses similar protocols).

If you must use Zoom, check out these tips on how you can attempt to increase your security and privacy. But if you want a truly secure alternative, Signal allows fully encrypted video calling with a limited number of users.

Read the full article: What Is Jitsi and Is it More Secure Than Zoom?

Read Full Article

8 Ways to Watch YouTube Videos Together With Friends

There’s great joy in sharing a YouTube video with friend for their entertainment. However, what’s even better is being able to watch it with them.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible, especially if they live apart. So, we have compiled a list of ways to watch YouTube together with your friends.

As well as helping you watch YouTube together, these services help you sync playback so that you and your friends are watching the same thing at the same time.

1. Watch2Gether

Watch2Gether doesn’t require you to register for an account. You simply create a room and can then send the URL out so your friends can join. Use the search at the top to find a video or paste in a specific YouTube link. You can also use the chat function to talk to everyone, which is helpful to keep the viewing and talking in one place.

2. SyncTube

SyncTube has a simple interface, but it works perfectly. Create a room and you can immediately start watching YouTube videos. Search for a video or paste in a URL using the bar at the top. Any new video will automatically be added into the room’s playlist.

You can also control the room’s privacy and set user permissions; this means you can stop random people joining and do things like stop your friends accidentally skipping videos.

3. Sync Video

Sync Video puts you in control of your own room, which you can invite others to by sharing the link. Simply pop a YouTube URL in the field on the right and click Play to begin. Any videos added after will be placed into a playlist.

A great feature of Sync Video is that you can enable “Pause on buffering”, which pauses the stream for everyone if someone in the room’s internet connection is causing their video to lag.

4. twoseven

In order to use twoseven, you and your friends need to create a free account, but it’s well worth doing so.

As well as being able to sync a YouTube video for everyone in the room, twoseven also has the ability for everyone to share their webcam and microphone. This means that you can all watch a video simultaneously and see and hear everyone at the same time. This is wonderful for keeping that personal connection over a distance.

5. &chill

&chill offers something unique compared to other services that let you watch YouTube together. It boasts all of the usual features you would expect—private rooms, the ability to paste YouTube URLs in to add them to a playlist, a text chat—but it has an interesting interface.

You choose your seat in a virtual cinema and it repositions the video based on that. Don’t worry, you can still set the video to full screen if that sounds lame. Also, you can chat to your friends via microphone.

6. myCircle.tv

To get started with myCircle.tv, just pop a YouTube URL into the field on the homepage and the site will create a room. The interface is separated into tabs where you can see users, past videos played, and upcoming videos.

There’s also a chat box for written conversation, but perhaps more useful for friends is the ability for audio chats. Handily, you can also see how much of the video others have preloaded to help overcome any buffering issues.

7. Togethr TV

Once you get in a room, Togethr TV has a quick and handy tutorial to guide you through its features. It’s easy to get to grips with though.

The field at the top is where you enter the YouTube video URL, the box on the left displays the users in the room, while the box on the right is for text chat. Audio chat is also enabled by default, though you can disable this if you want.

8. Use a Video Conferencing Tool

So far, these services have all been created with the purpose of watching YouTube videos together in sync with friends.

However, you could also use a video conferencing tool with screen sharing abilities to get the job done. In this scenario, you and your friends would join a virtual meeting. Then one person would share their screen to the group so that everyone can watch.

Unlike the other services that play the video locally for each individual, this solution means that only one person is playing the video—ideally whoever has the strongest internet connection.

You can find suitable software for this in our round-up of free screen sharing tools.

Troubleshooting Common Video Sync Issues

Although your YouTube viewing party should go off without a hitch, you might suffer some technical issues.

First, try refreshing the page. You’ll miss a couple of seconds of the video, but a lot of the time a simple refresh can clear up any problems. Don’t worry, it won’t interrupt the stream for everyone else in the room.

If your video is constantly stuttering or buffering, first, lower the quality of the stream. This will reduce the resolution, so the video might appear more pixelated. However, that’s better than the video constantly stopping in order to load more.

Also, if the service supports webcams and microphones, you could try disabling one or both of them. This is because webcams and mics use up bandwidth which could be better served on the YouTube video itself.

Finally, ad-blockers can cause problems with synchronization. Some services won’t work at all if you run one, so disable any you have running. Also, many YouTube videos will be supported by mid-roll ads. If you have an ad-blocker and your friend doesn’t, the stream will be out of sync after the ad has played.

How to Watch Netflix With Friends Far Away

As you can see above, there are plenty of services designed to let you watch YouTube videos with your friends. Give them all a quick try to see which you like the most. As a bonus, they are all free to use. So your preference will boil down to which UI and features you personally prefer.

If you want to stream a movie rather than a YouTube video, we have previously explained how to watch Netflix with friends far away.

Read the full article: 8 Ways to Watch YouTube Videos Together With Friends

Read Full Article

You Can Now Use Google Stadia for Free

Google is giving away Google Stadia for free to help keep people entertained through the coronavirus pandemic. The company is offering free access to Stadia Pro for two months, and once signed up, you’ll get instant access to nine games.

What Is Google Stadia?

For the uninitiated, Google Stadia is a cloud gaming service that lets you stream video games on a range of devices. And because Google’s data centers are doing the hard work behind the scenes, you don’t need powerful hardware to play triple-AAA title.

In March 2019, Google unveiled Stadia, and in November 2019, Google launched Stadia. In our review of Google Stadia, we described it as a “promising cloud gaming experience hampered by unreliable setup, a limited launch library, and missing features.”

How to Get Google Stadia for Free

In a post on The Keyword, Google explains that while social distancing is important, “staying home for long periods can be difficult and feel isolating.” However, “video games can be a valuable way to socialize with friends and family when you’re stuck at home.”

So, with that in mind, Google is “giving gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months.” The games available for free include GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and SteamWorld Dig 2. You can also buy additional games to play on Stadia.

To help people connect with friends online & have some fun during these challenging times, we're opening up Stadia for everyone. You'll also get 2 months of free access to Stadia Pro with some free games to play!

Check out our blog for all the details ? https://t.co/n27t4Pmnn4

— Stadia (@GoogleStadia) April 8, 2020

To access Stadia Pro for free, go to Stadia.com and sign up. Download the Stadia app on Android or iOS. Then play one of the nine games available for free on any of the supported devices. NB: You will need either a keyboard and mouse or a USB controller.

This is rolling out gradually, so it’s possible that the free version is not yet available in your region. If that’s the case, check the Stadia website again in 24 hours. And if you’re already a Stadia Pro subscriber, you won’t be charged for the next two months.

The Best Cloud Gaming Services

Google Stadia has garnered mixed reviews to this point. However, as it’s now free for two months, this is the perfect time to try it out for yourself. And even if you don’t like Google Stadia, here are the best cloud gaming services to stream video games.

Read the full article: You Can Now Use Google Stadia for Free

Read Full Article

How to Use 2 or More Webcams on Skype

When you connect to a Skype call, you load up your microphone and camera and begin chatting away. The setup works well for the most part and allows you to hold a face to face conversation.

But what about those times where you want to use multiple cameras at once? Can you use more than one camera with Skype in the same conversation?

Thankfully, there are three apps you can use to stream multiple cameras with Skype—here’s how you do it!

Can You Use More Than One Camera on Skype?

It is a question that crops up frequently. How do you use more than one camera on Skype, all from the same computer?

The official Skype app doesn’t allow you to use more than one camera at a time. There are two approaches you can take to get around this issue; one is definitely easier than the other.

1. Use a webcam app to create multiple webcam inputs, then use the webcam app as the Skype video input, or
2. Connect to the Skype call using several different devices, each using a different account.

As you can see, the latter option is time consuming, inelegant, and will use more bandwidth and power. It isn’t the best option. But it is an option if that’s what works for your situation. However, if you have a computer with several webcams, or an integrated webcam in your laptop and a standalone webcam, using a third-party webcam app is the best option.

3 Webcam Apps for Multiple Skype Camera Inputs

Let’s start by using a webcam app to create an extra webcam input for Skype.

1. ManyCam

The free version of ManyCam allows you to create a camera in your camera. That is, nest one webcam stream within another, allowing you to broadcast from two webcams simultaneously. The free version of ManyCam limits the additional webcam inputs to one extra, but you can use the full version to create extra camera inputs, different backdrops, 3D masks and other visual effects, and more.

First up, download and install ManyCam.

Download: ManyCam for Windows or macOS (Free)

Once installed, you need to open ManyCam and begin adding your webcam inputs. Press the “+” icon under Video Sources, and add the two webcams you want to stream from. ManyCam may have already added your integrated webcam if you are using a laptop.

Now, under Presets, select Add New Layer, then add the webcams. The webcams will appear with one inside the other, allowing you to preview their appearance. Because this is the free version of ManyCam, you cannot edit the layout or viewpoint of the webcams, or turn the watermark off, but the default view is decent enough.

After you add your webcams to ManyCam and they’re in the position you want, it’s time to open Skype. Head to Settings > Audio & Video. Now, use the dropdown box under the Camera settings to select ManyCam Virtual Webcam.

2. CyberLink YouCam 9

CyberLink YouCam 9 is a feature-packed webcam app you can use to create a dual webcam view in Skype. Like ManyCam, there is a free and premium version of YouCam 9. The free version allows you to select two webcam inputs and arrange them a few different ways. Particularly handy is the ability to position your webcams in parallel, giving each camera equal screen space.

To give it a try, first download and install YouCam 9.

Download: CyberLink YouCam 9 for Windows 10 (Free)

After installation, open YouCam 9. From the dropdown menu in the top-left, select Presentations > Dual Video. When the Dual Video options open, select your webcams using the dropdown menu, then select the layout of your webcam streams.

When you have both webcams configured, head over to Skype. Head to Settings > Audio & Video. Now, use the dropdown box under the Camera settings to select CyberLink YouCam 9.

3. SplitCam

SplitCam is a broadcasting and streaming app that you can use to create multiple camera inputs for a Skype conversation. As it is a streaming and video creation platform, SplitCam offers the widest range of options for using more than one camera with Skype.

You can several media layers to your screen, resizing each input to the size you want. In this, you could have four webcams sharing the screen in equal quarters, or portion it up how you see fit. Furthermore, you can also add media streams to your screen from other inputs, like a web browser or a pre-recorded video.

Download: SplitCam for Windows 10 (Free)

After installation, open SplitCam. Press the large new Scene button to add a new Scene, then select from the Media Layers. Head to Media Layers > Webcam, then select your webcam when the option appears. You can also select the resolution for the webcam at this point, but you can also change this option later.

Select the other webcams you want to use, then arrange the cameras as you want using the list of media inputs. Select a webcam. Then you can resize and position the input in the viewer.

When you have both webcams configured, head over to Skype. Head to Settings > Audio & Video. Now, use the dropdown box under the Camera settings to select SplitCam Video Driver.

If you’re looking to expand your home recording operation, why not check out the best budget webcams?

Use Multiple Devices to Create Multiple Skype Webcams

If you cannot get to grips with the multi-cam webcam apps, or you want to configure your webcam views with a very specific configuration, you might consider creating Skype accounts to use with different bits of hardware.

For example, if you have a laptop, a smartphone, and a tablet, you could create a Skype account for each device, then connect to the Skype call with each device.

If you opt for this method, there are a couple of things to consider.

First, is your time. Setting up and connecting to a Skype call with multiple devices is slightly time-consuming. However, once you have set each Skype account up, your next multi-device-webcam Skype is much easier, as you’re all ready to connect.

Second is your internet connection speed. An HD Skype video call uses around 1.2 to 1.5Mbps for a one-to-one conversation. Once you start adding in extra video streams all from your home network, you’ll need extra network capacity.

At times, Skype doesn’t work exactly how you want. When that happens, there are several key settings you can check to make sure everything is working correctly.

You Can Use More Than One Camera with Skype!

You now have three apps you can use to create an extra camera view in Skype. Better still, one of these options, SplitCam, allows you to create multiple webcam inputs and arrange them in the viewer as you see fit.

Are you having trouble with your Skype video? Check out how you can test and troubleshoot your Skype video calls.

Image Credit: Castleski/Shutterstock

Read the full article: How to Use 2 or More Webcams on Skype

Read Full Article

10 Ways Windows Group Policy Can Make Your PC Better

Do you wish you could change some of the ways Windows 10 behaves? Maybe you want more control over certain features, or want to make tweaks that aren’t available in the Settings panel.

A great way to get more control over your computer is using Group Policy. There are tons of useful Group Policy settings that home users can employ to tweak how Windows 10 works. Let’s look at some of the best Group Policy settings for making your system better.

What Is Windows Group Policy?

Group Policy provides a centralized way to configure and enforce all kinds of settings across computers on an Active Directory network. These settings are maintained by a domain controller and individual computers can’t override them.

Thus, Group Policy is most common on Windows domains in business settings. However, computers that aren’t on an Active Directory network (meaning most home machines) can still have their settings tweaked locally using the Local Group Policy Editor.

Think of this like the Control Panel, except much more powerful. With Group Policy, you can restrict access to parts of the system, force a certain home page for all users, and even run certain scripts whenever a computer starts up or shuts down.

Behind the scenes, most of the options in the Group Policy Editor simply make tweaks to the Windows Registry. The Group Policy Editor provides a much friendlier interface for managing these options without having to manually scour the Registry, though.

The one downside is that by default, Group Policy is only available to computers running Professional or higher editions of Windows. If you’re on Windows Home, this omission may convince you to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro—though there is a workaround that we mention below.

Accessing the Group Policy Editor

Accessing the Group Policy Editor is easier than you think, especially on Windows 10. As with most utilities in Windows, there are multiple ways to access it.

Here’s one reliable method:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Search for group policy.
3. Launch the Edit group policy entry that comes up.

For another way, press Win + R to open the Run dialog box. There, enter gpedit.msc to launch the Group Policy Editor.

While we mentioned that Group Policy is not normally available on Home editions of Windows, there is a workaround you can try. It involves some basic system tweaks and the installation of a third-party Group Policy Editor.

If you’re interested, check out our step-by-step guide to installing the Group Policy Editor on Windows Home.

Applying Group Policy Updates

For some Group Policy settings, you’ll have to reboot your computer before they take effect. Otherwise, once you’re done making changes, launch an elevated Command Prompt and run the following command:

gpupdate /force

This forces any updates you made to Group Policy to take effect immediately.

Cool Things to Do With Group Policy

The Group Policy Editor allows you to change hundreds of different options, preferences, and settings, so it’s impossible to cover everything here.

You can feel free to look around, but if you’re not confident, it’s probably to avoid experimenting with random policies. One bad tweak could cause problems or unwanted behavior. Check out our introduction to Group Policy to become more familiar first.

Now, we’ll look at some recommended Group Policy settings to get you started.

1. Restrict Access to Control Panel and Settings

Control Panel restrictions are vital for business networks and school environments. However, they can also be useful at home for computers shared between multiple users. If you want to prevent children from changing settings, this is a good step to take.

To completely block the Control Panel altogether, enable this object:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Prohibit access to Control Panel and PC Settings

If you want to instead provide access to only certain parts of the Control Panel, you can set that up using one of the two following items:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Hide specified Control Panel items

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Show only specified Control Panel Item

Enable them and you’ll be able to indicate which Control Panel Applets you want to show or hide. Use Microsoft’s Canonical Names of Control Panel Items to list them.

2. Block the Command Prompt

Despite how useful the Command Prompt can be, it can become a nuisance in the wrong hands. Allowing users to run undesirable commands and circumventing other restrictions you might have in place isn’t a good idea. As such, you can disable it.

To disable the Command Prompt, browse to this value:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Prevent access to the command prompt

Note that enabling this restriction means that cmd.exe can’t run at all. Thus, it also prevents the execution of batch files in CMD or BAT formats.

3. Prevent Software Installations

You have many ways to block users from installing new software. Doing so can help reduce the amount of maintenance you need to do when people carelessly install junk. It also reduces the chances of malware getting on your system.

To prevent software installations using Group Policy, visit:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Installer > Turn off Windows Installer

Note that this only blocks the Windows installer, so people can still install apps using the Windows Store.

4. Disable Forced Restarts

While you can enable some options to postpone it, Windows 10 will eventually restart your computer on its own if you have updates pending. You can take back control by enabling a Group Policy item. Once you do, Windows will only apply pending updates when you restart on your own.

You’ll find it here:

Computer Configuration > Administrator Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update > No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic update installations

5. Disable Automatic Driver Updates

Did you know that Windows 10 also updates device drivers without your explicit permission? In many cases, this is useful, as it aims to keep your system as up-to-date as possible.

But what if you’re running a custom driver? Or perhaps the latest driver for a certain hardware component has a bug that causes your system to crash. These are times when automatic driver updates are more harmful than helpful.

Enable this to disable automatic driver updates:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Installation > Device Installation Restrictions > Prevent installation of devices that match any of these device IDs

Once enabled, you’ll have to provide hardware IDs for the devices that you don’t want automatic driver updates for. You’ll need to get these through the Device Manager, which takes a few steps. Follow our guide to controlling driver updates in Windows 10 for full instructions.

6. Disable Removable Media Drives

Removable media, like USB flash drives, can come in handy. But unknown USB devices can also pose a risk. Someone with access to your computer could load malware onto a flash drive and try to execute it.

While not necessary in most cases, you can prevent Windows from reading removable drives altogether to protect your system. This is especially important in business settings.

To disable removable media drives, enable this value:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access > Removable Disks: Deny read access

In this folder, you’ll also see options for other kinds of media like CDs and DVDs. Feel free to disable all of these as well, but USB drives are the main concern.

7. Hide Balloon and Toast Notifications

Desktop notifications can be handy, but only when they have something useful to say. Most of the notifications you see aren’t worth reading, which often leads to them distracting you and breaking your concentration.

Enable this value to disable balloon notifications in Windows:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Turn off all balloon notifications

Starting with Windows 8, most system notifications switched over to toast notifications. You should thus disable them too:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Notifications > Turn off toast notifications

This is an easy way to block a lot of popup distractions.

8. Remove OneDrive

OneDrive is baked into Windows 10. While you can uninstall it like any other app, it’s also possible to prevent it from running using a Group Policy item.

Disable OneDrive by enabling this:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > OneDrive > Prevent the usage of OneDrive for file storage

This will remove the ability to access OneDrive from anywhere on the system. It also erases the OneDrive shortcut in the sidebar of File Explorer.

9. Turn Off Windows Defender

Windows Defender manages itself, so it will stop running if you install a third-party antivirus app. If this doesn’t work properly for some reason or you want to fully disable it, you can enable this Group Policy item:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender > Turn off Windows Defender

While it’s easy to disable, Windows Defender is a good enough security solution for most people. Make sure to replace it with another trusted Windows antivirus program if you remove it.

10. Run Scripts at Logon/Startup/Shutdown

Our last tip is a bit more advanced, so it probably won’t be useful to you unless you’re comfortable with batch files and/or writing PowerShell scripts. But if you are, then you can actually run said scripts automatically with Group Policy.

To set up a startup/shutdown script, visit:

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Startup/Shutdown)

To set up a logon or logoff script, head here:

User Configuration > Windows Settings > Scripts (Logon/Logoff)

Doing this lets you select the actual script files and provide parameters for those scripts, so it’s pretty flexible. You can also assign multiple scripts to each trigger event.

Note that this isn’t the same as launching a specific program on startup. To do that, see how to use the Windows startup folder.

The Most Useful Group Policy Settings for You

Group Policy provides you with a lot of control of how Windows 10 works. We’ve only looked at a few instances here; there’s a lot more functionality to find if you know where to look. As you can see, though, most of the options revolve around removing or blocking functionality, not adding new tools.

Don’t have access to Group Policy or want to keep tweaking Windows? Have a look at our introduction to the Windows Registry.

Read the full article: 10 Ways Windows Group Policy Can Make Your PC Better

Read Full Article

Vimeo vs. YouTube: 5 Reasons to Host Videos on Vimeo

YouTube is the king of online video. The brand is so well-known that most people aren’t even aware that alternatives exist. However, other video sites are actually better than YouTube in some ways. Like Vimeo, for example.

Vimeo has grown massively over the last decade, and has become YouTube’s closest competitor. Vimeo may have a smaller userbase than YouTube, but when comparing Vimeo vs. YouTube, it can be argued that Vimeo is better than YouTube in some ways.

In this article, we outline the reasons to host videos on Vimeo over YouTube.

1. Vimeo Offers Better Encoding and Video Quality

YouTube’s mantra is quantity over quality. Users upload more than 500 hours of footage to YouTube every single minute. And YouTube needs to process all of these videos before they can go live. In order to handle that kind of load, YouTube must balance compression speed with compression quality.

On the other hand, Vimeo’s mantra is quality over quantity. Because Vimeo has stricter guidelines for acceptable videos, its processing load is far lighter than YouTube’s. And that means it can focus more on maximizing the quality of each video using better encoding techniques.

If you upload the same video to both YouTube and Vimeo at the same resolution, the Vimeo version will look a lot better because it will have a much higher bitrate.

2. Vimeo Offers Greater Prestige

Take a second to ask yourself what comes to mind when someone says “YouTube video”. Then consider what comes to mind when someone says “Vimeo video.” If you have experience with both sites, then your perception of each brand will be radically different.

YouTube is basically a video dump. You can upload anything you want as long as it isn’t sexually explicit, gory, excessively violent, etc. No one will stop you if you want to upload low-quality content that’s pointless or spammy, whereas Vimeo is very strict about what it allows.

This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this limits the kinds of channels you can run on Vimeo (for example, you won’t find any gaming-related content beyond documentaries). However, most people perceive Vimeo videos as more professional than YouTube videos. In other words, if your output fits into one of Vimeo’s video niches, then being on Vimeo means something. It’s certainly more prestigious than being on YouTube.

This is why Vimeo is home to some of the best short films you can watch online. Whereas YouTube is biased towards channels that produce a lot of content, Vimeo is biased towards creators who put a lot of work into each video. Quality, not quantity.

And don’t forget about Staff Picks. Vimeo loves to curate high-quality content, and being selected as a Staff Pick is a respected badge of honor—many careers were launched after being discovered by curators on Vimeo.

3. Vimeo Has a More Sophisticated Audience

Because Vimeo limits the kind of videos that can be uploaded, and is seen as a more prestigious site than YouTube, it attracts a different sort of audience.

So even though YouTube has more reach than Vimeo, each of your Vimeo viewers is more likely to engage more deeply with your content. YouTube’s audience is one of low attention spans, lots of distractions, and a penchant for rapid-fire viewing, whereas Vimeo viewers are more receptive to slower and more thoughtful content. Viewers’ expectations are different.

This is made most evident when you compare the comments sections of both sites. YouTube is infamous for its terrible commenting atmosphere—it’s tough to find a comment that isn’t from a die-hard fanboy, a die-hard hater, or someone who’s trying too hard to be funny.

It’s a completely different story on Vimeo, where commenters tend to be more constructive, mature, and insightful. As a creator, this can be quite refreshing.

4. Vimeo Offers Greater Artistic Freedom

There are two aspects of YouTube that can prove frustrating for those who want to create certain kinds of artistic content. Leading to videos disappearing for no reason.

The rules for sexual content are inconsistent on YouTube. You can find explicit videos on YouTube that have been up for many years, yet videos that are merely suggestive can be taken down for being overly sexual. What if you’ve made a mature music video? YouTube might take it down, but Vimeo welcomes it as long as it has artistic value.

Music is another big issue on YouTube. In particular, the content ID system that automatically scans each upload for copyrighted tracks and silences anything it deems as a violation. The system is too aggressive and operates according to a “silence first, fix later” policy. Even if you’re authorized to use a certain track, you’ll have to jump through hoops to restore audio. Not so with Vimeo.

5. Vimeo Boasts Unique Features and Customizations

If you don’t care about any of the above, then here are a handful of practical advantages to using Vimeo over YouTube. In terms of features and flexibility, Vimeo beats YouTube in several ways.

• Replace video but keep URL: This is one of Vimeo’s best features. You can replace any of your existing videos with a new upload without losing its URL, thus keeping all of the likes, comments, stats, and not breaking any embeds that may exist on third-party sites.
• Password protection: You can set a password on any video so that only those with the password can view it. YouTube doesn’t have this feature, only allowing videos to be Public, Private, or Unlisted.
• Domain-restricted embeds: Vimeo lets you set which domains are allowed to embed your videos, and you can do this on a per-video basis. This way you can hide your videos on the Vimeo site itself and only make them viewable on your site.
• Web player branding: Vimeo lets you alter the appearance of its HTML5 web player by inserting your own logo and branding, which is great when embedding videos on your site, whereas embedded YouTube videos always look the same and end with that unsightly suggestions page.
• Advanced analytics: Depending on your subscription level you can get various levels of analytics, starting with a traffic dashboard and custom reports, going all the way to engagement graphs and Google Analytics integration.
• Make money with pay-per-view: Vimeo On Demand lets you create dedicated VOD pages where viewers can pay to watch videos. You can sell worldwide or only in certain countries, and you keep 90 percent of the revenue. This is a convenient way to make money from your work without employing ads.
• Plus, Pro, Business, Premium plans: Unlike YouTube, Vimeo is funded by its community rather than advertisers. You CAN use Vimeo for free, but free accounts are limited to 500 MB of uploads per week. Vimeo Plus costs $7/month, Pro costs $20/month, Business is $50/month, and the top-tier Vimeo Premium is $75/month.

Are You Going to Start Hosting Videos on Vimeo?

To be clear, Vimeo is not always the right choice when comparing Vimeo vs. YouTube. If you need to maximize total reach, create content not in line with Vimeo’s niche, or avoid paying to lift restrictions, YouTube might be a better fit for you than Vimeo.

However, if you’re going to focus on short films, documentaries, music videos, interviews, journalism, or travel, then Vimeo will serve you much better. You may get fewer views than if you had used YouTube, but you’ll get significantly more engagement out of each of those views.

For more YouTube alternatives here are the best free video hosting sites.

Read the full article: Vimeo vs. YouTube: 5 Reasons to Host Videos on Vimeo

Read Full Article

How to Clean Up Your Windows Desktop Once and For All

As you probably know, the Windows desktop can be a tough beast to tame. Maybe you want an organized and clean desktop, but no matter how many times you purge it, and no matter how hard you try to keep it in order, it somehow becomes messy again.

A clean desktop not only makes things easier to find, thus reducing inefficiency, but is more pleasing to look at and doesn’t cause as much cognitive stress.

Keep reading to find out how to clean up your Windows 10 desktop once and for all.

How to Clean Up Your Desktop

The actual act of cleaning a desktop is easy—all you have to do is select all icons and press Delete. The hard part is keeping it clean. To understand how to prevent desktop clutter, we need to understand why our desktops tend to collect clutter in the first place.

We simply want fast access to our most-used apps, files, and folders. And what’s the best way to do that? Shortcuts! Unfortunately, it’s way too easy to create a shortcut, plop it onto the desktop, and call it a day—do that a few times and boom, clutter. After all, is there a location that’s more conveniently accessible than the desktop? I can’t think of one.

So the trick is to find alternative methods for accessing our most-used apps, files, and folders.

A cluttered desktop is just a symptom of a deeper issue: relying on shortcuts. If you can cut that out, then you won’t need shortcuts anymore, and suddenly your desktop won’t ever be cluttered again.

This is what you’ll learn by the end of this article.

Take heart in knowing that success is possible. My own desktop has been completely empty for more than four years thanks to the following tips and tricks.

And despite how you might feel about Windows 10, this is one area where it excels. Keeping a clean desktop has never been easier.

Move App Shortcuts to the Start Menu

The redesigned Start Menu is perfect as a dumping ground for app shortcuts. First introduced in Windows 8 and greatly refined in Windows 10, the Start Menu should be your method of choice for launching apps.

It’s accessible from anywhere—all you need to do is hit the Windows key—and it’s large enough to comfortably pin dozens of apps.

To pin an app to the Start Menu:

1. Right-click on the app shortcut on your desktop.
2. Select Pin to Start.

Once pinned, apps can be resized (more important apps could be larger, for example) and you can mark them if they should be launched with Administrator permissions.

Organize the Start Menu Using Groups

Be mindful that you don’t just shift the problem of clutter from your desktop to your Start Menu.

For maximum productivity and sanity, you should further organize your Start Menu tiles into groups. Not only does this keep everything tidy, but it makes it easier for you to find apps when you need them.

As you drag app tiles around, you’ll notice that they “chunk” into separate groups. If you hover your mouse over each group, you’ll see a field called Name Group that you can click on to rename that group however you want.

You’ll also see a marker with two horizontal lines—drag this to rearrange your app groups according to your needs.

Move App Shortcuts to the Taskbar

If you feel like the Start Menu requires one too many clicks, you can choose to pin apps directly to the Taskbar instead. I only recommend this for apps you use on a daily basis—the kinds of apps that are always open, such as web browsers, music players, text editors, etc.

To pin an app to the Taskbar:

1. Right-click on the app shortcut on your desktop.
2. Select Pin to Taskbar.

Once pinned, apps can be dragged around so you can rearrange them according to your needs. Be wary of pinning too many apps here—Taskbar clutter can be worse than desktop clutter.

If you add too many apps, the Taskbar will split into multiple rows that you’ll have to scroll between by clicking on Up and Down arrows. I find that this kills productivity, so avoid it.

Customize the Taskbar for More Space

If you want to maximize how many apps you can add without spilling over into multiple rows, you can customize your Taskbar settings. To access the settings, right-click the Taskbar and select Taskbar Settings.

1. Use small Taskbar buttons: This does exactly what it sounds like, and it works well. The only two downsides are that the Taskbar clock will no longer show the date and the Taskbar icons can be harder to see on higher resolution screens (i.e. 1920 x 1080 or greater).
2. Taskbar location on screen: Most users keep the Taskbar along the bottom edge of the screen because that’s the default setting on Windows, but a vertical taskbar can allow you to locate apps faster.
3. Combine Taskbar buttons: If you prefer a horizontal Taskbar, then make sure you set this to Always, hide labels. Or at the very least, set it to When Taskbar is full. Both of these will maximize how much you can fit before spilling into another row.

Move Folder Shortcuts to Quick Access

The Quick Access feature is one of the better refinements in Windows 10’s File Explorer (formerly called Windows Explorer). Whereas the Start Menu and Taskbar are great for consolidating app shortcuts, Quick Access is where you should put all folder shortcuts.

If you’ve never heard of it before, don’t worry. Open up File Explorer (using keyboard shortcut Windows + E) and look in the left sidebar to see a section called Quick Access.

Think of it like folder bookmarks: you can pin folders here and instantly access them from anywhere in File Explorer.

To pin a folder to Quick Access:

1. Navigate to the folder you want to pin.
2. Right-click on the folder.
3. Select Pin to Quick Access.

Pin File Explorer to the Taskbar

We aren’t done yet. Although some people opt for File Explorer alternatives, File Explorer actually has a number of useful lesser-known features that can be useful.

For example, you can access your Quick Access folders right from the Taskbar by pinning File Explorer just like you would any other app. Launch any folder, right-click on File Explorer in the Taskbar, and select Pin to Taskbar.

Once pinned, just right-click on the File Explorer icon and you’ll see a list of all Quick Access folders. This is the preferred way to “quick jump” to folders you use over and over again, and it’s actually faster than keeping folder shortcuts on the desktop.

Bypass the Need for Shortcuts With a Launcher

If you really want to clean up clutter all across your system, then you may want to forego the above alternatives and use an on-demand launcher instead. You have two options for this.

The first option is to use Talk to Cortana on the Taskbar. The improved search in Windows 10 means you can open the Start Menu (with the Windows key), start typing for an app or file and immediately open it with the Enter key.

While you don’t need Cortana for any of this, some people find the voice control aspect to be much more convenient.

To start talking to Cortana, click the white circle (the Talk to Cortana button) in the Taskbar. Cortana in Windows 10 has a lot to offer, so don’t count it out.

The second option is to install Wox. Wox is a third-party app that replicates the Spotlight feature from macOS. At any time, you can hit Alt + Space to open Wox, then type any app, file, or folder to launch it instantly. It can also act as a web search tool.

With either of these options, you won’t have to pin apps anywhere again. And with Wox, you won’t even have to pin folders anymore. Everything is just one query away.

Last Resort: Desktop Shortcuts the Smart Way

Let’s say you don’t like any of the above suggestions. You really like using desktop shortcuts and you want to keep using them—you just want to keep them organized. In that case, you can always resort to using Fences.

With Fences, you can create sections on your desktop for organizing your shortcuts, with each section called a fence.

Fences can be minimized, which means you open them on demand, launch the shortcut you need, then close them back up. Shortcuts can automatically sort into fences according to rules, or you can set them up manually.

The downside? It isn’t free. There’s a 30-day free trial, but it’ll cost $10 after that ends.

Achieving a Clean Desktop

Now that your desktop is tidy, you probably feel like a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders. You can finally access your apps and files without digging through a messy desktop.

We also recommend going one step further and making sure all your computer files are organized. To make your life even easier, use these Windows apps that automatically organize files for you.

Image Credit: scanrail/Depositphotos

Read the full article: How to Clean Up Your Windows Desktop Once and For All

Read Full Article