Best Hidden Windows 11 Settings You Should Enable Right Now

Windows 11 is fresh air and looks like a modern OS, even in 2025. But there are several changes, some intentional, and some only reserved for those who love prying into the OS.

If you are bored with the current features or find the new OS lacking performance, visual appeal, or power, these hidden settings will help you get more out of Windows 11. Without further ado, let’s jump into the post.

1. Push the Start button into the corner

The new centered Start button isn’t easy to get accustomed to. While new users might like the modern, middle look, Windows 8 or old users prefer the left-aligned start menu.

Earlier, you had to resort to registry tweaks to get this done, but now a simple Taskbar setting tweak can push the Start button to its original location.

Right-click on the Taskbar and select the Taskbar settings option. Expand the Taskbar behavior and choose the Left option.

2. Bring back the old desktop context menu

The shortened desktop context menu wasn’t good for daily use. It is too small and lacks useful options like the GPU app access. Microsoft tried to adapt it to daily use, but some prefer the old one more.

To do this trick, you need to modify the registry. We advise you to manually backup the registry to a USB drive and make a system restore point. It ensures you can return to a working state if you wreck your PC.

Launch the command prompt with admin rights and paste the following command to restore the old context menu:

reg.exe add "HKCU\Software\Classes\CLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /f /ve

Close the Command Prompt window and restart to apply the registry changes.

3. Align your Priorities with Focus Mode

Focus Mode can help you not deviate from your track and stop all the disturbance in the background. Search for Focus settings in the Start menu, and you can start a timer for a short duration where your OS activity and notifications won’t bother you.

There are a few options, but we suggest using the default settings for maximum productivity.

4. Restore File Explorer Windows

We all use the hidden files feature in File Explorer but ignore this small yet useful setting. As someone who works with files scattered across multiple locations, I use a lot of tabs and windows. However, manually reopening each one the next day is a chore.

Here’s where the Restore File Explorer windows at logon can save you. Click on the three-dots button in the File Explorer and select Options.

Switch to the View tab and enable the Restore previous folder windows at logon option to skip reopening folders again.

5. Access Phone Storage from File Explorer

If you ignore the Phone Link setup pop-up while setting up your Windows 11 PC, you miss out on many things. After the 24H2 update, you can peek inside your phone storage wirelessly using Managed devices features. All you need is to install the Link to Windows app on your Android or iOS device, and you’re good to go.

Visit the Mobile Devices page under the Bluetooth and devices settings and set up the Managed Devices.

You can access and modify files after pairing and enabling the “Show mobile devices in File Explorer” option. It’s not fast due to Wi-Fi limitations, but it is good enough to copy docs and images from phone to PC.

6. Use the Phone as a connected Camera

Don’t have a webcam but want to use your phone as a camera? Earlier, there were third-party apps to do this trick, but now Managed Devices can help you. Pair and set up the phone as you did in the previous trick, then enable the Use as a Connected Camera option.

Then, you can use the phone’s front or rear camera as a webcam and adjust many other settings. No more missing out on Zoom or casual meetings and sticking to audio mode because you don’t have a webcam.

7. Super God Mode

What if you had a gateway to access all the possible settings in Windows 11? Super God Mode can help you with it. It is way more powerful than God Mode, a trick discovered in 2021. But does it make you a god?

No. You cannot make your Windows 11 PC do anything more than it was designed to. However, you get a categorized folder that lists all the OS settings, and finding and sorting them is much easier.

There is no need to navigate the Control Panel or the Settings app to find a less-known display or network setting. Developer Theojoe created a batch file to create the Super God Mode folder for you. Download it from GitHub and run the file to access the folder.

8. Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox is a mystery to many. Some think of it as a useless app, but it can be a powerful isolation testing tool for anything sketchy you download. Earlier, virtualization-supported systems were not common, but Windows 11 needs a TPM-capable virtualization-ready CPU, so it’s highly likely you have one.

Also, you need to have Windows 11 Pro because it isn’t available in Home. The recent updates allow secure clipboard sharing, resizing, and audio/video inputs.

So, you don’t need to create a virtual machine using VMware or other software and can check apps and files inside Sandbox.

Wrapping Up

We hope these hidden or less-known Windows settings helped you get more out of your Windows 11 PC. We love the Managed devices and Sandbox a lot because it lets us repurpose the mobile camera as a webcam, and Sandbox reduces the chances of running anything malicious on the PC.

Share any other unpopular Windows 11 settings in the comments.

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