What do you do when Windows 10 goes wrong? Better yet, how do you identify potential problems and prevent them from occurring in the first place? The tips in this

ebook cover everything from showing hidden files to hiding unwanted drivers.

MONITOR SYSTEM PERFORMANCE IN REAL TIME

How fast is that file downloading, really?

Progress bars in dialog boxes are notoriously inaccurate and difficult to interpret. When you’re really concerned about whether your network connection or disk

subsystem is working at the speed you expect, the best way to double-check is to look at raw performance numbers.

In Windows 10, you can get those numbers by opening Task Manager (just press Ctrl+- Shift+Esc) and, if necessary, switching to the expanded More Details view. Click

the Performance tab to see the full selection of real-time monitors shown here.

Choose a component from the list on the left to get more details. For a network connection, that display shows Send and Receive speeds, measured in Kbps or Mbps. For

disk activity, you get Read and Write speeds. Keep that chart open alongside the download or file transfer window to watch the progress of your activity.

If you’re monitoring something like a Windows update that appears to be hung, this is a good way to get a reality check. If Receive or Write speeds are hovering at

zero for too long, you might consider restarting the operation

16 more tips from Windows expert Ed Bott are included in this ebook.