Window 10 setup: search box, taskbar and updates

Tharwatime · 07 Nov 2019

My Win 7 box will be dated in a few months and I now have a Win 10 pro box. The migration is nearly finished, and advice is needed on a few points. Win 10 is ... interesting. It would be nice if the changes were not quite so dramatic.

I have searched for the answers to the matters below without success. Doubtless some are in the forum or elsewhere online, but they elude me.

There was a search box in the taskbar, taking up too much room. Is it possible to have the search box like Win 7, in the start menu? When searching, the box vanishes after about a second, giving no time to paste a location. Is there any way to slow this down?

The same comment applies to pestilent messages that appear on the bottom right of the screen for maybe three seconds, too quick.

The taskbar has a white background, which I wish to have clear. That is, showing the desktop background, which is a picture. The instructions for this are
Start > Settings > Personalisation > Colours.
In Show accent colours, two boxes should be ticked: Start taskbar and action centre and Title bars and Window borders. I could not select the Start taskbar option. How can the system be set up to have the taskbar background the same as the desktop?

I disabled automatic Windows updates - not keen on this at all. Win 7 has an option that advises me of updates and lets me select. Can this be done in Win 10, and if so, how?

Thank you.

dalchina · 07 Nov 2019

There was a search box in the taskbar, taking up too much room. Is it possible to have the search box like Win 7, in the start menu? When searching, the box vanishes after about a second, giving no time to paste a location. Is there any way to slow this down?

Rt click the taskbar, Search, click Hidden
to search thereafter, win key + S

How can the system be set up to have the taskbar background the same as the desktop?

Sorry, it can't as far as I know.

I disabled automatic Windows updates - not keen on this at all. Win 7 has an option that advises me of updates and lets me select. Can this be done in Win 10, and if so, how?

You appear to have Win 10 Pro. There's no need to hack the system, if that's how you've tried to stop updates. Rather use what you have.

Using the Group Policy Editor (or Settings) you can defer feature updates for up to 365 days.

Using the Group Policy Editor you can set updates to Notify you.
That means no update is applied unless you approve it.

Please use Google or tenforums Tutorials to find out more if unfamiliar.

For older systems particularly it can be necessary to disable updates if the hardware is incompatible.
There are some good 3rd party tools for that, and to manage updates as well. One such is Sledgehammer (free). Others are repeatedly mentioned as is all of the above on WU on this forum. This also provides access to some WU features (hide, notify) and supports scan for and checkbox selection of updates.

The same comment applies to pestilent messages that appear on the bottom right of the screen for maybe three seconds, too quick.

Which notifications you get is considerably under your control - explore Settings for this.

Is it possible to have the search box like Win 7, in the start menu?

Open Shell is referred to and recommended by many on this forum - a development from Classic Shell (free).

Window 10 setup: search box, taskbar and updates-1.png

Coming from Win 7 this highly configurable start menu supports apps, drag 'n' drop, rt click, no tiles.
You will note I borrowed Win 7's orb to use with that.

On appearance- this may interest you:

Hope that helps a little..