Matt Refghi

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When you encounter an error message in Windows 11, and you want to Google that message to understand what it’s all about, you don’t have to actually look at the dialog and type into Google what you’re seeing. Instead, try pressing CTRL+C when you have the dialog in focus. So when I do that and then I pop open Notepad and then I paste, notice that it has the exact same contents as the dialog. So if you look right here, it tells me what the title is, it tells me what the content is and that there’s a button called OK. This makes it far easier to copy the text and stick it in Google. This won’t work in all cases, it really depends on the dialog, but it’s worth a shot.

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If you ever need to find the bundle ID of a particular Android or iOS app, here’s how you do it.

So for Android it’s real simple, you just search for Play Store and then the name of the app. And then you actually scroll down and find the Google Play, like the play.google.com result. Click that, and then you’ll notice, in the address bar, that’s it: com.google.chrome, that’s the bundle ID.

Now, for Apple, it’s a little different. Go back to Google, search for “App Store Google Chrome”, we’re going to click on the first result. Notice in the address bar there’s an ID here at the end, an actual number, we’re going to copy that. We’re going to stick it at the end of this link, which I’m going to have in the description, okay? Then we’re going to copy that link and we’re going to stick in a new tab in a browser and press ENTER. And then it downloads a file. It’s a bit weird, but don’t worry, this is actually the right way to do it. When you open that file, search for “BundleID”, and you’ll see, there it is: com.google.chrome.ios.

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Let’s say I’m browsing the web and I think I’m done with this window, about puppies, and I’m also done with this window about kittens, where I was reading about the health of kittens, okay? So I’m going to close that too. But what if I realize that was a mistake and I need those tabs back? I don’t know the exact URL that I was at. Well, there’s a shortcut for that. Press CTRL+SHIFT+T, and it’ll resurrect whatever you just closed. Now note that this brought back kitten in the health section, so it actually remembered where I was. But what about the puppies, where are they? Well, CTRL+SHIFT+T again, and the puppies come back. That’s because every time you press it, it goes back in time one step – so this will bring back windows and tabs in almost any browser.

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If you’re using Task Manager in Windows 11, check out this feature, you might not be aware of it. Go to the Performance tab in the left-hand side, and then when you’re looking at these stats, it shows your CPU, your memory, all this stuff. If you want to focus on one of these, double-click the section, and then task manager transforms into this, which is called Tiny Footprint mode. You can then drag this around, and you can continue doing some work on the rest of your computer while you monitor your computer. To get back to your normal mode, you just have to double-click again, and you’re back, and realize that you can also on the left-hand side double-click this and then you have an overview of everything. So depending on what you want to test, this might be really useful for you. Now a good thing to realize is, when you are in this mode, you double-click to exit the mode.

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If you’re ever using Task Manager in Windows and you find yourself on this screen right here, and you don’t understand how you got here, all you have to do is you have to double-click, and that will free you. That’s called Tiny Footprint mode and it’s actually a nice feature from Microsoft letting you focus on a particular part of the performance tab. But it can be pretty confusing if you find yourself here without realizing how you got there.

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Let’s say you’re using Task Manager to figure out which process is using the most CPU. You might rightfully click on the CPU column at the top to figure out what the worst offenders are. Let’s say the worst offender is Windows Explorer – don’t kill Windows Explorer in general, it’s fine, but let’s say that’s the problem, right? So what I have to do to end that task, to kill that task, is to find it in the list, but things are moving – I’m going to try and find Windows Expl – oh, I saw it for a sec there, oh, it’s gone again… scroll down, where’s Windows Explorer… it must be up here maybe – oh, it’s right there – it’s gone again. Oh, whoa, I think I actually got it now, it’s a context – I think I actually got it. Now there has to be a better way, right? I shouldn’t have to hunt it like this to actually find it. Well there is a better way – hold CTRL – and everything stops moving. This blew my mind – the amount of times I was hunting for the process. Anyway, enjoy your lives now, I’m so happy to bring this to you.

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So there’s this feature built into Windows called Sandbox. In my experience, most people don’t know about this, but it’s such a useful feature that I have to spread the word. So what Sandbox does is it lets you test out new software or visit sites in an environment where you don’t really put your computer at risk, but yet… you’re using your computer. So let’s take a look – I’ll show you how that works.

So to turn this feature on, you have to click the start button, and you can search for “turn”, then you’re going to select where it says “Turn windows features on or off”. Let’s click that. You’re going to get a prompt to enter admin credentials – you just have to do that. And then when this loads, just scroll down and go to where it says Windows Sandbox – “Enables the dependencies required to run Windows Sandbox scenarios”. So you check this off, you click OK, then you’ll get a prompt that you have to reboot once this thing is done searching for required files. Now it says “Applying changes”… and we have to reboot.

After rebooting, let’s go straight to the start button and type “Sandbox”. Here we’ll see Windows Sandbox, this is the new option, we just turned it on in Windows – so let’s go ahead and left-click this. Just a word of warning, the first time you launch this, it will take a bit of time – subsequent launches will be quicker. That’s what happened in my experience. So here we have Windows Sandbox loading and we’ll see what it’s like in a moment.

Hm? Seeing double, here? Yeah, well that’s because it’s a virtual machine… so a virtual machine is just a computer running within another computer. So in this case, this Windows Sandbox window, here, contains another copy of the Windows operating system that we’re currently using, but it doesn’t have anything installed beyond what comes installed by default. So for example if I click the search here and look for Edge, Edge is installed. Okay? But I actually go and look for Chrome, Chrome is not installed. Because that doesn’t come installed with Windows by default.

So basically what this thing is, it’s like an incognito tab for a computer, so in your browser when you pop open an incognito tab, or private tab, just to test something, visit some sites that you don’t want to be remembered in the history, well, you know you can close those windows and then the browser kind of forgets about it, right? Well, this is the same thing, except it’s in Windows! I feel like I’m repeating myself here, but essentially, it means that if you install apps here, or if you visit sites here, within this Sandbox, the second you close this window, this X here, “Are you sure you want to close Windows Sandbox? Once Windows Sandbox is closed all of its content will be discarded and permanently lost.” Now that’s powerful. We don’t really need it – for visiting sites, because we have browsers that have that nice feature, you know?

But when it comes to installing applications, let’s say I want to test an application, but I don’t want to install it on my real computer because I don’t know if I’m going to keep it. Applications install files, they install folders, they sometimes play with the Registry. If I’m just going to try and then ditch it, I don’t want my computer to remember that – I don’t want it to – I don’t want to trust that the vendor is going to uninstall things properly – I’d like to vet it first. And Windows Sandbox is perfect for that.

So I’m going to press “Cancel” here, and then I’m going to go to File Explorer, then to Downloads… now keep in mind, I’m on my actual computer right now, right? Here’s the setup for Opera – Opera is a browser I used a long time ago, and I haven’t used it in a while, so let’s say I want to try it, right? So to try it, I’m going to copy this file – from my actual computer – I did CTRL+C here – I’m going to click into the Sandbox window, and I’m going to do CTRL+V. So Opera pops up here. I’m going to close this Downloads window – so now Opera’s setup is on the Windows Sandbox desktop. I’m going to double-click that thing… and we’re going to install it as if it’s our computer. I’m going to just click “accept and install”, I’m going to say “Accept” here… so now I’m playing around with their little installer here, I’m just going to say “dark” because that’s the only right answer, right? You know, I’ll just say later, I’ll just skip ahead to the browser.

And here’s Opera. So let’s go to google.ca – for the sake of comparison, I go on my actual computer and search for Opera. Do I have it? Nope, I just have the .exe that I downloaded, right? So where I do have it is on the Sandbox – so again, if I press this, type Opera… Opera Browser is, in fact, installed. Okay? So let’s say I use it, I don’t want to keep it – as I’ve explained a few times already – just press this, the X, and then click OK, that’s it. There’s no trace of Opera on my actual computer other than the download.

I’ll include a link in the description so you guys can read more on this feature. And if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m here to help.

This is an exceptionally good video – I will always step aside to promote this type of content.

By Casey Neistat

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Coming soon.

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Coming soon.