With the anniversary update, Microsoft has added to Windows 10 a new feature definitely worth trying, which remains particularly useful for those who use PCs with a touchscreen. It is Windows Ink, designed to make using a digital pen easier and faster on a Windows 10 tablet, but which can also work very effectively on normal PCs to take quick notes, take screenshots and draw on the screen .
The only problem is that Windows Ink, like many of the best features, is a hidden tool in Windows 10 that isn't immediately visible if you don't know it.
To view Windows Ink and explore its functions, you need to press the right mouse button on the taskbar and bring up the context menu.
Among the entries, there should be one that says " Show the Windows Ink Workspace button ".
By clicking this option, a new icon appears in the notification area at the bottom right, with the image of a pen writing.
Windows Ink appears as a start menu that lists all the activities that it would be possible to have with a digital pen.
At the bottom of the Ink area column you will see the installed apps that can work using the stylus on the screen.
These include Microsoft Edge, Maps, Image Viewer and Onenote right away.
There are also the apps suggested by the Windows store and a quick link to discover the apps for the pen.
In the upper part, however, there are the three tools that can also be used without a digital pen, using the mouse, that is:
- Memo, which launches the Sticky Notes app, or the Windows post-it program that works exactly like the adhesive ones for the desk.
It is possible to write sheets of notes, to resize and color them as you like, and stick them on the desktop so that they remain always visible.
- Drawing pad, it is the app to draw, full screen, freehand.
This drawing area is completely free of additional options and tools, you can only choose the color to draw from the menu at the top where the buttons to cut out an area of the drawing and the ruler to make straight lines also appear.
The drawing can then be saved as an image or shared on other apps.
- Notes on the screen that works to take a screenshot of the screen (as you would also by pressing the Windows and Stamp keys together), with the possibility, however, to cut out only a part of the image taken and to draw on it with the same tools of the drawing pad.
If you use a digital pen, you can configure the Windows Ink workspace by going to Settings -> Devices> Windows Ink .
You will find several options for controlling the pen and Ink, for example to say that you write with your left hand instead of with your right and to choose what should happen by pressing the button on the pen.
If you do not plan to use Windows Ink, just hide its icon in the same way it was made by pressing the right button on the taskbar.
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