Windows Laptops as a Teacher: Tips and Tricks
Six practical Windows features and shortcuts that save teachers time every day.
Getting More from the Tool You Already Have
Most teachers use a Windows laptop every day, but very few tap into the hidden features that can save significant time. Whether you are projecting a lesson on the smartboard, preparing materials at your desk, or quickly grabbing content from the internet, these six tips will make your Windows experience smoother and more productive. No additional software purchases required for most of them.
1. Keep Your Screen Awake with PowerToys Awake
Nothing disrupts a lesson quite like your laptop screen going dark in the middle of a presentation because the power settings kicked in. Microsoft PowerToys is a free utility pack from Microsoft, and its Awake feature solves this problem instantly. Once installed, you can right-click the Awake icon in the system tray and tell your laptop to stay awake for one hour, two hours, or indefinitely.
This is far more convenient than digging into Settings and changing your sleep timer before every lesson. When the class ends, click Awake again to return to your normal power settings. Download PowerToys from the Microsoft Store or GitHub. Installation takes less than two minutes, and the entire suite includes other useful tools like a color picker, a file renamer, and a keyboard remapper.
2. Strip Formatting with Notepad
Teachers frequently copy text from websites, PDFs, and emails to paste into their own documents or presentations. The problem is that the copied text carries over all the original formatting: fonts, sizes, colors, and spacing that clash with your document's design. The quick fix is to paste the text into Notepad first.
Notepad is a plain-text editor that strips all formatting automatically. Copy the text from any source, paste it into Notepad, then copy it again from Notepad and paste it into your destination document. The text will arrive clean, matching whatever formatting your document uses. This two-step process takes about three seconds and eliminates the need to manually reformat pasted content. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V in many applications to paste without formatting, but Notepad works universally when that shortcut is not available.
3. Fullscreen Mode with Fn + F11
When projecting your browser, a document, or any application onto a smartboard, the toolbar, taskbar, and address bar eat up valuable screen space. Pressing Fn+F11 (or just F11 on some keyboards) toggles fullscreen mode, hiding all interface elements and giving you the maximum display area.
This is especially useful when showing videos, reading passages, or displaying images that benefit from edge-to-edge visibility. Students at the back of the room will appreciate the larger content area. Press the same key combination to exit fullscreen when you need the toolbar back. It works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and most Windows applications.
4. Extract Text from Images with Snipping Tool
The Windows Snipping Tool received a significant upgrade with an optical character recognition (OCR) feature. Open Snipping Tool, take a screenshot of any image that contains text, and you will see an option to extract the text as copyable, editable content. This works on photographs of book pages, screenshots of PDFs, images of handwritten notes (if they are legible), and even text embedded in infographics.
For teachers, this is a game-changer. Spot a great passage in a library book? Snap a photo and extract the text instead of typing it out. Need to digitize a student's handwritten brainstorm? The OCR handles it. Open Snipping Tool with Win+Shift+S, capture the area, and look for the text extraction option in the toolbar. The accuracy is impressive for printed text and continues to improve with each Windows update.
5. Bonus: Split Screen with Snap Layouts
When preparing lessons, you often need two windows side by side: your lesson plan on the left and a resource website on the right. Hover your mouse over the maximize button of any window, and Windows will display Snap Layout options. Choose a two-column, three-column, or quadrant layout, and Windows will automatically resize and position your windows.
This eliminates the tedious process of manually dragging and resizing windows. During class, you can snap a timer app next to your presentation or place a student list beside your gradebook. The keyboard shortcut Win+Arrow Keys also snaps windows quickly once you learn the combinations.
6. Bonus: Quick Notes with Win + H Voice Typing
Windows includes a built-in voice typing feature activated by pressing Win+H. A small microphone bar appears, and everything you say is transcribed into whichever text field is active. This is incredibly useful for quickly dictating lesson reflections, observation notes, or email drafts when your hands are full or when typing feels slow.
The recognition accuracy is surprisingly good, especially in a quiet environment. Speak naturally, include punctuation by saying "period" or "comma," and watch your words appear in real time. After a long teaching day, voice typing your notes feels like a relief compared to typing them out manually.