Windows Phone: 21 tips and tricks

1. Project your screen to your PC or TV

Projecting your phone to your PC or TV screen is surprisingly
simple. Select Settings > System > Project My Screen. Your
phone will automatically start searching for any devices near
you that can take advantage of wireless screen projection.
However, if your TV or PC monitor does not support this, it's
still possible to project your screen via USB on a Windows
PC. First, download the Project My Screen app from
Microsoft's official Windows Phone website, install it on
your system, restart, open the app, plug your phone into your
PC and navigate to Project My Screen as before. This is great
for showing off your videos and photos on a much larger
screen.

2. Glance settings

Glance settings allow you to adjust your time and lock screen
content when your phone is on standby. Select Settings >
Glance Screen to see the full range of options, which are
pleasingly extensive. Particularly useful options include
glance screen timeout settings. Consider keeping it at "peek"
or turned off completely if you're worried about battery life.
An interesting function called Night Mode allows you to set a
timeframe – such as 10pm to 6am – during which your
phone's lock screen will change colour to a dark red, green or
blue, in order to save your eyes from any intrusive glare that
the standard white may cause. The blue is particularly
effective.

3. Battery Saver

Battery Saver, found by heading to Settings > Battery Saver,
will give you extensive control over your battery usage. The
opening screen will give you a good indication of which apps
are using the most power, which at a glance allows you to
locate which apps you might want to shut down or uninstall.
Swipe right and you'll get more detailed information, such as
exactly how long your battery will last and whether you
would like to enable Windows Phone's Battery Saver, which
can conserve energy when your battery is low.

4. Data Sense

Data Sense (Settings > Data Sense) finds more efficient ways
to use mobile data and displays your usage. With this
powerful feature, it's possible to set very specific data limits
– for example, if you're on a monthly plan with 1GB of data,
you can set the date your data resets, assign the monthly data
limit and Windows Mobile will only allow you to use the
specified amount unless the settings are overridden. You can
also restrict background data usage while roaming and
instruct your phone to compress images and adverts in
Internet Explorer automatically if you're reaching the end of
your data limit.

5. WiFi Sense

In a nutshell, WiFi Sense takes the hassle out of connecting to
public WiFi hotspots and allows you to securely share your
WiFi details with friends on Outlook, Facebook and Skype.
Head to Settings > WiFi > WiFi Sense and you can tell your
phone to automatically accept terms for use when required.
Additionally, under Edit Info, you can tell your Windows
Phone to automatically provide a fake name, email address
and phone number if you're concerned about privacy while
using a public network.

6. Word Flow

Word Flow is built into Windows Phone 8.1, allowing for fast
and accurate shape typing. Instead of typing each letter
individually, you can glide your finger across the letters
instead. No need to hit space after each word, just lift your
finger and begin gliding again and Word Flow will enter the
spaces for you. To quickly add a full stop and a space, tap
space twice. What's more, Word Flow is quite clever - for
instance, it will automatically add accents to words that
commonly use them, or capitalise proper nouns, such as
"England" or "Tom Selleck"'. The more you use it, the
smarter Word Flow will become.

7. Set up a mobile VPN

A Virtual Private Network allows for remote secure
connections to private networks using a public internet
connection. This is now an in-built feature for all Windows
8.1 phones and is especially useful if you work on the go and
need access to your company's network when you're
catching up on emails at the airport or a coffee shop. Go to
Settings > VPN and tap the plus symbol at the bottom to set
up the VPN. You may need to ask your IT department for your
specific VPN settings, which they should be able to supply
easily.

8. Set Quiet Hours

In Settings > Quiet Hours you can outsource your calls and
texts to Cortana, Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant,
leaving you completely undisturbed for as long as you wish.

Quiet hours can be turned on for specific hours (say 10pm to
6am) and/or when you have a calendar event marked busy.

You can also set "breakthrough rules" for your "inner circle".
This means specific individuals will still be able to contact
you, even during your quiet hours if you so wish.

9. Automatically backup photos and set default camera app

In Settings > Applications > Photos+Camera you can change
your default camera app. This is particularly useful if you
enjoy using the hugely popular Instagram a lot or if you're
keen on using more sophisticated camera applications that
provide a greater range of options and features. From here
you can also ensure that your phone automatically saves your
images and videos to the cloud, or turn this feature off/limit it
to WiFi only if you're worried about data usage.

10. Action Centre/customise quick access options

The new Action Centre introduced with Windows Phone 8.1 –
accessed by swiping down from the top of your screen – is
highly customisable. If you're not happy with the default
quick actions provided, head to Settings > Notifications
+Actions and you can change the four shortcuts to whatever
you desire. Additionally, you can edit the behaviour of
banner alerts as well as app and phone notifications.

11. Personalise your start screen

You can personalise your Start Screen by going to Settings >
Start+Theme. Options include changing your phone's
background as well as the "accent colour". You're not simply
limited to a dark or light background either, it's now possible
to choose a photo from a pre-installed list of backgrounds,
your camera roll, Facebook or the cloud.

12. Stay in sync

If you have several Windows devices, you'll really appreciate
Windows Phone 8.1's synchronisation settings. Go to Settings
> Sync My Settings where you can effortlessly sync your
themes, apps, web browser and passwords across all your
devices. This is great for those who like to keep the look of
their devices consistent as well as those who regularly move
from one device to another, perhaps working from a phone,
PC and tablet in a single day and therefore need seamless
device switching.

13. Volume control

In Windows Phone 8.1 it's possible to take control of two
individual volume levels – your standard ringer and
notifications volume, and your media and apps volume. In
other words, if you'd like to listen to your music or games at a
lower or higher volume than your ringer, you can. To access
this, tap the small arrow in the top right of the screen when
you adjust your phone's volume. A new window will open
and from here you can change the levels individually.

14. Narrate your phone

If you're visually impaired you'll want to head to Settings >
Ease of Access and try out Windows Phone 8.1's new
Narrator feature. Turn this on and your phone will read out
loud any text on your phone. This feature is only available in
the States for now, but bypassing this is easy. Go to Settings >
Region and change your region to the US. Unfortunately this
will give you US-style dates and currency, but it's a small
price to pay for a great feature and it will undoubtedly be
incorporated in the UK in the near future.

15. Storage Sense

Managing your storage on Windows Phone 8.1 is a breeze
thanks to the new Storage Sense feature. Go to Settings >
Storage for a quick breakdown of what's taking up the most
room on your phone and SD card (if you have one). Tap
through the menus to remove any bloated software, apps,
video or audio files that you no longer need. You can even
choose where your store your music, photos and apps – for
instance, you can tell your phone to automatically store all
your music on your SD card, but keep your apps stored on
your phone's internal storage.

16. Never lose your phone

Find My Phone allows you to ring, lock, erase, locate or send
apps to your phone remotely from WindowsPhone.com. You
can set your device to always use push notifications to send
commands and apps to your phone as well as commanding
your phone to save its location moments before the battery
runs out, so as to more easily locate it when lost. Go to
Settings > Find My Phone to edit these options.

17. Edit Cortana's brain

Cortana is perhaps one of the most advanced intelligent
personal assistants around at the moment, with the exception
of Google Now. This nifty AI learns a lot about you thanks to
its notebook, stored locally on your phone. Information is
gradually collected here over time as users continue to take
advantage of Cortana's features, but it's possible to add more
data manually or to remove data that you're not comfortable
sharing. Tap Cortana on your home screen then tap the three
horizontal bars in the top right-hand corner to enter the
notebook. From here you can add or remove interests,
reminders, places, quiet hours and edit your settings.

18. Customise your lock screen

For some reason "Show artist when playing music" is turned
off on the lock screen by default. This a handy feature and
there are no doubt many people who are unaware it exists. Go
to Settings > Lock Screen to enable it. You can also change
your background image or even set it to display the weather
or your latest health and fitness statistics. Notifications,
screen lock passwords and screen timeout settings can also be
modified here.

19. Download maps

This isn't a new feature, but it's hidden deep within Settings >
Applications > Maps > Download Maps and is occasionally
missed – a shame, as this could be very useful if you plan to
go somewhere with little to no data coverage or as a backup if
you're not sure. The options provided are pleasingly
extensive. You can download maps for offline viewing by
continent, country and even region. For instance, you can
download all of the UK to your phone for a mere 535 MB
(about the same size as four albums at a standard compression
rate) or select England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales
separately.

20. Disable auto updates

Before Windows Phone 8.1, apps did not update
automatically. Instead, a notification would appear on the app
store icon, reminding users that various apps needed
attention. However, you may have preferred the old system,
which is now turned off by default. Perhaps you're worried
about data usage, even over WiFi.

Perhaps you fear change. If
you'd like to go back to installing your updates manually, tap
Store > Settings and uncheck "Update apps automatically".

21. Bin bothersome Bing

Almost all Windows Phone 8.1 devices limit users to using
Microsoft's less than desirable search engine, Bing.

Unfortunately there's no way to change your default search
engine to popular alternatives. If you truly detest Bing you
can slightly work around it by heading to the app store and
downloading Google's official search app. You can't make it
your default search engine, but you can pin it to your start
screen, making Googling something a little easier and quicker
than firing up Internet Explorer and heading to Google.com