09 Mar Computer Tricks That Are Not Commonly Known
Almost everyone believes that he or she knows how to use a computer, whether it is a “Windows” or a “Macintosh.” And 99 percent of the time, we’re wrong.
Meanwhile, studies demonstrate (and any coder would concur) that using shortcuts may significantly speed up your computer chores.
The most important hot keys are listed below. Maybe some of you already know these tips, but if you don’t, trust me when I say that they will save you hundreds of hours of your life!
1- How to instantly open a randomly closed tab?
Unfortunately, this happens often: wanted to close a window in the browser but accidentally closed other important windows as well.
Instead of looking for it in history, use these “short-cuts” to compensate your inattention:
For Windows: Ctrl + Shift + T
For Mac: cmd + Z (Safari) and cmd + Shift + T (for Google Chrome).
2- What if somebody you don’t trust crept in from behind?
Sometimes you need to shut your windows as fast as possible, so you have a dozen windows opened and don’t want somebody to watch them.
These shorts quickly remove the browser windows by minimizing all and showing the desktop(in windows) and you can return to the Word or Excel screen (manually):
For Windows: Windows + D (minimizes all applications and shows desktop)
For Mac: Fn + F11
3- How to lock the computer, if you need to leave for a while?
Others will not able to open only if you have set a password to login. One can simply enter by clicking your user icon if you dont have a password.
This quick combination of keys will instantly lock your computer and you will be able to fully enjoy the time you’re out:
For Windows: “Windows” key + L.
For Mac: cmd + Alt + Eject.
You might be interested by this article too: How Do I Identify If Someone Is Spying On My Computer System
4- What if the computer halts?
It happens that you are sitting in Photoshop, and all of a sudden – the entire computer is “hung”. And it does not react to anything.
Typically, users immediately press Ctrl + Alt + Del to reboot. But this is far from the best solution.
It is much better to use short-cuts: they will stop only this one nasty program:
For Windows: Ctrl + Shift + Esc (Opens the task manager)
For Mac: cmd + Option (alt) + Shift + Esc.
Hold these buttons for three seconds in a row, and the hung program closes, and you will be able to work on and not lose any changes in all your documents.
5- Need to quickly save the URL of any web page?
As practice shows, this combination will save you millions of minutes:
For Windows: Ctrl + D
Mac version: cmd + L
6- How to make a screenshot not of the whole screen, but only of the required part of it?
All Windows users are accustomed to press “Print Screen” when they need to show something to their comrades. But it happens that there are too many things on the screen, and it is long and tedious to crop the picture.
Here’s how to always allocate only what you need:
For Windows:
-Alt + Print Screen(the screenshot is saved to a folder called “Screenshots” in Pictures folder)
For Mac:
– cmd + Shift + 3 (the screenshot is saved on the desktop)
– cmd + Shift + Ctrl + 3 (the screenshot gets to the clipboard)
– cmd + Shift + 4 (Only the desired piece of the screen gets saved on the desktop)
– cmd + Shift + Ctrl + 4 (the desired piece gets copied to the clipboard)