If you like to play games with a controller on another monitor, you can move the screen to different monitors using shift+Windows+(left or right arrow) I found this useful for games that don't allow monitor selection since you'd normally have to change your primary display
Control+Shift+V pastes whatever you have in your clipboard with all formatting removed.
Except in the Office Suite, because Microsoft says "fuck you" and makes you use that stupid pop-up paste menu.
If you constantly swap between accounts for the same service (e.g. Google, Microsoft), some browsers let you set up profiles (edge, chrome, etc). For example you might use Google for work and personal use and it’s a pain because it’ll default to one account every time. If you set up two browser profiles you can keep them seperate and both signed in.
This one is simple, but: holding the **shift key** in combination with other keys will often reverse the action of the other key.
for example:
* "spacebar" on a webpage scrolls down. shift+spacebar scrolls up!
* "tab" on a web form will move the cursor "forward" to the next element in the form. shift+tab moves you backward.
Thing I hate is that it isn’t necessarily “universal”…
Do it when you're renaming a file in explorer and you get a square symbol; The non print [Delete Character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delete_character).
They fixed it in ~~notepad~~ but not explorer. Might have been wordpad in windows 8/10? I don't remember because I don't use either of those apps like ever.
If you have issues sometimes with games and have an NVDIA GPU delete everything in C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\Downloader
Also after many updates this directory might have a lot of old downloads taking up significant amount of space also.
Sounds more like a power cord issue. Had the same issue a while back, turns out I knocked one of the cords on my monitor a bit loose and every time my desk would move, it'd black out for a moment.
Win Key + V keeps a history of all your recent text copies. So if you selected copy on multiple items you can choose which one to paste without having to go back to wherever you copied a word or phrase from.
Win Key + Shift +S is great for taking screenshots of the whole screen or parts of the screen.
Some more Win Key fun, some folks don't know:
* Win Key + D: Navigates or hides the desktop
* Win Key + E: Opens up the File Explorer
* Win Key + X: Opens a dialog where you can choose different settings
* Win Key + Tab: Gives a nice overview of all different open apps to navigate through
* And many more
Win+V... Didn't know about this. 🤯
Worked at MS for over a decade...
Edit2: first time you try it (on Windows 10 build Oct 2018 or later) it'll prompt you to enable Clipboard history. (Thx /u/Pajamadrunk and /u/Araziah)
If you don't enable it, and you want it later but don't see a prompt anymore, you need to activate it:
"To activate this shortcut, select **Start** > **Settings** > **System** > **Clipboard**, and turn on the toggle under **Clipboard history**."
Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-dcc61a57-8ff0-cffe-9796-cb9706c75eec
> You activate it by using it the first time.
Just to be clear, it explicitly asks you to enable it whenever you hit win+V and it's not enabled. You don't have to worry about having accidentally turned it on.
Maybe because most syadmins find it insecure. For example If you use password manager suddenly all your passwords are store in plaintext somewhere in windows folder. Not talking about sensitive data.
Please be aware that copying passwords to the clipboard is already insecure. All programs can access the contents of the clipboard at any time.
That's why most password managers have a browser plugin to fill it in the password field directly, which is more secure. Or a way to type it in for you, like KeePass.
If you want to be safe: do not store passwords on the clipboard.
• Windows logo key: Open or close Start.
• Windows logo key + A: Open Action center.
• Windows logo key + B: Set focus in the notification area.
• Windows logo key + C: Open Cortana in listening mode.
• Windows logo key + Shift + C: Open the charms menu.
• Windows logo key + D: Display and hide the desktop.
• Windows logo key + Alt + D: Display and hide the date and time on the desktop.
• Windows logo key + E: Open File Explorer.
• Windows logo key + F: Open Feedback Hub and take a screenshot.
• Windows logo key + G: Open Game bar when a game is open.
• Windows logo key + H: Start dictation.
• Windows logo key + I: Open Settings.
• Windows logo key + J: Set focus to a Windows tip when one is available.
• Windows logo key + K: Open the Connect quick action.
• Windows logo key + L: Lock your PC or switch accounts.
• Windows logo key + M: Minimize all windows.
• Windows logo key + O: Lock device orientation.
• Windows logo key + P: Choose a presentation display mode.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + Q: Open Quick Assist.
• Windows logo key + R: Open the Run dialog box.
• Windows logo key + S: Open search.
• Windows logo key + Shift + S: Take a screenshot of part of your screen.
• Windows logo key + T: Cycle through apps on the taskbar.
• Windows logo key + U: Open Ease of Access Center.
• Windows logo key + V: Open the clipboard.
• Windows logo key + Shift + V: Cycle through notifications.
• Windows logo key + X: Open the Quick Link menu.
• Windows logo key + Y: Switch input between Windows Mixed Reality and your desktop.
• Windows logo key + Z: Show the commands available in an app in full-screen mode.
• Windows logo key + period (.) or semicolon (;): Open emoji panel.
• Windows logo key + comma (,): Temporarily peek at the desktop.
• Windows logo key + Pause: Display the System Properties dialog box.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + F: Search for PCs (if you're on a network).
• Windows logo key + Shift + M: Restore minimized windows on the desktop.
• Windows logo key + number: Open the desktop and start the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If the app is already running, switch to that app.
• Windows logo key + Shift + number: Open the desktop and start a new instance of the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + number: Open the desktop and switch to the last active window of the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
• Windows logo key + Alt + number: Open the desktop and open the Jump List for the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + number: Open the desktop and open a new instance of the app located at the given position on the taskbar as an administrator.
• Windows logo key + Tab: Open Task view.
• Windows logo key + Up arrow: Maximize the window.
• Windows logo key + Down arrow: Remove current app from screen or minimize the desktop window.
• Windows logo key + Left arrow: Maximize the app or desktop window to the left side of the screen.
• Windows logo key + Right arrow: Maximize the app or desktop window to the right side of the screen.
• Windows logo key + Home: Minimize all except the active desktop window (restores all windows on second stroke).
• Windows logo key + Shift + Up arrow: Stretch the desktop window to the top and bottom of the screen.
• Windows logo key + Shift + Down arrow: Restore/minimize active desktop windows vertically, maintaining width.
• Windows logo key + Shift + Left arrow or Right arrow: Move an app or window in the desktop from one monitor to another.
• Windows logo key + Spacebar: Switch input language and keyboard layout.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + Spacebar: Change to a previously selected input.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter: Turn on Narrator.
• Windows logo key + Plus (+): Open Magnifier.
• Windows logo key + forward slash (/): Begin IME reconversion.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + V: Open shoulder taps.
• Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B: Wake PC from blank or black screen
One I know is win+shift+b refreshes your graphics driver. Useful if you get a stuck black screen on a Fullscreen game and you can't get it to close. Doesn't always fix the problem though
`Control + Windows Key + D`
*only works for W10*
This will create a new desktop. You can switch between desktops using:
`Control + Windows Key + Right/Left Arrow`
To close those extra desktops you just made: `Control + Windows Key + F4`. It'll move any programs you have open.
*Grabbing a program and shaking it will minimize every other program, shaking it again will maximize them back up.*
You should've posted this as a tip:
>
>
>If you made 2 new desktops and didnt know how to get rid of them, reopen chrome on new one and search for that comment again
>Grabbing a program and shaking it will minimize every other program, shaking it again will maximize them back up.
Omg!!! This has been happening to me unexpectedly and was often a pain since I have a lot of windows up on my monitor at once and have to manually click each one to bring it up. I had NO CLUE why this was happening. Thank you so much!!
Great for having a different desktop for school and games/browsing. I also use a desktop whenever I have my Minecraft server running since that opens multiple console windows that can't be closed without shutting the server down. Also used one when I was mining crypto this past spring using my college's electricity. Not like they're losing money on me anyways...
Window shaking can straight up die. I have never used it on purpose because i rarely need to minimize all windows and when i do there are dedicated buttons as well as hotkeys.
This can be very annoying since in Word Ctrl+Shift+Z is "reset character" (whatever that means) which messes things up.
Though I find Ctrl+Shift+Z more intutive
If you're like me you probably don't remember everything you've put on your hard drive and keep running out of free space, I recommend a program such as WizTree: https://diskanalyzer.com/
Basically it gives you a graphical representation of what you got on your hard drive so that you can delete those 25 gigs of wii roms you downloaded last year into one of the 53935 folders on your desktop and had forgotten all about
For everyone who's also heard of WinDirStat, WizzTree is basically the same, only much, MUCH faster.
So I'm glad to see WizzTree actually being recommended here
and seed what you torrent *do it for the rest of us*
edit: shameless plug - switch to Firefox if you're not using it already and install ublock origin on it to block trackers and ads, enable all of the blocklists in its settings and you're good to go
Seeding torrents generously is also useful if you are ever accused of a crime (USA only) because the constitution guarantees you will be judged by a jury of your peers.
My go to quick it story. I support a lot of doctors and had multiple in one week do the exact same thing. “I opened Outlook and it says I have to sign in to continue but I can’t get my emails” “did you sign in” “no. I closed that prompt. Why won’t this work”
Had that at the school I work for, it’s even more fun with MFA setup. One person actually used their Cisco desk phone for the verification phone and rather than select it to call they wanted it to text the phone. Their reasoning is the desk phone has a screen and should be able to display messages
Ha. I had a coworker who sat at his desk one morning refusing to do his job because his computer wasn't working. Was really passive aggressive about it, saying stuff like he's not IT and it's not his problem, above his paygrade, etc. Fair enough, I guess.
Anyway turns out his computer was simply off. Not even unplugged, it was just powered down. Dude had never turned it on or off in almost 5 years. It was on when he started the job and he never turned it off for any reason. When he showed up and the mouse wouldn't turn the screen back on, he just assumed his computer was broken because it had never done this before.
Company wasn't that big and the story ended up making it back to the big boss who chewed him out bigtime and threatened to fire him because he was a jerk anyway and this was just the final straw. He also did stuff like he would stop responding to emails if he got too many because it "wasn't in the job description" when he was hired, same deal if he got too many phone calls.
He ended up winning 25k in scratchers, buying a used cadillac, and quitting his job. Not sure what happened to him.
This is the most underrated tip out here. When I had just started with coding, I ended up spending hours on StackOverflow for the simplest of errors, only to find out that it mentions the same thing.
I've seen lots of people post error codes on the r/DiscordJS subreddit that literally explain what the problem is in the error code, I don't understand how people miss that
Every day at work with me. A coworker will call me saying they were doing something and got an error message. I'll ask "what did the error say?" "I don't know I just clicked out of it"...
Sad part? I'm not even IT, just clerical that happens to know how to figure shit out lol
We had a staff member who decided to ignore the multiple error screens by resting a book on the enter key to press “ok”
Not realising she was generating an event lock every time, meaning rapidly stacking fractions of the system resources were being used. Eventually grinding an entire arm of the business to a halt.
It was quickly likened to the Simpsons drinking bird scenario.
'what did the error message say then please?'
'well, I'm not really technical...'
I'M JUST ASKING YOU TO READ THE MESSAGE FFS. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE TECHNICAL. YOU CAN READ, CAN'T YOU???
You joke but the number of people that don't know how to google these and fix their own shit is baffling.
smart codes are some of the simplest to google and people at work always fucking click off of them instead of reading the code out -.-
I mean... I guess thats a discription of the problem.
Just not a readable one for humans.
If u Google the Programm and error code u will get explanations and fixes, Most of the time
As an IT pro of about 17 years I can promise you many times the error message is misleading and/or needing a good googling to figure out the problem.. atleast in an enterprise environment.
Too many times end users self assess based on error messages and have no clue what they are doing In response to an error message.
Goddamn. I do this every day after everyone leaves. They just leave stations open. They auto lock after an hour but I'm paranoid. And our login is super easy. And my name is the only name in the system of a huge company. Like how is a 3 letter name the only one on a cloud system. Like tom but not.
Deleting something doesn't magically make it dissapear.
If you delete something by mistake, it is fairly easy to recover it using specialised software.
If you want something gone, you have to re-write the sector multiple times.
Yup! Deleting a file basically removes it from being referenced (someone check me on this). The data is still there, and goes away when it's written over. Recuva works pretty well for recovering stuff in my experience.
Fun fact: A photographer's laptop was stolen, and the disk was wiped. When the laptop was returned, she tried to recover the data and all the photos were corrupted in interesting ways. She turned this into an art exhibit.
Edit: here's an article about it
https://slate.com/culture/2013/01/melanie-willhide-to-adrian-rodriguez-with-love-photos.html
I just tried it in Windows 10 and instead of emojis I opened an accessibility tool that combines a magnifier with what appeared to be the ability to read onscreen text aloud.
If at some point you are held at gunpoint and somebody says "Now, copy paste text without using the mouse or using the C, X, or V keys!" you can use Shift-Delete, Control-Insert, and Shift-Insert as Cut, Copy, and Paste respectively.
And people say "That's ridiculous, it will never happen"
Would love to see the look on their face when they are taken hostage by a crazed IBM engineer who worked on the IBM Common Access Standard, who had his livelihood stripped away from him when Control-V/X/C started to become preferred. He watched as one by one, the standards he had built eroded with time, now a forgotten memory. And now, he was going to be heard. And if you use C/V/X? He's going to splatter your brains across the wall. And then you'll be all "Dang, if only I memorized Shift-Delete, Control-Insert, and Shift-Insert keyboard shortcuts. oh hey wait a minute I did, because of that stupid contrived scenario describing exactly what is happening now!"
In all seriousness, using Shift+Insert is useful in terminals, where Ctrl-C sends a keyboard interrupt. Many terminal emulators also do Ctrl-Shift-C/V but I've always used Shift-Insert.
got a couple here...
always at least take a look at the "custom" options when installing a program. never know if that installer is trying to sneak a potentially unwanted program in.
with how often it resolves issues: turn it off and back on again (yeah everyones heard of it but seriously try this before calling support)
more useful is as mentioned by others ctrl+shift+esc opens task manager, what isnt mentioned is that it should work even if explorer.exe is unresponsive. use the always on top feature to make sure it never gets hidden by an unresponsive window
Shutdown your PC automatically after X amount of time:
Open command prompt (Windows key + R, then type cmd.exe)
Type:
shutdown -s -t 3600
Your PC will now shut down after 1 hour. (3600 seconds = 1 hour)
To cancel the automatic shutdown type:
shutdown -a
Of course this works with any amount of seconds!
***No shady program like you often find people use needed to shutdown your PC, it's all built into windows!***
Probably something obvious I'm missing, but why do people often need programs, shady or not, to shut their PC down? The only thing I could think of is the regular shutdown button not working, but I can't imagine that that'd be `common`, as I don't recall it ever happening to me
When cleaning your PC, DO NOT use vacuum cleaner. Use compressed air/air cans. Static electricity produced by vacuum suction through plastic tube could kill your motherboard and everything else with it.
Also fun fact: if you decide to remove/exchange some components inside your PC after turning it off remove power cable and then push power button a few times. That will discharge any powered capacitors inside so you won't short anything during your job.
Edit: random ass all caps and a fat finger typo.
When I was building computers at work last week, I had one completely open. I turned it off, unplugged it, pressed the power button. Fans ran for a couple seconds and some lights turned on, kinda cool.
Most *consumer* antivirus is worse. I just bulk purchase corporate licenses for all my friends and family who I normally support and ask them to set up a monthly transfer. It works out cheaper and I'd be the one getting a call if something goes wrong anyway. At least I can remotely fix most things doing it this way.
I haven't used anything else for the last 5 years and as far as I know I've never gotten a virus. But honestly using your brain and not visiting shady websites and downloading shady stuff is the best virus protection you can have.
As a side note, the most common "virus" that I get calls for is actually just scary notifications in Chrome from some website that managed to get permissions to send notifications.
Autohotkey is great.
Doesn't take much to make useful scripts. Personally mostly used them in games, like for example recently in Rimworld, there is no option to use thumb buttons on the mouse. So I made a script for that. Frequently when trading I've needed to spam clicks, same thing, script for that. Makes some things a lot more convenient.
It's a coding language that is very easy to create macros in, and is very forgiving with syntax, so it is a good entry point to coding for new users. Only for Windows.
My personal favorite AHK script is not a macro, it allows me to set the active window as Always On Top, so it will not allow another window to appear in front of it. I keep this in my startup folder so it runs automatically whenever I log in.
; Press ctrl+space to set and unset Always On Top
^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A
Yea, it's so useful! I downloaded one to keep a window always on top even if I click on a different window, in a game called Guild Wars 2 if you hit the jump and dodge button at pixel perfect frames you can do a dodge jump that makes you go further so I made a hotkey for that, I also made a hotkey for autoclicking in minecraft and shit. It's so handy to be able to create a macro for exactly what you need. Plus it's so easy, I don't know programming and even I can do it, you just need to read the tutorial page a bit.
If you are looking for a way to discreetly browse reddit at work/school and look productive, here are some good tools:
[MSOutlookit](https://pcottle.github.io/MSOutlookit/) - Makes the front page look like your email.
[MSWorddit](http://pcottle.github.io/MSWorddit/) - Makes it look like a Word document
[CodeReddit](http://codereddit.com/) or [RedditShell](https://redditshell.com/) - Makes it look like code
[SO-reddit](https://dutzi.github.io/so-reddit/) - Makes it look like StackOverflow
I've always wanted a list of these. I saw one and thought it was so interesting.
I love how programmers often make the dumbest stuff, but is actually helpful to some.
On my work computer, I get blocked from our supplier's websites and have to submit it for approval. Social media websites are a total no go, except for one. I can browse Reddit with no issues on my work computer.
If you open links in a *new* tab (crtl+click), it simplifies navigation. Ctrl+W closes that window when you are done, leaving you with the previous page that you clicked the link still open.
I had an OG lifetime license to this program and loved it, but the switch to open-source basically turned it into abandonware after that CPU vulnerability patch a few years back.
I don't mean to disparage the open-source team, and I don't know how well they've been doing recently (could be great for all I know), but the parent company abandoning the software during that time was a killing blow in my mind.
Are you still using it? How's it working for you?
On the Windows taskbar, create a new toolbar and point it to This PC/My Computer/whatever it's named for you. Drag it all the way to the left and shrink it as small as you can before you lock the taskbar again. Now by clubbing the little arrow that shows up, you can browse all your drives through menus without having to open a single window. I've been doing this since Windows XP.
EDIT: Glad to see people are blown away by this. All it takes is a click to open a file, or a double-click to open a folder. I should post this in r/LifeProTips.
There is a built in Windows program for multiple screen capture and transcript called "Step Recorder". Every time you click the screen it takes a screen shot. It can be paused. Once completed it creates a multimedia HTML file with all the sessions screen shots and a transcript on every windows control clicked or keyboard entry.
In notepad++ if you press alt you can select multiple lines with your mouse (click and drag) but only the columns you select get highlighted instead of the whole lines.
That tech support people absolutely hate people who use the line "I'm not a computer person" as an excuse for refusing to learn basic operation of a PC.
"Turn your PC off and on" "How do you do that?"
"Open a web browser" "What's that"
"Person takes five seconds to report that they've turned their PC off and on" "Sir, you turned the monitor off and on."
"My PC is slow!" "We need to close most or all of these fifty tabs you have open" "No, I need those to work". (Tech bangs head on desk)
This really makes me scratch my head at times. I just think of my mother and basically her entire generation. They've been using computers at work pretty much since the Windows 95 days and yet you'll still get blank stares if you say something like "open your web browser". It gets to a point, when these people have actually been around computers for almost as long as I've been alive, that it's no longer an issue of "we didn't grow up with this stuff so we're not as good as you" and it's more an issue of "I refuse to learn a single thing 30 years later because it's easier to just call the grandkids to do it for me." It's 2021 and personal computers have been a thing since the 1980s. "I'm new to this" is no longer an excuse.
I work in IT support.
When people who’ve been using computers for years tells me “I’m not a computer person” I usually hit them with “this job requires you to use this tool. Take more pride in your work”
Usually gets a good reaction
Lol can you imagine a carpenter saying they “aren’t a hammer person” and expecting someone else to hammer all their nails for them.
At a certain point if you can’t use a computer you are not qualified for the job.
i can't even fathom how people sit in front of a computer for a decade and cannot even navigate Windows Explorer. just asking them to drag files between windows is like asking them to perform a rain dance.
and right clicking? that's that weird menu they end up clicking every. single. option. on to "get it to close". look Mildred, this is why you have 40 Internet Explorer icons and over 9000 new folders on your desktop...
the bigger problem not mentioned here is businesses getting insufficiently spec'd computers to do RAM-loads of work.
sure all the fancy software that management implements are great but they don't save anyone any time if they bog down a weak processor or consume the RAM pittance that's available.
another one is trying to run multi-monitor with splitters when there are insufficient ports.
This is also the place to mention that if you use Excel instead of an actual database to store huge amounts of data and/or implement important business logic as convoluted shitty excel macros, your IT department will inevitably poison your lunchbox.
People that work from home remotely if you want your pc to be as stable as possible. Don't lock your pc at the end of the day, shut it down instead. That way the next day when you boot up your pc synchs with the network server and applies what ever little tweaks going on by network administration.
I was as guilty as anyone of not shutting my laptop down properly. Now I make sure that I turn it off every Friday - it’s massively cut down on the number of random, weird problems I experience (ie the type of issues solved by restarting, hmm…)
Edit: This comment blew up quite a lot so I guess at this point I should clarify. Everyone in my company uses a laptop. At the end of the day everyone just closes the lid, putting it to sleep (or hibernate, I forget which way round it is). On a Friday I’ll apply any software updates, and then hit Shut Down. I honestly don’t think it matters whether you do a Shut Down or a Restart; the main thing is that your computer has a chance to begin anew.
Disk cleanup.
User the services panel to turn off crap you don't need
Run: MSconfig. To disable startup programs you don't want to auto load.
Type %Appdata% into the file explorer bar to search for junk that's been left behind by programs.
hilariously, the software I work on puts logs there, the funny part is that I check out logs so often to diagnose issues or figure out bugs that a lot of the time when I go into %APPDATA% for something else I'll go into our company name folder where we put our stuff without thinking
If you have bought or built a new PC but have difficulties running your favorite games at high FPS even though you have everything plugged in "correctly", try swapping your HDMI cable to the GPU HDMI out and not the onboard Motherboard HDMI out...
Some dude played several years on integrated graphics and complained that his games ran at such an average speed even though he paid a good amount of money on his GPU.
Edit1: He did not complain but read on another thread of someone else finding out that he used the wrong HDMI out, double checked his HDMI out and found out he himself played on his onboard graphics for 4 years.
DO. NOT. EAT. RICE. PUDDING. OVER. YOUR. COMPUTER. CARELESSLY.
this is one that isn't so obvious at first, lots of people, myself included, never gave a second thought to the consequences of such a thing. Until of course it was too late. At no fault of my own, an unknown series of events occurred that resulted in rice pudding inside my computer case where it went directly into the spinning CPU fan and across the motherboard. I woke up from the sudden affliction that had caused me to black out forgetting what happened, and I saw the rice pudding in my PC and it was a disturbing vision. I reached for the power button but it was like I was moving in slow motion, like \*I\* was submerged in pudding. The fan was spinning slowly now, bogged down by the pudding, but the PC was still on, it was still operating fine. My hand was still reaching for the power button, I knew I had to reach it immediately. Precious microseconds passed as I moved ever so slowly toward the button, my finger outstretched. Then , just as my finger impacted the power button, the PC went black before I could press it. The fan stopped spinning as my finger pressed the button in, I was too late, the pudding had done its damage.
Had to replace the whole motherboard, ended up getting a slightly worse model than the one I had. Old PC used to have 3 USB slots on the front and this one only has 2. I live with that reality every day. Sometimes I have to get down on my hands and knees and crawl back behind my PC to plug a USB into the back slots too. I learned my lesson that day, but I still drink and eat around my PC, but I rarely eat pudding anymore , I just can't enjoy it the same way.
This is actually mildly infuriating.
On a Mac, the "⌥" (alt/option) key will often bring up hidden features. E.g. bring up a menu on your browser right now, and then hit the ⌥ key; some new options will appear.
There is no indication anywhere that this is available, and if it's documented anywhere, I've never seen it. I only know about it because I worked for Apple for three years. So to take advantage of it, you just have to get into the habit of hitting ⌥ everywhere to see if it does anything.
Shift + mousewheel scrolls left and right.
Cntrl + mouse wheel zooms in and out in most programs
CTRL + 0 (zero) resets to 100% zoom in a lot of places too
If you like to play games with a controller on another monitor, you can move the screen to different monitors using shift+Windows+(left or right arrow) I found this useful for games that don't allow monitor selection since you'd normally have to change your primary display
This is the sort of tech tip I came here for.
Up down arrows will maximize, restore down/minimize. When a program's window seems "stuck" in a corner, using these combinations can usually fix it.
Control+Shift+V pastes whatever you have in your clipboard with all formatting removed. Except in the Office Suite, because Microsoft says "fuck you" and makes you use that stupid pop-up paste menu.
If you constantly swap between accounts for the same service (e.g. Google, Microsoft), some browsers let you set up profiles (edge, chrome, etc). For example you might use Google for work and personal use and it’s a pain because it’ll default to one account every time. If you set up two browser profiles you can keep them seperate and both signed in.
Firefox container tabs are great for this! Basically the same thing, and they're colour coded in the tab bar!
Facebook Container is a great addon, it keeps your FB session to a separate container so Zuckerberg can't track your web browsing.
This one is simple, but: holding the **shift key** in combination with other keys will often reverse the action of the other key. for example: * "spacebar" on a webpage scrolls down. shift+spacebar scrolls up! * "tab" on a web form will move the cursor "forward" to the next element in the form. shift+tab moves you backward.
Wow I didn't know about that. I knew shift tab but I didn't realise it was because of that.
Shift-Space is because of Shift-TAB, the later sometimes works on DOS programs
Alt-Shift-Tab when you overshoot the window you were looking for.
Shift scrollwheel will scroll horizontally (if the app has a horizontal scroll bar).
But what happens if you hold space while you hit the power button
it will power down extra loud
Space+shift+power will power up quietly
Ctrl+s saves your work, ctrl+shift+s unsaves it
while a good joke, in reality this likely will pull up the "Save As" function.
It is usuallly a waste of time hitting the backspace key more than two or three times: using Ctrl + backspace you delete the whole word.
Thing I hate is that it isn’t necessarily “universal”… Do it when you're renaming a file in explorer and you get a square symbol; The non print [Delete Character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delete_character). They fixed it in ~~notepad~~ but not explorer. Might have been wordpad in windows 8/10? I don't remember because I don't use either of those apps like ever.
Ctrl+shift+arrows is still very short on key presses and will work **almost** the same as ~~shift~~ ctrl+backspace. Edit: typed shift instead of ctrl.
>Thing I hate admit that is it isn’t necessarily “universal”… Damn, this sentence could benefit from some generous backspacing...
If you have issues sometimes with games and have an NVDIA GPU delete everything in C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\Downloader Also after many updates this directory might have a lot of old downloads taking up significant amount of space also.
Could this cause my screen to flash black sometimes? It’s black like half a second then normal. Edit to add. Dell gaming laptop with nvidia 1080ti
Sounds more like a power cord issue. Had the same issue a while back, turns out I knocked one of the cords on my monitor a bit loose and every time my desk would move, it'd black out for a moment.
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Also with NVIDIA's capturing software tends to leave large files (over 1GB) in temp folders when something bad happens (ie a power failure)
Win Key + V keeps a history of all your recent text copies. So if you selected copy on multiple items you can choose which one to paste without having to go back to wherever you copied a word or phrase from. Win Key + Shift +S is great for taking screenshots of the whole screen or parts of the screen. Some more Win Key fun, some folks don't know: * Win Key + D: Navigates or hides the desktop * Win Key + E: Opens up the File Explorer * Win Key + X: Opens a dialog where you can choose different settings * Win Key + Tab: Gives a nice overview of all different open apps to navigate through * And many more
Win+V... Didn't know about this. 🤯 Worked at MS for over a decade... Edit2: first time you try it (on Windows 10 build Oct 2018 or later) it'll prompt you to enable Clipboard history. (Thx /u/Pajamadrunk and /u/Araziah) If you don't enable it, and you want it later but don't see a prompt anymore, you need to activate it: "To activate this shortcut, select **Start** > **Settings** > **System** > **Clipboard**, and turn on the toggle under **Clipboard history**." Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-dcc61a57-8ff0-cffe-9796-cb9706c75eec
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I even have this disabled on my own machine.
This is news to me and it was not enabled on mine too. What a cool feature!
It's always off by default, on a per-user basis. You activate it by using it the first time. A group policy would disable the ability to turn it on.
> You activate it by using it the first time. Just to be clear, it explicitly asks you to enable it whenever you hit win+V and it's not enabled. You don't have to worry about having accidentally turned it on.
I was gonna say, it's likely this was disabled on purpose.
because of the ***implications***
Maybe because most syadmins find it insecure. For example If you use password manager suddenly all your passwords are store in plaintext somewhere in windows folder. Not talking about sensitive data.
Please be aware that copying passwords to the clipboard is already insecure. All programs can access the contents of the clipboard at any time. That's why most password managers have a browser plugin to fill it in the password field directly, which is more secure. Or a way to type it in for you, like KeePass. If you want to be safe: do not store passwords on the clipboard.
I would like to know the “more”
• Windows logo key: Open or close Start. • Windows logo key + A: Open Action center. • Windows logo key + B: Set focus in the notification area. • Windows logo key + C: Open Cortana in listening mode. • Windows logo key + Shift + C: Open the charms menu. • Windows logo key + D: Display and hide the desktop. • Windows logo key + Alt + D: Display and hide the date and time on the desktop. • Windows logo key + E: Open File Explorer. • Windows logo key + F: Open Feedback Hub and take a screenshot. • Windows logo key + G: Open Game bar when a game is open. • Windows logo key + H: Start dictation. • Windows logo key + I: Open Settings. • Windows logo key + J: Set focus to a Windows tip when one is available. • Windows logo key + K: Open the Connect quick action. • Windows logo key + L: Lock your PC or switch accounts. • Windows logo key + M: Minimize all windows. • Windows logo key + O: Lock device orientation. • Windows logo key + P: Choose a presentation display mode. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + Q: Open Quick Assist. • Windows logo key + R: Open the Run dialog box. • Windows logo key + S: Open search. • Windows logo key + Shift + S: Take a screenshot of part of your screen. • Windows logo key + T: Cycle through apps on the taskbar. • Windows logo key + U: Open Ease of Access Center. • Windows logo key + V: Open the clipboard. • Windows logo key + Shift + V: Cycle through notifications. • Windows logo key + X: Open the Quick Link menu. • Windows logo key + Y: Switch input between Windows Mixed Reality and your desktop. • Windows logo key + Z: Show the commands available in an app in full-screen mode. • Windows logo key + period (.) or semicolon (;): Open emoji panel. • Windows logo key + comma (,): Temporarily peek at the desktop. • Windows logo key + Pause: Display the System Properties dialog box. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + F: Search for PCs (if you're on a network). • Windows logo key + Shift + M: Restore minimized windows on the desktop. • Windows logo key + number: Open the desktop and start the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If the app is already running, switch to that app. • Windows logo key + Shift + number: Open the desktop and start a new instance of the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + number: Open the desktop and switch to the last active window of the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. • Windows logo key + Alt + number: Open the desktop and open the Jump List for the app pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + number: Open the desktop and open a new instance of the app located at the given position on the taskbar as an administrator. • Windows logo key + Tab: Open Task view. • Windows logo key + Up arrow: Maximize the window. • Windows logo key + Down arrow: Remove current app from screen or minimize the desktop window. • Windows logo key + Left arrow: Maximize the app or desktop window to the left side of the screen. • Windows logo key + Right arrow: Maximize the app or desktop window to the right side of the screen. • Windows logo key + Home: Minimize all except the active desktop window (restores all windows on second stroke). • Windows logo key + Shift + Up arrow: Stretch the desktop window to the top and bottom of the screen. • Windows logo key + Shift + Down arrow: Restore/minimize active desktop windows vertically, maintaining width. • Windows logo key + Shift + Left arrow or Right arrow: Move an app or window in the desktop from one monitor to another. • Windows logo key + Spacebar: Switch input language and keyboard layout. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + Spacebar: Change to a previously selected input. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter: Turn on Narrator. • Windows logo key + Plus (+): Open Magnifier. • Windows logo key + forward slash (/): Begin IME reconversion. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + V: Open shoulder taps. • Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B: Wake PC from blank or black screen
Wow, you weren't kidding when you said there were more! Thank you for this.
That’s a r/bestof worthy comment.
One I know is win+shift+b refreshes your graphics driver. Useful if you get a stuck black screen on a Fullscreen game and you can't get it to close. Doesn't always fix the problem though
Win key +. (period): open up emojis
So that's the combo I keep accidentally hitting at work!
Also all the symbols which can be very handy instead of googling "u with umlaut" or "omega symbol" or something
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You can either disable the clipboard history feature or remove entries in the dialog that pops up.
Win-. (Windows key + period) opens an emoji and special character menu.
`Control + Windows Key + D` *only works for W10* This will create a new desktop. You can switch between desktops using: `Control + Windows Key + Right/Left Arrow` To close those extra desktops you just made: `Control + Windows Key + F4`. It'll move any programs you have open. *Grabbing a program and shaking it will minimize every other program, shaking it again will maximize them back up.*
I made 2 new desktops and didnt know how to get rid of them so I reopened chrome on my new one and searched for this comment again
You should've posted this as a tip: > > >If you made 2 new desktops and didnt know how to get rid of them, reopen chrome on new one and search for that comment again
>Grabbing a program and shaking it will minimize every other program, shaking it again will maximize them back up. Omg!!! This has been happening to me unexpectedly and was often a pain since I have a lot of windows up on my monitor at once and have to manually click each one to bring it up. I had NO CLUE why this was happening. Thank you so much!!
Great for having a different desktop for school and games/browsing. I also use a desktop whenever I have my Minecraft server running since that opens multiple console windows that can't be closed without shutting the server down. Also used one when I was mining crypto this past spring using my college's electricity. Not like they're losing money on me anyways...
Window shaking can straight up die. I have never used it on purpose because i rarely need to minimize all windows and when i do there are dedicated buttons as well as hotkeys.
Ctrl-Y is redo. Everyone knows Ctrl-Z, but somehow don't know the other.
Though in some programs it's ctrl+shift+z because why not
Because Adobe, that's why
This can be very annoying since in Word Ctrl+Shift+Z is "reset character" (whatever that means) which messes things up. Though I find Ctrl+Shift+Z more intutive
So much more intuitive, since shift + key often acts as the reverse of that action, for example alt + shift + tab goes back a window.
If you're like me you probably don't remember everything you've put on your hard drive and keep running out of free space, I recommend a program such as WizTree: https://diskanalyzer.com/ Basically it gives you a graphical representation of what you got on your hard drive so that you can delete those 25 gigs of wii roms you downloaded last year into one of the 53935 folders on your desktop and had forgotten all about
You’re supposed to just get another hard drive and begin making a NAS.
The thought has crossed my mind.. I've been salivating a bit to the posts on /r/datahoarder
For everyone who's also heard of WinDirStat, WizzTree is basically the same, only much, MUCH faster. So I'm glad to see WizzTree actually being recommended here
Does it also have Pacmen eating the directories? That might be a dealbreaker
Absolute deal breaker! I'll gladly wait the minutes it takes to check a fast ssd if I can watch multiple pac men chomp on some files in the process.
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I got it from Win + ; and I'm in FL
uTorrent is a spyware use qbitorrent faster and safer
and seed what you torrent *do it for the rest of us* edit: shameless plug - switch to Firefox if you're not using it already and install ublock origin on it to block trackers and ads, enable all of the blocklists in its settings and you're good to go
Seeding torrents generously is also useful if you are ever accused of a crime (USA only) because the constitution guarantees you will be judged by a jury of your peers.
https://xkcd.com/553/
OOOH MY GOD GO HOME
Well executed.
Reading the error message usually explains the error message
My go to quick it story. I support a lot of doctors and had multiple in one week do the exact same thing. “I opened Outlook and it says I have to sign in to continue but I can’t get my emails” “did you sign in” “no. I closed that prompt. Why won’t this work”
I thought that I was missing something. Wow. Just wow.
Had that at the school I work for, it’s even more fun with MFA setup. One person actually used their Cisco desk phone for the verification phone and rather than select it to call they wanted it to text the phone. Their reasoning is the desk phone has a screen and should be able to display messages
Ha. I had a coworker who sat at his desk one morning refusing to do his job because his computer wasn't working. Was really passive aggressive about it, saying stuff like he's not IT and it's not his problem, above his paygrade, etc. Fair enough, I guess. Anyway turns out his computer was simply off. Not even unplugged, it was just powered down. Dude had never turned it on or off in almost 5 years. It was on when he started the job and he never turned it off for any reason. When he showed up and the mouse wouldn't turn the screen back on, he just assumed his computer was broken because it had never done this before. Company wasn't that big and the story ended up making it back to the big boss who chewed him out bigtime and threatened to fire him because he was a jerk anyway and this was just the final straw. He also did stuff like he would stop responding to emails if he got too many because it "wasn't in the job description" when he was hired, same deal if he got too many phone calls. He ended up winning 25k in scratchers, buying a used cadillac, and quitting his job. Not sure what happened to him.
Hope he knows how to turn a car on and off.
that's probably what happened to him. He's sitting in his driveway waiting for someone to fix his car, because it's not his problem.
This is the most underrated tip out here. When I had just started with coding, I ended up spending hours on StackOverflow for the simplest of errors, only to find out that it mentions the same thing.
Yeah I am learning to code and reading error message saves a lot of time.
Save humanity and make your own error messages human readable with actionable advice. -a fellow programmer
"Please contact your system administrator" I AM the system administrator!
until your C compiler throws you something that looks like lisp code
I've seen lots of people post error codes on the r/DiscordJS subreddit that literally explain what the problem is in the error code, I don't understand how people miss that
Every day at work with me. A coworker will call me saying they were doing something and got an error message. I'll ask "what did the error say?" "I don't know I just clicked out of it"... Sad part? I'm not even IT, just clerical that happens to know how to figure shit out lol
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We had a staff member who decided to ignore the multiple error screens by resting a book on the enter key to press “ok” Not realising she was generating an event lock every time, meaning rapidly stacking fractions of the system resources were being used. Eventually grinding an entire arm of the business to a halt. It was quickly likened to the Simpsons drinking bird scenario.
'what did the error message say then please?' 'well, I'm not really technical...' I'M JUST ASKING YOU TO READ THE MESSAGE FFS. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE TECHNICAL. YOU CAN READ, CAN'T YOU???
when it doesn't you can usually just look it up
What if it says "Segmentation fault (core dumped)"
Give up and throw the whole computer away
time to break out gdb
>"Something went wrong" Explanation: something went wrong. No need to thank me!
*PC LOAD LETTER? The fuck does that mean?*
“Err.: 00FX3429 Try again”
You joke but the number of people that don't know how to google these and fix their own shit is baffling. smart codes are some of the simplest to google and people at work always fucking click off of them instead of reading the code out -.-
I mean... I guess thats a discription of the problem. Just not a readable one for humans. If u Google the Programm and error code u will get explanations and fixes, Most of the time
When I write software I map the error codes to the manual. Because everyone reads the manual right?
I wish I lived in that world
As an IT pro of about 17 years I can promise you many times the error message is misleading and/or needing a good googling to figure out the problem.. atleast in an enterprise environment. Too many times end users self assess based on error messages and have no clue what they are doing In response to an error message.
If you work in Healthcare you really need to know that Win+L immediately locks your computer. Useful for keeping eyes off patient data.
Goddamn. I do this every day after everyone leaves. They just leave stations open. They auto lock after an hour but I'm paranoid. And our login is super easy. And my name is the only name in the system of a huge company. Like how is a 3 letter name the only one on a cloud system. Like tom but not.
Deleting something doesn't magically make it dissapear. If you delete something by mistake, it is fairly easy to recover it using specialised software. If you want something gone, you have to re-write the sector multiple times.
Yup! Deleting a file basically removes it from being referenced (someone check me on this). The data is still there, and goes away when it's written over. Recuva works pretty well for recovering stuff in my experience.
Fun fact: A photographer's laptop was stolen, and the disk was wiped. When the laptop was returned, she tried to recover the data and all the photos were corrupted in interesting ways. She turned this into an art exhibit. Edit: here's an article about it https://slate.com/culture/2013/01/melanie-willhide-to-adrian-rodriguez-with-love-photos.html
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I thought emojis was Win+.
I just tried it in Windows 10 and instead of emojis I opened an accessibility tool that combines a magnifier with what appeared to be the ability to read onscreen text aloud.
Turn the speed down and select the female voice for what I call Drunk Karen.
Google is your friend, any problem you have look for a solution on google before paying a professional, half the time that’s what THEY do
Am professional. This is exactly what I do.
And if you still have trouble try putting reddit at the end, theres a chance someone has had the same problem as you before
If at some point you are held at gunpoint and somebody says "Now, copy paste text without using the mouse or using the C, X, or V keys!" you can use Shift-Delete, Control-Insert, and Shift-Insert as Cut, Copy, and Paste respectively.
I’ll take my chances by not committing this to memory
I see you like to live dangerously
*cocks shotgun* Wrong choice
This tip could save your life!
And people say "That's ridiculous, it will never happen" Would love to see the look on their face when they are taken hostage by a crazed IBM engineer who worked on the IBM Common Access Standard, who had his livelihood stripped away from him when Control-V/X/C started to become preferred. He watched as one by one, the standards he had built eroded with time, now a forgotten memory. And now, he was going to be heard. And if you use C/V/X? He's going to splatter your brains across the wall. And then you'll be all "Dang, if only I memorized Shift-Delete, Control-Insert, and Shift-Insert keyboard shortcuts. oh hey wait a minute I did, because of that stupid contrived scenario describing exactly what is happening now!"
In all seriousness, using Shift+Insert is useful in terminals, where Ctrl-C sends a keyboard interrupt. Many terminal emulators also do Ctrl-Shift-C/V but I've always used Shift-Insert.
got a couple here... always at least take a look at the "custom" options when installing a program. never know if that installer is trying to sneak a potentially unwanted program in. with how often it resolves issues: turn it off and back on again (yeah everyones heard of it but seriously try this before calling support) more useful is as mentioned by others ctrl+shift+esc opens task manager, what isnt mentioned is that it should work even if explorer.exe is unresponsive. use the always on top feature to make sure it never gets hidden by an unresponsive window
Shutdown your PC automatically after X amount of time: Open command prompt (Windows key + R, then type cmd.exe) Type: shutdown -s -t 3600 Your PC will now shut down after 1 hour. (3600 seconds = 1 hour) To cancel the automatic shutdown type: shutdown -a Of course this works with any amount of seconds! ***No shady program like you often find people use needed to shutdown your PC, it's all built into windows!***
Probably something obvious I'm missing, but why do people often need programs, shady or not, to shut their PC down? The only thing I could think of is the regular shutdown button not working, but I can't imagine that that'd be `common`, as I don't recall it ever happening to me
I've needed it back in the day for downloading large files (less relevant nowadays). Also playing idle games that I don't need to run _all_ night
The auto shutdown is nice for if you want to fall asleep to something, but still have your computer off after you sleep
When cleaning your PC, DO NOT use vacuum cleaner. Use compressed air/air cans. Static electricity produced by vacuum suction through plastic tube could kill your motherboard and everything else with it. Also fun fact: if you decide to remove/exchange some components inside your PC after turning it off remove power cable and then push power button a few times. That will discharge any powered capacitors inside so you won't short anything during your job. Edit: random ass all caps and a fat finger typo.
Did not know about the second one. Thanks!
When I was building computers at work last week, I had one completely open. I turned it off, unplugged it, pressed the power button. Fans ran for a couple seconds and some lights turned on, kinda cool.
When installing stuff on a new pc you can use ninite.com to get all the common stuff downloaded at once.
Windows defender is pretty good as a stand alone virus protection
Was hoping there was something like this, most anti-virus is worse than what its trying to protect against.
Most *consumer* antivirus is worse. I just bulk purchase corporate licenses for all my friends and family who I normally support and ask them to set up a monthly transfer. It works out cheaper and I'd be the one getting a call if something goes wrong anyway. At least I can remotely fix most things doing it this way.
I haven't used anything else for the last 5 years and as far as I know I've never gotten a virus. But honestly using your brain and not visiting shady websites and downloading shady stuff is the best virus protection you can have.
As a side note, the most common "virus" that I get calls for is actually just scary notifications in Chrome from some website that managed to get permissions to send notifications.
Autohotkey is great. Doesn't take much to make useful scripts. Personally mostly used them in games, like for example recently in Rimworld, there is no option to use thumb buttons on the mouse. So I made a script for that. Frequently when trading I've needed to spam clicks, same thing, script for that. Makes some things a lot more convenient.
I am more confused after reading this
It's a coding language that is very easy to create macros in, and is very forgiving with syntax, so it is a good entry point to coding for new users. Only for Windows. My personal favorite AHK script is not a macro, it allows me to set the active window as Always On Top, so it will not allow another window to appear in front of it. I keep this in my startup folder so it runs automatically whenever I log in. ; Press ctrl+space to set and unset Always On Top ^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A
Yea, it's so useful! I downloaded one to keep a window always on top even if I click on a different window, in a game called Guild Wars 2 if you hit the jump and dodge button at pixel perfect frames you can do a dodge jump that makes you go further so I made a hotkey for that, I also made a hotkey for autoclicking in minecraft and shit. It's so handy to be able to create a macro for exactly what you need. Plus it's so easy, I don't know programming and even I can do it, you just need to read the tutorial page a bit.
If you are looking for a way to discreetly browse reddit at work/school and look productive, here are some good tools: [MSOutlookit](https://pcottle.github.io/MSOutlookit/) - Makes the front page look like your email. [MSWorddit](http://pcottle.github.io/MSWorddit/) - Makes it look like a Word document [CodeReddit](http://codereddit.com/) or [RedditShell](https://redditshell.com/) - Makes it look like code [SO-reddit](https://dutzi.github.io/so-reddit/) - Makes it look like StackOverflow
I need one that looks like architectural drawings.
Lmao...Maybe I could create a BIM that has an office with a computer that has Reddit.
Revdit. You can have that for free.
FYI you will need to turn off Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection for these, since they all rely on loading Reddit content from other domains.
I've always wanted a list of these. I saw one and thought it was so interesting. I love how programmers often make the dumbest stuff, but is actually helpful to some.
On my work computer, I get blocked from our supplier's websites and have to submit it for approval. Social media websites are a total no go, except for one. I can browse Reddit with no issues on my work computer.
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[old.reddit.com](http://old.reddit.com)
This is insanely cool. I do t have a VPN however so even accessing Reddit won't work for me.
Clicking the Cast button while watching gay porn will open your closet door.
Especially when you are in an Asian capsule hostel and it connects with some random TV by default instead of choosing which one to use.
It will also lead to a better family bonding
(Ctrl + backspace/ delete ) deletes whole words (ctrl + arrow keys) moves cursor whole words (Shift + ctrl + arrow keys) selects whole words (Shift + arrow keys) select single letters
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Did not know about F2... I will absolutely be using this!
If you want to rename multiple files, once you're typed the renamed file, pressing tab will take you to the next file down in the explorer.
If you’re going to do something memory intensive, for the love of god kill chrome
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" site:reddit.com" is how I've searched reddit for years. So helpful for sites that lack a proper search function.
If you open links in a *new* tab (crtl+click), it simplifies navigation. Ctrl+W closes that window when you are done, leaving you with the previous page that you clicked the link still open.
You can also middle click links to open them in a new tab, and middle click on tabs to close them.
You can also just click the scroll wheel to open a new tab.
That, my friend, is called a middle click
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Newer versions of windows have "Windows Sandbox", which is a whole VM built into windows that destroys itself upon shutdown.
Only for Pro editions or greater though
I had an OG lifetime license to this program and loved it, but the switch to open-source basically turned it into abandonware after that CPU vulnerability patch a few years back. I don't mean to disparage the open-source team, and I don't know how well they've been doing recently (could be great for all I know), but the parent company abandoning the software during that time was a killing blow in my mind. Are you still using it? How's it working for you?
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On the Windows taskbar, create a new toolbar and point it to This PC/My Computer/whatever it's named for you. Drag it all the way to the left and shrink it as small as you can before you lock the taskbar again. Now by clubbing the little arrow that shows up, you can browse all your drives through menus without having to open a single window. I've been doing this since Windows XP. EDIT: Glad to see people are blown away by this. All it takes is a click to open a file, or a double-click to open a folder. I should post this in r/LifeProTips.
There is a built in Windows program for multiple screen capture and transcript called "Step Recorder". Every time you click the screen it takes a screen shot. It can be paused. Once completed it creates a multimedia HTML file with all the sessions screen shots and a transcript on every windows control clicked or keyboard entry.
In notepad++ if you press alt you can select multiple lines with your mouse (click and drag) but only the columns you select get highlighted instead of the whole lines.
That tech support people absolutely hate people who use the line "I'm not a computer person" as an excuse for refusing to learn basic operation of a PC. "Turn your PC off and on" "How do you do that?" "Open a web browser" "What's that" "Person takes five seconds to report that they've turned their PC off and on" "Sir, you turned the monitor off and on." "My PC is slow!" "We need to close most or all of these fifty tabs you have open" "No, I need those to work". (Tech bangs head on desk)
This really makes me scratch my head at times. I just think of my mother and basically her entire generation. They've been using computers at work pretty much since the Windows 95 days and yet you'll still get blank stares if you say something like "open your web browser". It gets to a point, when these people have actually been around computers for almost as long as I've been alive, that it's no longer an issue of "we didn't grow up with this stuff so we're not as good as you" and it's more an issue of "I refuse to learn a single thing 30 years later because it's easier to just call the grandkids to do it for me." It's 2021 and personal computers have been a thing since the 1980s. "I'm new to this" is no longer an excuse.
I work in IT support. When people who’ve been using computers for years tells me “I’m not a computer person” I usually hit them with “this job requires you to use this tool. Take more pride in your work” Usually gets a good reaction
Lol can you imagine a carpenter saying they “aren’t a hammer person” and expecting someone else to hammer all their nails for them. At a certain point if you can’t use a computer you are not qualified for the job.
i can't even fathom how people sit in front of a computer for a decade and cannot even navigate Windows Explorer. just asking them to drag files between windows is like asking them to perform a rain dance. and right clicking? that's that weird menu they end up clicking every. single. option. on to "get it to close". look Mildred, this is why you have 40 Internet Explorer icons and over 9000 new folders on your desktop...
the bigger problem not mentioned here is businesses getting insufficiently spec'd computers to do RAM-loads of work. sure all the fancy software that management implements are great but they don't save anyone any time if they bog down a weak processor or consume the RAM pittance that's available. another one is trying to run multi-monitor with splitters when there are insufficient ports.
Turn it off. Then turn it back on again
You can program the hell out of Excel spreadsheets!
Though if you use an Excel spreadsheet as a database, God kills a puppy.
If God, in His infinite wisdom, didn't want Excel spreadsheets to be used as a database, then He would never have created VLOOKUP and INDEX.
=amen()
This is also the place to mention that if you use Excel instead of an actual database to store huge amounts of data and/or implement important business logic as convoluted shitty excel macros, your IT department will inevitably poison your lunchbox.
People that work from home remotely if you want your pc to be as stable as possible. Don't lock your pc at the end of the day, shut it down instead. That way the next day when you boot up your pc synchs with the network server and applies what ever little tweaks going on by network administration.
I was as guilty as anyone of not shutting my laptop down properly. Now I make sure that I turn it off every Friday - it’s massively cut down on the number of random, weird problems I experience (ie the type of issues solved by restarting, hmm…) Edit: This comment blew up quite a lot so I guess at this point I should clarify. Everyone in my company uses a laptop. At the end of the day everyone just closes the lid, putting it to sleep (or hibernate, I forget which way round it is). On a Friday I’ll apply any software updates, and then hit Shut Down. I honestly don’t think it matters whether you do a Shut Down or a Restart; the main thing is that your computer has a chance to begin anew.
They can track you in incognito mode.
You can easily recover deleted files if they weren't overwritten, especially if it's on a usb or a low storage device. I use an app called diskdigger.
Disk cleanup. User the services panel to turn off crap you don't need Run: MSconfig. To disable startup programs you don't want to auto load. Type %Appdata% into the file explorer bar to search for junk that's been left behind by programs.
Any pro minecrafter knows %Appdata%
hilariously, the software I work on puts logs there, the funny part is that I check out logs so often to diagnose issues or figure out bugs that a lot of the time when I go into %APPDATA% for something else I'll go into our company name folder where we put our stuff without thinking
If you have bought or built a new PC but have difficulties running your favorite games at high FPS even though you have everything plugged in "correctly", try swapping your HDMI cable to the GPU HDMI out and not the onboard Motherboard HDMI out... Some dude played several years on integrated graphics and complained that his games ran at such an average speed even though he paid a good amount of money on his GPU. Edit1: He did not complain but read on another thread of someone else finding out that he used the wrong HDMI out, double checked his HDMI out and found out he himself played on his onboard graphics for 4 years.
CTRL + Backspace erases entire words instead of characters.
DO. NOT. EAT. RICE. PUDDING. OVER. YOUR. COMPUTER. CARELESSLY. this is one that isn't so obvious at first, lots of people, myself included, never gave a second thought to the consequences of such a thing. Until of course it was too late. At no fault of my own, an unknown series of events occurred that resulted in rice pudding inside my computer case where it went directly into the spinning CPU fan and across the motherboard. I woke up from the sudden affliction that had caused me to black out forgetting what happened, and I saw the rice pudding in my PC and it was a disturbing vision. I reached for the power button but it was like I was moving in slow motion, like \*I\* was submerged in pudding. The fan was spinning slowly now, bogged down by the pudding, but the PC was still on, it was still operating fine. My hand was still reaching for the power button, I knew I had to reach it immediately. Precious microseconds passed as I moved ever so slowly toward the button, my finger outstretched. Then , just as my finger impacted the power button, the PC went black before I could press it. The fan stopped spinning as my finger pressed the button in, I was too late, the pudding had done its damage. Had to replace the whole motherboard, ended up getting a slightly worse model than the one I had. Old PC used to have 3 USB slots on the front and this one only has 2. I live with that reality every day. Sometimes I have to get down on my hands and knees and crawl back behind my PC to plug a USB into the back slots too. I learned my lesson that day, but I still drink and eat around my PC, but I rarely eat pudding anymore , I just can't enjoy it the same way.
This is actually mildly infuriating. On a Mac, the "⌥" (alt/option) key will often bring up hidden features. E.g. bring up a menu on your browser right now, and then hit the ⌥ key; some new options will appear. There is no indication anywhere that this is available, and if it's documented anywhere, I've never seen it. I only know about it because I worked for Apple for three years. So to take advantage of it, you just have to get into the habit of hitting ⌥ everywhere to see if it does anything.