Mine is using the arrow keys to navigate typed text while writing and editing. It helps speed things up, versus having to move your hand to the mouse to navigate.

Use the Up and Down Arrows to move/jump vertically.

Left and Right Arrows to move/jump horizontally.

Combine Left or Right Arrow with Shift to be able to select text. Use Up or Down Arrow with Shift to quickly select whole/nearly whole sections of text.

Combine Control with Left/Right Arrow to jump whole words to more quickly move to where you want to type.

  • pocker_machine@lemmy.world
    8·
    7 days ago

    I was surprised that many people didn’t know this magical ✨ shortcut

    Ctrl + Shift + t
Cmd + Shift + t

    If you accidentally closed a tab in a browser, it will reopen it. Most browsers also lets you open closed tabs one after the other.

    It is easy to remember to since it is just a shift away from new tab shortcut

    Ctrl + t
Cmd + t
  • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    7 days ago

    I’m still on Windows, because I’m a lesser human, etc…

    That said, PowerToys adds a lot of nice features to Windows (more like…Sindows, amirite), like being able to break your screen into zones, etc…

    My biggest computer life hack of all time would probably be: piracy. Highly recommended. Saves you so much money, I’m surprised they don’t advertise it more.

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
      4·
      7 days ago

      Piracy is like an Eye of Sauron thing. You don’t get big and ubiquitous like Napster back in the day or you get pounced on like Aragorn clanging his pots and pans. You wanna stay small and quiet undermining the very power they desire like Sam and Frodo :>

  • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    7 days ago

    Learn vim keybindings.

    Learn hotkeys for every program you have and learn to navigate between programs without the mouse.

    Stop using the computer and go outside sometimes

  • moe93@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    66·
    9 days ago

    To navigate to the previous folder

    cd -

    To reissue the previous command with a prefix. For example:

    cat /root/.ssh/authorized_keys # Will fail without privilege

    sudo !!

    To use the argument of the previous command. For example:

    tac ~/.ssh/authorized_keys # oops, misspelled cat

    cat !$

    • owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca
      26·
      8 days ago

      Oh dang, I never knew about the !! shortcut. I especially like it for the sudo example, because when it complains I don’t have permission, I can basically yell at it.

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
        21·
        8 days ago

        I’ve seen posts suggesting adding the following to your .bashrc:

        alias fuck='sudo $(history -p \!\!)'
    • hornywarthogfart@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      13·
      8 days ago

      The - works with git branching as well for those who didn’t know. git checkout - will switch to the previously checked out branch so it effectively toggles between your two most recent branches.

    • Luc@lemmy.world
      2·
      7 days ago

      Not sure if you’re aware that tac is not a typo but reverse cat, as in, it works like cat but prints the last line first. I use this semi-regularly

      sl, now, that’s a typo. Nobody wants a free choo choo

    • shplane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      If anyone left their computer unlocked at my old job, the entire office was getting an email about how much you love Justin Bieber

    • macniel@feddit.org
      32·
      9 days ago

      That’s not even a life hack. That’s literally policy, at least where I work at :)

      • davidgro@lemmy.world
        16·
        8 days ago

        Not everyone knows the keyboard shortcut though. I bet you can find people hunting for it using the mouse every time.

        • rudyharrelson@lemmy.radioEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          At my old job (tech support), I watched a new hire once highlight text, right click for the context menu, and click “copy”. And then right-click to hit “paste”. Every time. They didn’t know a single shortcut for anything. It was maddening to watch.

          I gave em a lot of help because they were clearly not particularly tech savvy, but it made me wonder how the hell they got through the interview process with such a limited skillset.

        • Rusty@lemmy.caEnglish
          5·
          8 days ago

          How can people not use shortcuts? If that shortcut wouldn’t exist, I would create it using Autohotkey

      • spittingimage@lemmy.world
        5·
        8 days ago

        None of these comments are life hacks. When did using a documented feature built into your software become a hack?

      • Szyler@lemmy.world
        2·
        6 days ago

        With open shell to replace the start menu:

        Windows - > right right enter for shutdown.

        Wibdows - > right right up up enter for hybernate

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
    36·
    9 days ago

    Keyboard shortcuts in general.

    • Alt + left right (previous/next page in browsers)

    • Windows + 1 (2, 3, …) on Windows and KDE focuses the window at that position in the taskbar

    • Alt + Tab to switch windows (hold shift to go backwards)

    • Windows + Tab to switch windows within the same application (like, all browser windows if you’re in a browser)

    • Alt + 1 (2, 3, …) on Windows/Linux usually selects the corresponding tab

    • Ctrl + Tab to cycle through tabs like Alt-Tab does for windows (hold shift to go backwards)

    • In most browsers or things with a URL/go to bar, Ctrl+L will focus that. No need to click the address bar, Ctrl+L, example.com, Enter.

    • In Discord and Slack, you can press Ctrl+K to open a box to quickly type a channel/DM name to go to it quickly

    • If you have them, the Home/End/PageUp/PageDown keys are actually pretty useful. Press Home instead of scrolling all the way back up.

    • F1 is usually help

    • F2 is usually rename

    • F3 is usually search

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
      12·
      9 days ago

      F6 - goto and highlight the URL bar in a browser

      ctrl + F5 - clear cache and reload the tab

      F11 - super full screen browser

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
      5·
      8 days ago

      I’ll add some mouse ones: if you have thumb buttons they are next/previous page.

      Mouse wheel down clicking on a link opens it in a new tab.

      Mouse wheel down clicking on a tab label closes the tab (no need to hunt for the little x).

  • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
    35·
    8 days ago

    Microsoft has never fixed the sticky keys replacement cheese to unlock a PC you have physical access to. Ive done it up to W10, never tested it on W11.

    1. Get a Windows recovery USB.

    2. Boot into the recovery menu and open the command prompt.

    3. Navagate to system32 and make a copy of the cmd.exe file (for a backup)

    4. Copy the sticky_keys.exe and have it overwrite cmd.exe, then reboot.

    5. On the login screen, smash the shift key until the command prompt appears and for some reason (because no user has logged in yet) it has admin permissions, so you can reset local passwords.

    6. Once your logged in as a local admin, copy the backup of cmd.exe back so noone is none the wiser (except the security software that knows you messed with something)

    • feannag@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      17·
      8 days ago

      That… Seems like a pretty massive vulnerability. Like obviously that can be locked down by each user or administrator, but still…

      • Sheldan@lemmy.world
        8·
        8 days ago

        It is, we used the same just with the accessibility button in earlier Windows Versions to troll one another in school. Thing is, if encryption is enabled it won’t work.

        • Züri@lemmy.ml
          2·
          8 days ago

          Not having the disk encrypted is the same as writing the password on the frame of the screen.

          • Bahnd Rollard@lemmy.world
            7·
            8 days ago

            Exactly, bitlocker or disk encryption prevents this from working and because you need some means of editing the file system outside of the user permissions, also physical access is required. At this point your are pretty much authorized to unplug the box and walk out of there with it (even if your not supposed to).

    • ZoteTheMighty@lemmy.zip
      4·
      8 days ago

      This seems like a lot of work to bypass a password on an unencrypted drive. You can access all the files using a bootable Linux drive.

      • Kornblumenratte@feddit.org
        3·
        8 days ago

        They are already using the Windows recovery disk. This is not about accessing the disk, but to access the OS with admin rights.

    • Krudler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      I used to use a boot CD with a password eraser. I think the last time I used it was win 7 though

  • zxqwas@lemmy.world
    29·
    9 days ago

    Vim takes your keyboard shortcuts to the extreme. If you can be bothered to learn it.

  • TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    324·
    8 days ago

    Are you serious? arrow keys instead of clicking? let’s take it further:

    shift+arrow highlights letters
    ctrl+arrow skips entire words
    ctrl+shift+arrow highlights entire words
    home/end jumps to start/end of line
    ctrl+home/end jumps to start/end of text box
    ctrl+shift+home/end jumps to start/end of textbox and highlights it
    um, do you need me to explain what ctrl+xcv do? or ctrl+zy? or ctrl+asdwerfgop?

    isn’t this just basic typing? didnt yall learn this in the 90s??? how are you all on the internet right now

    wait til you hear about how i swipe texted all this