Ultimate Computer Tricks and How To Impress Your Friends

Many computer professionals bet on their knowledge of computers and their keyboard shortcuts, but everyone knows not all cool computer tricks and hacks. Chances are one sharpens their knowledge skills at different points of their working journey.

Keyboard shortcuts are designed to make work faster and increase the flow of work. Keyboard shortcuts are the use of a combination of keys on the keyboard to perform the task at a much faster pace.

Here are some of the cool computer tricks with a keyboard that everybody can use to make things work faster, instead of dragging the mouse for each activity.

Cool Computer Tricks Available for Both Windows and macOS

1. Pasting the Plain Text While Copying Content

To paste unformatted text to the document, avoiding fonts i.e. coding-fonts and formats, the user can press from the keyboard Ctrl+Shift+V besides using the common shortcut Ctrl+V.

Mac users can press Command+Shift+V from their keyboard to paste unformatted text.

2. Shortcuts to be Used for YouTube Videos

It’s difficult to watch a full YouTube video. One needs to pause, play, and forward the same, and to do the same with the mouse is annoying. One needs to know computer tricks with a keyboard to have a better experience with YouTube videos.

For full screen – Press F, Mute mode –Press M, close the dialog box- press ESC.

To control YouTube videos, users can use some computer tricks and can press K or the spacebar to start or stop a video. For Fast forwarding, I can be pressed for forwarding 10 seconds and the Right Arrow key for moving forward 5 seconds.

For Rewinding J can be pressed for rewinding 10 seconds and the Left arrow for 5 seconds. The zero key has to be pressed to go at the start of the video and the End Key to move to the end of the video.

3. Word Deletion

For deleting a full word instead of deleting it letter by letter, one can press Ctrl+Backspace. This enables the user to delete the full word in one go. This computer trick saves users time when any sentence goes wrong.

4. Security Shortcuts to Lock the Computer

This is one of the cool computer tricks you should know. Computers can be locked up by simply pressing Window+L on a computer screen, it will lock the computer screen straight away, and to unlock this, a password will be required.

For macOS users have to press on their keyboard Command+Ctrl+Q to lock the screen and for logging off, one has to use the keys Cmd+option+Power.

It’s an easy way to prevent anyone from looking at your screen for any details while you are away for a short while.

5. Recovering Accidentally Closed Tabs

Windows users can press Ctrl+Shift+T from their PC and can recover the tab on which they were working.

Mac users can press Cmd+Shift+T to recover accidentally closed tabs by doing this simple computer trick.

6. Switching Among Multiple Tabs and Moving to the Address Bar

To switch tabs in the web browser, the user can press Ctrl+Tab and to go backward in web browser tabs, the user can press Ctrl+Shift+Tab. If the user wants to switch among different tabs numbers then they can press Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, and so on to the other number tab.

For moving the cursor to the address bar user can use the following keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+L, Alt+D, and F6. This interesting computer trick will take the user’s cursor to the address bar.

7. Doing Mistake Undo with the Keyboard

Accidentally deleting any file can be recovered, just by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z and if something needs to be redone by the user then Ctrl+Y can be pressed. If any mistakes occur by the user while typing the document, then this mistake can be reversed by Ctrl+Z from a keyboard by using this interesting computer trick.

8. Reducing the Number of Apps Running at Startup

At times, you may observe a system slowdown on booting your system. One of the most likely reasons for such a slowdown is because of many Applications/Programs configured at operating system start-up. This can be easily controlled by some cool tricks on the computer and by reducing the number of applications and speeding up the OS launching process.

The option can be accessed using Task Manager in Windows Operating Systems. The option can be accessed either by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc key combination. Once the Task Manager is open, the user can visit the Start-Up tab and can disable the applications, which are not required under Start-up.

Familiarize yourself with the best computer tricks to access the start-up settings in Windows 7 and earlier versions. This can be accomplished by opening the Windows run option or utilizing the Windows Key+R combination and accessing the MSConfig option.

For the Macintosh Operating System, the Start-Up option can be disabled by accessing System Preference>User and Groups>Clicking the Login Items Tab under the given user.

9. Protecting Files Through Encryption

There are always some critical files, to which users would like to have very restricted access. The best way to control access to some set of files is encryption of files. There are some tools and applications available in the market, which can be used to encrypt files. Some examples are WinRAR, 7-zip, and Unarchiver for Mac.

MS Office internally gives you the option to Password-Protect the files at the time of saving the file. Password protection can be enabled for either opening the file or modifying the file and can be allowed under Tools>General Options at the time of saving the files.

10. Showing Your Wi-Fi Password

You may tend to forget your Wi-Fi password at times. The good news is Windows OS gives you the option to access the password configured in your system. The user has to access Wi-Fi network settings under the Network and Sharing Center. Once the dialog box is open, the user has to click on Wireless Properties and go to the Security Tab.

The password configured in your system will be visible in the encrypted mode under the Password which can be decrypted and shown on screen by using the Show Characters option right beneath the Network Key field.

In macOS, the Wi-Fi password can be recovered using Keychain access (CMD+Space) functionality by searching the network name. The password will be revealed by double-clicking on the network name.

11. Minimizing the Open Windows

Users can minimize several open windows by using cool computer tricks with a keyboard shortcut that is Windows Key+D, this will minimize all open screens in one go. It saves a lot of user time by minimizing all windows one by one. The same shortcut can be used to restore window screens. Mac users can press cmd+F3 from their system and this will minimize all open screens and show the desktop.

Summarizing

Above are some of the interesting computer tricks by which the user can make their time productive and faster in doing work with keyboard shortcuts. User needs to memorize these simple computer tricks with the keyboard and try to use these shortcuts most of the time to make their work experience enjoyable.