Knowing the commands and tricks of your operating system can save you time throughout the day. If you work 365 days a year with Windows, these tricks that we bring you today turn into hours and hours of time saved.
The use of a program does not ensure that we learn to use it to its full extent. It is true that it makes us learn things, that we gain agility and that we waste less time every time we start working with these tools. But there are hidden commands that don’t learn themselves.
To know all the secrets and ins and outs of a program/tool/operating system you have to read and study. And that is why we are here today: to help you learn about the most useful commands in Windows.
without further delay, take paper and pen that we are going to discover the tricks that will help you save valuable minutes a day. At the end of the year it will be hours:
1. Shake the window to minimize it. If you click and drag a window, you can give it a little shake. All other windows you have open will be instantly minimized, giving you a clutter-free workspace.
2. Clear browser history easily. If you want to delete your browsing history, but don’t want to go looking for it in your browser’s settings, try pressing Ctrl + Shift + Delete. That will take you right to the menu.
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3. Highlight the address bar. Speaking of browsers, have you ever tried to highlight a long URL from your browser’s address bar to copy or remove it? Simply press F6 and the URL will automatically be highlighted. Magical.
4. Forget Ctrl + Alt + Del. Most people press Ctrl + Alt + Delete when their computer crashes, and then it instantly opens the task manager. Instead, try pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the task manager directly. After all, if your computer crashes, the fewer steps there are in the process, the better.
Of course, you can open the task manager by right-clicking on the taskbar, but this method has a bit more of a sleight-of-hand feel.
5. God Mode. The main Windows control panel, or “God mode”, is a shortcut to access all of the operating system’s control panels from a single folder.
To create such a shortcut, create a new folder on your desktop (or anywhere else) and rename it: GodMode. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}.
You can change the “GodMode” chunk, but make sure the end point and rest are the same. Once you have changed the name, the icon will change and you will have access to all the most powerful features of Windows.
6. Go directly to the desktop. Remember when Windows used to have a “Show Desktop” icon on the taskbar? Well now there is no need, because you can just press Win + D to go directly to the desktop without closing anything.
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7. Rename many files at once. If you want to give a bunch of files the same name, select them all at once and click F2. Windows will add a (1) or a (2) to the end of each filename as well, so you don’t get confused.
8. Lock your computer instantly. If you leave your laptop open near friends who are likely to change your Facebook information for fun, or if you simply want to increase the security of your PC, it is good to get in the habit of pressing Win + L every time you leave the desktop unattended.
This will revert your computer to its lock screen, meaning any pesky snoops will have to know your password before they can post embarrassing statuses. However, unlike signing out, it keeps all your windows and documents open.
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism