this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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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.

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[–] a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 6 days ago (2 children)
[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

That's so cool/clever.

[–] pocker_machine@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 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
[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 days ago

What you just described is the most gen-Y always used PCs but never knew dogshit about it thing ive heard.

Regarding that, Wait until you learn you can use strg to move beetween words.

[–] hansolo@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

To be pedantic, keyboard shortcuts aren't hacks. That's the intended use of the thing, and long lists of keybaord shortcuts exist so that people can find the ones that work for them and use them. Just because most people don't do it doesn't make it a hack.

My favorite keyboard shortcut is Super/Windows key and spacebar switches keyboard languages. That's not a hack, though.

Closer to a "hack" is going into an android phone with ADB and disabling bloatware manually.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 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.world 5 points 6 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

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 6 days ago

Insult and threaten the maschine till it works

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

The Escape Key closes most popups, dialogs, modals. It’s also non-destructive, so it won’t close a program; any “save changes” dialog will be cancelled.

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

End > shift+home will let you copy lines outside of IDE

[–] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Ctrl + C Ctrl + V

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Ctrl+Shift+Reset returns your document to the last saved state.

[–] moe93@lemmy.dbzer0.com 66 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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 !$

That's shell dependent, though. It's bash and some others, but definitely not all of them.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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 points 1 week ago

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

alias fuck='sudo $(history -p \!\!)'
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[–] Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world 61 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Windows+L every time I leave my desk.

[–] shplane@lemmy.world 1 points 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

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] davidgro@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio 2 points 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.

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[–] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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[–] Bahnd@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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.works 17 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] Sorse@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Does bitlocker solve this issue?

[–] feannag@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Yes, it does. Only affects unencrypted systems.

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[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago

Nobody tell this man about vim

[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 29 points 1 week ago (8 children)

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

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[–] TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

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

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Find a Linux distro you like and install it instead of Windows.

Use LibreOffice, not MSOffice

Ditch Google, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.

Tech walled gardens are insane asylums. Leave them.

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[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Using the arrow keys for exactly what they’re made for isn’t a hack lol

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Nobody tell OP about the Page Up and Page Down keys, their head might literally explode. (jk op).

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[–] Bitflip@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Ctrl+r on bash and zsh (possibly others) for quickly recalling anything you've typed before

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[–] JamonBear@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Using ublock origin picker to remove everything useless. Like, Youtube suggestions, everything but download button on ddl websites, useless footers/headers on news, etc...

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[–] jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Yay, nobody said my favorite hack.

While browsing on the web and you want to "open link into a new tab", click using the mouse wheel like it's a regular left or right click.

It's great for researching.

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