What computer life hacks are your most used?

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 !$
- 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.
  
  I've seen posts suggesting adding the following to your .bashrc:
  
  alias fuck='sudo $(history -p \!\!)'
- 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.
- cd -... Wow, I can't believe I never knew about this. I should read more man pages.
  !! Is useful too, never knew. Thanks!
- 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
- That's shell dependent, though. It's bash and some others, but definitely not all of them.

Windows+L every time I leave my desk.
- That's not even a life hack. That's literally policy, at least where I work at :)
  
  Not everyone knows the keyboard shortcut though. I bet you can find people hunting for it using the mouse every time.
  
  None of these comments are life hacks. When did using a documented feature built into your software become a hack?
- ⌃⌘Q for those of us on MacBooks
  
  No. What the fuck
- And so easy to remember: windows L, sicher und schnell!
- and win+x > up up right down enter, every night
  
  With open shell to replace the start menu:
  Windows - > right right enter for shutdown.
  Wibdows - > right right up up enter for hybernate
- If anyone left their computer unlocked at my old job, the entire office was getting an email about how much you love Justin Bieber

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
- F6 - goto and highlight the URL bar in a browser
  ctrl + F5 - clear cache and reload the tab
  F11 - super full screen browser
- 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).

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.
Get a Windows recovery USB.
Boot into the recovery menu and open the command prompt.
Navagate to system32 and make a copy of the cmd.exe file (for a backup)
Copy the sticky_keys.exe and have it overwrite cmd.exe, then reboot.
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.
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)
- That.... Seems like a pretty massive vulnerability. Like obviously that can be locked down by each user or administrator, but still....
  
  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.
  
  Does bitlocker solve this issue?
- I just boot in to a linux iso to use chntpw and reset passwords
- 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.
  
  They are already using the Windows recovery disk. This is not about accessing the disk, but to access the OS with admin rights.
- I used to use a boot CD with a password eraser. I think the last time I used it was win 7 though

Nobody tell this man about vim

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
- They tought us on typewriters in the 90s. Wait until you hear about how I changed an ink ribbon, son.
  
  I miss crunchy keyboards that fought you every time you hit the carriage return. These modern ones all feel weak and listless to me.
  
  They taught us on ink pens in the 1700s. Wait until you hear about how I etched on slate tablets.
  
  tought
  taught? Is spell-check your next epiphany?
- I'm with you but the snark is a bit much
  
  I'm not being snarky, I'm just flabbergasted. because of the platform we're on. itd be a lot less on a normie platform
- Works with backspace and delete too!
  
  pro tip: press backspace to delete the last letter you wrot
  r delete to delete the next letter

Vim takes your keyboard shortcuts to the extreme. If you can be bothered to learn it.
- And for those who can't be bothered, opening vim is like the digital version of a finger trap.
  
  Is there a non-digital version of a finger trap? 🥁
- It's well worth learning, you can use vim motions In lots of apps (or they have vim plugins) and even some websites will let you navigate with hjkl and search with / etc
  There used to be a web based vim game to help you learn, vim tutor maybe?
  Any time I'm forced to select text with a mouse it feels like a massive ball ache.
  Don't get me started on editing text on an iPad, they have gone out of their way to make selection and editing, like changing a URL, a total nightmare.
  
  I learned vim using vim adventures and open-vim, both are browser-based. I'm not an expert yet though, but I'm done using nano
- I opened vim and I've been stuck ever since. Send help
  
  :h

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.

Using the arrow keys for exactly what they’re made for isn’t a hack lol
- Nobody tell OP about the Page Up and Page Down keys, their head might literally explode. (jk op).
- True. But also if you are going to use arrow keys to navigate you will want to also know where your scroll lock key is because it's almost useless unless you use arrow key navigation

Ctrl+r on bash and zsh (possibly others) for quickly recalling anything you've typed before
- This is a huge one for me. For those who don't know, this brings up the rev-i-search utility which allows cycling from most recent to oldest commands executed. It also supports partial finds so if you did 'cd' it would cycle the most recent change directory commands.
  The forward search (in case you're somewhere in the history stack) is ctrl+s and operates the same except crawls the command history forwards.
  I use these constantly in my normal workflow and they save a ton of time.
  
  I use zsh autosuggestion and syntax highlighting plugins it gives me usable history search and completion functionality.

Using ublock origin picker to remove everything useless. Like, Youtube suggestions, everything but download button on ddl websites, useless footers/headers on news, etc...
- Just getting people to switch away from chrome to get ublock origin is a major hack all itself and completely changed the way you use the internet.
- Why have I not been doing this?! Just removed the "2 years old" .world banner.

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.
- Showed a coworker that while he was training me.
  "OK, right-click on that and..."
  center click>
  puzzled
  "OK, right-click...
  center click>
- Or ctrl-/command-click!
- Unless the page uses shitty "link" implementation where buttons are use instead of actual anchor tags. Fucking SPAs…
- Very recently, I have adopted Shift+LMBclick to open a link in a new browser window.
  I use this primarily for accessing one link in favorites bar.
  I would love to figure out a non-extension way (curse you, draconian IT policy!) to set this behavior in the favorite/bookmark...
- there's a extension to do this with the right click button instead too
- click using the mouse wheel
  'middle click'
  
  Also Ctrl+Shift+T restores recently closed tabs in the order they were closed
- You can also middle click on a tab to close it! Also, middle clicking stuff pinned to your taskbar like the file explorer or your browser opens up a new window of it.
  
  Wow, this I didn't know! Thanks friend!
- Oh I love this one too, probably one of my most used.

the "fuck" command.
- That's so cool/clever.

Keyboard shortcuts for everything. Mousing to a menu is a waste of time in any app you use daily.
- Coming from the dark ages of Win286, this was the way.
  Painting menus on the screen actually required time for the paint to dry on each pixel, so keyboard shortcuts were a necessity.
  The advent of that blankety-blank tools ribbon ruined me...

Set up three WireGuard network interfaces on a VPS then accept traffic from your end devices to route through the three double hop VPN tunnels to a country with better privacy laws. Install an ad and tracking blocking DNS server to block all nefarious hostnames as well as more granular blockers for your browsers.
- What’s the point of the VPS?
  
  Mainly to keep my end devices appearing to connect to a VPN in the same country. I usually do that especially when I travel to other countries that seem to block WireGuard leaving their borders.
  I suppose if I had fiber at home I’d do it all there but cable internet’s slow 30 Mbps upload speed along with constant power outages make it a no-go.

Oh kid, I do this for over forty years now.
- I'm kinda mind blown that this is even considered a tip. isn't this just basic functionality of a text box???
  it's shit like this that makes me think I do know tech a little bit, until i stumble on an actual tech community and feel like I know nothing
  
  For real, I remember when Solitaire was added to Windows to teach people how to use a mouse. It wasn’t just some fun little thing they added on a whim. The goal was to provide an entertaining way for users to naturally learn mouse controls like clicking and dragging.
  Before then, you had to use the keyboard to navigate text, because you literally didn’t have a mouse.
- I'm sitting up on the upper balcony tabbing between two two plebs.

- less configuration needed
  Would say that GNU/Linux is actually *more * customizable than Windows which then requires more config. For a techie like me, not a downside as I can figure it out.... but wouldn't say this is true for all distros even with vanilla Gnome compared to Windows or something like ZorinOS. IMO, GNU/Linux still takes the cake on this one unfortunately.
  
  Yeah, I understand the mindset behind “if I tell people Linux is easy, they might actually switch.” Getting people to switch means overcoming a lot of social inertia. But the issue is that this makes you an unreliable source when a newbie inevitably runs into issues. They’ll be more likely to go “eh I was told it was easy but this isn’t. I guess it’s just not for me.”
  Providing a realistic outlook may make Linux sound less appealing, but it will mean those who do try it are more likely to stick with it.
- I don't know shit about Linux but I've been using Mint for the last year with no problem. It's pretty idiot-proof and I haven't had any issues with software since gaming is largely solved on Linux and Adobe can eat my ass.
  
  and Adobe can eat my ass.
  I too volunteer for Adobe to eat my ass. That's cool though that LM is working out for you. I'm sure Clem would be happy to hear that.
- What distribution do you use?
  
  Recommend CachyOS, not US centered and pretty stable.
- What distribution do you use?

Ctrl + shift + esc brings up the Windows task manager directly instead of the menu you get when you press ctrl + alt + del
- Just remember that ctrl+alt+del is a system level interrupt that should always work as long as the kernel is running. Ctrl+shift+esc is not, and won't work in some situations like being used inside a fullscreen frozen program.

if you're concerned about how much you need to move your hand, then you'll probably love (neo)vim

Far from most used, but very handy: ctrl+win+shift+b
It restarts the graphic subsystem, which can help recover from situations where game crashes or similar cause visual issues.
- That's handy, my computer is struggling to run crusader kings 3 when I start it up sometimes and I have to restart the whole thing. Next time I'll try this.
  Trying to save to buy a new pc but with a baby on the way most of our money is going to baby stuff at the moment

Custom autocompletes/corrects. Just figure out a non-word (i.e. something that you wouldn't want to use without autocorrecting) that's easy to remember and set it up frequently used snippets of text. Some examples:
meetnow - my zoom meeting link
booktime - a link to my calendly
frequent sentences or blurbs I use in emails (e.g. thanks so much, let me know if i can help with anything else sorta stuff)
nicknames for different frequently used hex codes
galert/yalert/redalert populate a styled HTML snippet to make a green, yellow, or red div that I can then just pop my content into
lots of other little HTML snippets like that
group nicknames to populate a list of email addresses (like an Outlook contacts group but you can use it outside of Outlook)
Anyway there are a ton of things I use it for, those are just a few examples. Saves me a lot of time.
You can do this on Macs at a system level, on Windows you can do it on some programs but it seems to have to be set up on each one which is worthless.
- That's so smart!
  I set up autocompletes for my phone number (and a few other personal links) but these are amazing.. thanks for sharing

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.

Actually use Home and End keys to get to the start and end of text.
Ctrl + F for searching text. Very useful.
Alt + Tab for window switching.
Linux + USB drive to switch away from Windows.
- I can't live without my home, end, pagedown and pageup keys
- Combine home and end with ctrl to move to the start or end of the file. As a dev I use this a lot.
  I also have keyboard shortcuts for code folding and mouse shortcuts to navigate between usages, declarations and implementations. Onboarding people is a slog when they don't have the same shortcuts.

My favorite windows shortcut is 'Windows+shift+left/right' to move an application between monitors. Very helpful for moving games around or snapping without have to use a mouse.
- I think this works in KDE out of the box.

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.

I've discovered over the years that these 2 commands can fix a lot of problems for a windows computer. And there’s no practical downside unless you're running pirated software or exotic OS mods.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth sfc /scannow
As with any advice online, its critical to research and understand what you're doing. :D

Safe: Use text expansion for trivial yet long texts like your emails, addresses, etc. to almost eliminate errors in those texts. Espanso is something I use on Linux Mint, while macOS supports text expansion natively. I am yet to find something that fills the gap on NetBSD, but I almost exclusively use emacs on those machines, which has native support for snippets.
Unsafe: Remove USB drive without ejecting it. :P
Contrived yet neat: With special software (BetterTouchTool on macOS) or keyboard firmware (QMK and ZMK, which is what I use), one can use Spacebar as a layer key (SpaceFn, as it makes Spacebar behave as a Fn key) to unlock neat shortcuts like navigating using HJKL, add macros, remap hard to reach keys on to the home row, etc. There are other things that can be done such as one-shot modifiers which make typing less straining.
P.S. The snark in the comments here is surprising. Everyone starts somewhere. Let us be welcoming.

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

Recently had to help a relative who still uses windows, so here's a freebie from Linux:
You can use super + number to launch any pinned program on the taskbar. For example let's say you have your browser right of the start button and file explorer on the next spot right, pressing super+1 launches the browser and super+2 the explorer
Edit: super = windows logo key

Win + E to open a file browser window

Add Home/End buttons into your work flow to jump to the start or end of lines. Works with holding Shift as well.
For me, one of the biggest things was removing all the visual noise from my desktop. Disable notifications, disable or hide unused taskbar elements, and on Windows, get rid of the patently awful ticker thing that lives on the taskbar. Disable window animations.
I did the same thing on my phone, too, including disabling pop-up notifications, toasts, floating bubbles, and animations. My brain is much happier for it.
- Add Home/End buttons into your work flow to jump to the start or end of lines. Works with holding Shift as well.
  Works with Ctrl too

As a basic Linux user, I have a shell script to do all my updating, upgrading, removing of unneeded packages, etcetera. Under no circumstances is it all that advanced, just a string of simple enough apt and flatpak commands.
I also recently figured out that god knows how long ago that I set an alias to run it that's only 3 keyboard clicks instead of 5, saving basically less than a second. So not that useful, but still good to know... until I inevitably forget about it again.
- I've been yum-cronning since 2002. You guys still do it manually?
  
  As someone who has only been using Linux for a few years ( >5 ), yeah I do.
  Definitely know what cron/cronning is, but I'll definitely have to look up what yum-cronning is.
  Edit:
  I'm an idiot and correct in my thinking that yum was referring to the yum package management thing, which I don't use on my system. Sounds cool, though. Might look into automating my setup, but it's become such a routine for me to run the script I'm not sure if I could easily switch.

Pretty much anything has a free alternative. Often times, with a better UI or more features with far less bloat than the top commercial product.

The Multiple desktops feature is critical for me. It allows you to use one computer for multiple functional concepts simultaneously without visually interfering with each other or constantly needing to close and re-open things. It's available in both windows and linux (which had it first) for a long time now.
I keep my personal stuff on one desktop, I keep my work stuff on a second desktop, and I keep my gaming stuff on a third desktop. Then I just flip between them based on what I'm currently doing.
That way I'm not getting things confused with each other, or distracted by something personal while I'm working.
Ctrl+Windows+Left/Right for Windows is the shortcut to flip back and forth between them. Or you can also see it on the Windows+Tab menu as well (along the bottom below the apps)
The only downside to this is that you need more RAM than normal, because it's not uncommon for me to have dozens (sometimes north of 100) of browser tabs, and a half dozen applications from office to video games open simultaneously between the different desktops. I would suggest running 32gb at a minimum, and 64gb is a lot better.
- I've found the windows one sorely lacking. As I recall all windows of a specific program have to be on a single desktop. This causes issues if you are working on multiple word docs, browser windows, or even just want access to email in both desktops. AFAIK there isn't a work around to this. Am I out of the loop on a nice windows feature?
  
  You must be out of the loop, I have different browser tabs and excel files up on different desktops right now.
  Sometimes if you need to start a new file it will swap you around, but you can always immediately move it wherever you want.
  
  You can specify a window to show on all desktops (or all windows from the same app). Just right-click the window from the Task View screen (Win + tab)

Wait until you learn about vim keybindings. Instead of moving your hand to the arrow keys, you can stay on the homerow and movie up down left right from there.
- I had to read the post twice, is the arrow keys the life hack? zu the fold, }} two paragraph and 3) to jump three sentences is. And we haven't mentioned macros yet

First thing required on every new keyboard
- Just remap it to something more useful, Colemak remaps it to backspace.
- Fail. Remap it to escape.
- As a draftsman, CAPS is on more than its off.
  
  You must be so proud
- I do this with the windows button on my gaming rig

Linux. Windows is used for Russian oligarchs.
Since people are expecting windows shortcut keys, I nominate TAB navigation. Hitting tab will cycle the focus through all the buttons and edit boxes. Shift Tab to go backwards.

My main one is to learn shortcuts on your most used programs. Using the mouse for everything is a waste of time, but that has been said multiple times.
My second is to create scripts to do a bunch of repetitive tasks. For example, I have a script I run on my work PC after I log on to the VPN that starts my "always on" programs (like notepad++), unlocks the hosts file, etc. I have some sendto scripts for converting files with pandoc, fetching multiple git repos in one go, etc. It just speeds up things and avoids errors versus me doing them manually.
On Windows I use PowerShell and on Linux I use bash, meaning they work without additional software installed.

(Linux)
Add the same symbol at the beginning of most aliases. I use é
So when I type é+tab I get all my aliases
é+first letters of alias+tab and I'm sure autocomplete will select the alias and not another command

Shift + del: skips the trash and actually deletes things

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.
- 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 :>

I’ll have to upload it here when I get back into work on Tuesday, but I wrote a PDF guide for the most common Windows and Mac shortcuts that I consider to be the essentials.

Turn it off when you're not using it. Save on energy.
- Modern computers don’t use much energy when they sleep.
  
  If they sleep
- Even 50W, 24/7, is 36 kWh/month. $3 where I live; $12 in CA.
- If you also disconnect the power, just remember that this drains the CMOS battery in the motherboard. That's okay, just know that it may help to replace it if your machine has issues booting, time resets, etc.

hosts file block twitter/reddit/facebook/etc on all my computers. i guess i haven't done it on my phone because i can't be bothered [and regardless of how much i need a hit, i'm not gonna sit there on my phone browser for hours anyway]
- pi-hole does the same thing for a whole network
  
  Yeah I use AdGuard. It's so nice to not have ads!
  I also saw that Netflix on my TV was constantly phoning home even though I don't use it on my TV.

On Windows you can open up a WSL shell or PowerShell session directly to the folder path you want.
Hold 'Shift' then right click anywhere inside of a directory and you will get an option to "Open PowerShell window here" as well as to "Open Linux shell here".

Shift + Tab (also works on Linux)
If you have a mouse with side buttons, you can use the side buttons to go back or go to the next page on browsers
Pressing Alt + F4 on the desktop opens up a dialog asking if you want to shut down, restart, log out, etc. (I think this works on Linux as well)
- This, I feel unproductive when I use a mouse without side buttons.

Control Backspace deletes whole words. Misspelled control? Faster to delete and retype than move my cursor around when I'm on a roll.
- Not a computer hack, but some phone keyboards have backspace and whitespace drag, the former allowing to select a range form the cursor to delete and the latter moving the cursor. Way more usable than trying to fat finger cursor position and selection.

Ctl shift t - reopen last closed tab in tour browser
- Should be ctrl shift + t
  Is there two shortcuts for this?
  
  Fixed

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

when my computer pisses me off i like to smash it

Yeah I do a lot of keyboard shortcuts. My computer career started before I even had a mouse, it was all keyboard editing. Doesn't bother me a bit to leave the mouse just sitting there. In fact after typing a comment here I just tab to the Post button and hit Enter.

Notepad++
Ctrl click to place to type the same things once on those spots.
Ctrl and alt together will allow vertical highlights so if you have to modify the middle of several lines.
Edit menu -> line operations to sort by several pre determined methods.

Double clicking with the mouse on a word usually selects the whole word with the space after, very nice for copy-pasting.
Double clicking on the selected word will sometimes select the whole line(In some applications it actually selects up to the newline marker, so it will grab multiple lines if resized smaller).

Linux Mint stand-in for Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows, for when you can't open system monitor:
Get an interactive top you like > When PC freezes go to tty, open top, works like a task manager

In a browser I right click on a bookmark folder to open all the bookmarks in separate tabs. I usually do this with my social sites.
To update Fedora "sudo dnf upgrade". I used to use the software store but that often requires a reboot.
Windows+L to lock the computer.
I always have my vpn, terminal window, and qbittorrent start at boot.