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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nobody tell this man about vim
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 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.
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>
Keyboard shortcuts for everything. Mousing to a menu is a waste of time in any app you use daily.
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.
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.
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.
if you're concerned about how much you need to move your hand, then you'll probably love (neo)vim
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.
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.
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:
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.
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
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
Win + E to open a file browser window
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’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.
Shift + del: skips the trash and actually deletes things
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.