Shortcuts Key of Windows

This article explains how you can become faster, more efficient, and potentially even reduce RSI by using your keyboard more often to do more of the tasks that you normally think only the mouse can do. When testing this article on colleagues, I have yet to find a single person who hasn't learnt at least something new, even 15 year IT veterans!

Keyboard Short Cut - Copy, Cut and Paste: The most common keyboard short cuts used are Copy CTRL+C, and Paste CTRL+V which are used by selecting (or highlighting) text, pressing CTRL+C to Copy this text to the clip board (a Windows temporary storage area that can only remember 1 thing: always the last thing Copied) and then Pasting this text to another Text Box using CTRL+V. Instead of copying however, the original text can be removed using Cut: CTRL+X. This deletes the original text but also copies it to the clip board so it can Pasted somewhere else.

Additionally, highlighting text with the keyboard can be done using the SHIFT key. Hold down SHIFT and use with different combinations of ARROW keys, CTRL key and END and HOME keys. Here are some possible combinations to try: SHIFT+ARROW; SHIFT+CTRL+ARROW; SHIFT+END; SHIFT+HOME; SHIFT+CTRL+END; SHIFT+CTRL+HOME, SHIFT+CTRL+PAGEUP AND SHIFT+CTRL+PAGEDOWN. Try them out, they all make highlighting blocks of text much faster.

Keyboard Short Cut - Switching Between Applications: ALT+TAB: Use this keyboard shortcut (or keyboard combination) to change which of the open applications is the one that's active at the moment. A small window will appear with small icons representing all the applications currently running. Whilst keeping ALT pressed with your left thumb, TAB can be pressed multiple times to cycle along the list to the application required. It is similar to using the mouse and clicking an application in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.

Keyboard Short Cut - Tabbing Through Window Controls: TAB: Looking at an application window (or form if you prefer), there are many controls that can be accessed, including Text Boxes (sometimes called "fields" are the usually white areas where text can be typed in), Command Buttons, Tick Boxes, and List Boxes. Normally the mouse would be used to click on a control, however pressing the TAB key cycles through all the accessible controls on the form in what's called the Tab Order, just like clicking each one in turn. This method can be used to activate all the controls on the form, adding text or making selections as appropriate. Note that sometimes the Tab Order can be unintuitive.

SHIFT+TAB activates controls in reverse of the normal Tab Order, useful if you Tab once too often.

CTRL+TAB can be used in the special case where a windows form has a sub-section with tabs at the top to click. Use CTRL+TAB to move to the right between the tabbed sub-forms, and CTRL+SHIFT+TAB to go left up the tab list.

Keyboard Short Cut - Clicking Command Buttons: Command Buttons are the grey rectangles clicked to make things happen. ENTER (or RETURN if you prefer) is the equivalent of clicking a Command Button once it has been Tabbed to and activated. Or indeed the SPACE bar can be used instead.

SHIFT+??? Additionally many command buttons have specific keyboard short cuts that have the effect of clicking them without the need to Tab to them. Some command buttons have a letter underlined, like the Cancel button often has the "C" underlined. However the ESC (Escape) key is often also tied to a Cancel button directly. Cancelling a pop up window for example can often be quickly done using ESC.

Pressing SHIFT+C will often have the effect of clicking a Cancel button. Where SHIFT is the keyboard key with the thick UP arrow that normally gives Capital letters when typing. Note that the underlined letter is not always the first letter.

Keyboard Short Cut - Toggling Tick Boxes: Tick Boxes are small white squares with a tick or cross that can be toggled on or off. SPACE is the equivalent of clicking a Tick Box once it has been TABed to and is the active control.

Keyboard Short Cut - Selecting Radio Buttons: Radio Buttons - like circular tick boxes, except only 1 can be selected in the group. ARROW keys are used to move the selected option in a list of Radio Buttons, once this control is the active control. Up and Down Arrows can be used, or Left and Right as preferred.

Keyboard Short Cut - Selecting Items in List Boxes: List Boxes (sometimes called "Drop Down List Boxes") drop down a list of items when the down triangle is clicked from which a pre-existing value in the list can be selected. ARROW keys are again used here to move the selection. Up and Down Arrows can be used, or Left and Right. However this only moves the selection without actually showing the list. ALT+ARROW will drop down the list, and is the equivalent of clicking the down arrow on the right hand side of the control. Only Up and Down arrows work here to show the list.

Another useful keyboard feature of List Boxes is quickly jumping to an item by typing the first letter of the item being sought. E.g. if the List Box contains the list: Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Red, Yellow; and the desired selection is Yellow, instead of pressing the DOWN Arrow 5 times, simply pressing the "Y" key will select Yellow immediately. Pressing "P" will select Pink, and pressing "P" for a second time will start moving down the list of P's, hence selecting Purple in our example.

Keyboard Short Cut - Menu Item Short Cuts: CTRL+??? Copy and Paste are examples of Menu shortcuts. Menus are the drop down options in the grey Toolbar at the top of almost all Windows Applications, normally starting with "File". Looking in the Edit menu of a text editor like Word shows the Cut, Copy and Paste commands with their shortcuts (CTRL+X, CTRL+C, CTRL+V) listed next to them.

 Take a look around the menus as many useful commands are shown with their short cut keys. Some common ones are listed here:

Open - CTRL+O Print - CTRL+P Save - CTRL+S Save As - F12, (Oddly this is not always shown, Microsoft Word for example doesn't list it, but it works) Find - CTRL+F Replace - CTRL+H or CTRL+R depending on application Undo - CTRL+Z Redo - CTRL+Y Bold - CTRL+B Italic - CTRL+I Underline - CTRL+U

Be careful however as not all applications have the same shortcuts, and worse sometimes applications use the same shortcut keys for different things. For example, most applications use CTRL+F for Find, most that is except Microsoft Outlook which uses CTRL+F for "Forward email" and instead uses F4 for Find.

Keyboard Short Cut - Navigating The Toolbar Menus: ALT+??? As Command Buttons can have specific shortcut keys used with SHIFT and shown as an underlined letter, so too do the Menu's on the Toolbar also have short cut's to access them directly with out clicking. These are accessed not with SHIFT but with ALT. The first 3 menus at the top of Word for example are: File, Edit and View, but as with Command Buttons it's not always the first letter, for example Format. So to access the Format menu, use ALT+O. Once a menu is being displayed, the ARROW keys can be used to navigate around the various menus using Up, Down, Left and Right arrows.

Notice that often the menu items also have underlined letters (sometimes as well as their listed CTRL+??? shortcuts). Now however, the ALT is no longer required as the "Menu mode" is already active. So opening the Tools menu of Word by pressing ALT+T, shows that "Word Count" has an underlined "W". Now pressing W now will perform a word count on your document. This is a quick way of accessing functions that don't have a CTRL+??? shortcut, without the mouse.

Further Tips: If your keyboard is blessed with a Windows Key (normally between CTRL and ALT and has a windows logo on) there are extra shortcuts available, the most useful ones are.

Minimise all windows and shows the Desktop - WINDOWS KEY+M Launch the Windows Explorer Application - WINDOWS KEY+E

It can take a little time to get used to some of the shortcut combinations, especially working out when to use CTRL, SHIFT or ALT. Perseverance however will result in less reliance on the mouse and a faster, more efficient working experience. And dare it be said: a more enjoyable one?

Top 4 Window Cleaning Tips

I understand how frustrating it can be when you've spent hours washing your windows only to find streaks and smears when you're finished. As a professional window cleaner, I am here to say that cleaning your own windows does not have to be drudgery! In this article my goal is to help take the pain out of washing windows. I have listed the top four window cleaning tips that will help you produce those spotless and streak-free windows with less effort and more reward.

You must start with the proper window washing supplies. Having the right window cleaning tools alone can make or break a window washing job. Too often I see people using general store-bought cleaners, the wrong types of squeegee's, grandma's old homemade window cleaner, newspapers, paper towels, vinegar, and so on.

Tip 1 - The Squeegee

You must have a good quality window squeegee. Using paper towels, lint filled rags, news papers, a shower squeegee or an auto squeegee will not produce the results you are after. There are a few different brands and styles of squeegee's to choose from so you will want to get help with choosing the squeegee that is right for you. Give your local janitorial supply shop a visit. This is the best place to purchase a quality window squeegee among other window cleaning tools. You will also need a few replacement rubbers to go with your squeegee. It is critical to have new rubber blade on the squeegee before each window washing job.

Tip 2 - The Scrubber

Most of the hard work comes from removing dust, greasy finger prints, bug spots and other stubborn debris from the glass. By using a professional window scrubber, you will reduce a great deal of time. I would suggest purchasing a t-bar type scrubber that comes with a removable sleeve. These sleeves are usually made of micro fiber or 100% cotton. You can choose a non-bristle sleeve for tinted windows or with bristles for non tinted windows. Again, I would recommend visiting your local janitorial shop for this item.

Tip 3 - Window Cleaning Solution

This is one of the window cleaning tips that I am asked about the most often. What is your secret window cleaning solution? A lot of professional window cleaners including myself use there own-secret-homemade window cleaner that they've perfected over the years. There are pre-made window washing soaps on the market that you can purchase that do work great. If you want a quick and easy solution that you can make at home, try this. Mix about 1/4 teaspoon of any regular liquid dish soap to one gallon of soft or distilled water. You can use this solution in a bucket or put into a spray bottle. I think you will be surprised at how simple and well this little recipe will work.

Tip 4 - Detailing Towels

When it comes to detailing edges or touching up a small dime size spot, you will want to use a 100% cotton towel or a microfiber cloth. Most anything else will leave behind tiny lint particles that will be noticed when the sun shines through the window.

How to Make Your Personal Computer Faster - How You Can Speed It Up

Computers are our best friends when we need to find an answer to any of our problems. They are excellent devices which help us do many things but the problem begins when some garbage comes in through our internet connection and it makes the system slow or dead. We need to know a procedure to make our personal computer work faster. Let's show you some ways in which you can increase the speed of your computer very fast. We can help you by guiding you with step by step methods of increasing your PC performance.

If you want the speed of your computer to be faster, then you must keep the registry clean. There are several files and programs in the registry which are essential for the working and functioning of the operating system. It is important that your registry does not contain any errors or corrupted files. You need to ensure that you fix all these errors every few months using a registry cleaner software.

A very important tip if you want your PC performance to improve is to clean the computer's fan using canned dust remover. This helps in improving the capacity of the computer's hardware to control the excess heat which can cause a lot of damage to the other parts of the computer.
 

Different ways of making a personal computer work faster are as follows:

1. You should always keep your antivirus updated and you should try and run a scan of the computer before taking any other step or action.
2. You should always keep a back up of your data that you have in your computer because in case your hard disk crashes, then your complete data is gone and there is no way you can get it back. You can also use downloaded software to scan your computers.
3. Most people forget to clean their Recycle Bin. If you have put a certain file in the Recycle Bin, the chances that you will need it back are less. Thus, you should make it a habit to clean the Recycle Bin fortnightly.
4. Adjusting the visual effects of your computer will also help increase the speed. If you reduce the visual effects of the startup menu, you will see that the computer is able to boot faster and also process files quickly.

All the above mentioned steps can be done at home free of cost. The last resort for you is to buy an extra hard drive.

Understanding Your Computer Operating System

Over the years, computer operating systems have emerged as the most integral know component of every computer system in the world. Without the operating system, you almost won't be able to use a computer. You don't need to know any complicated commands settings or codes to be able to use a computer with the aid of a computer operating system.

Right in the first few years of computers, operating systems were not in existence. But after the invention of powerful computers, they were developed. What is known as 'punch cards' was being used to enter information's onto a computer before operating systems came to existence. To get the desired information's needed on computers, punch card machines where used. But they were not all that efficient

.

Computer programmers were able to successfully design the first computer operating systems. They considered the fact that life will be easier if common people like me and you should be able to use a computer without knowing much or even noting about complex computer languages.

With the success of early computer programmers, there are so many computer operating systems these days available in the world of computers today. A lot are also still being developed even as you are reading this now. Virtually most of resent operating systems are designed with the common user in mind. An average computer user can now load most computer programs with a simple use of a mouse and just a few clicks.

Every system has a specific function to perform behind the scenes. The user will not even be able to see or even need to know that they are there. What these operating systems do behind your computer is commonly known as multiple tasking. It makes using a PC much more easily without managing computer resources manually.

Among the main basic functions every computer operating system does perform include:

* Managing your Random Access Memory (RAM)
* Managing your Hard Disc
* Scheduling of various tasks on your computer
* Providing a reasonable level of security to your computer, to prevent any external party to gain access to your PC
* To navigate various programs on your PC whenever you want to open them
* And many more

Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS are the world's most famous operating systems today. Other similar computer operating systems do exist also. But they got their technologies from the famous two computer leading giants.

Two other operating systems that are rapidly gaining popularity in the world today are Linux and GNU. But they are mainly focused on the network and system marketing industry.