17 Computer Tips You'll WISH You Knew Sooner

Sponsored: Get 20% off DeleteMe US consumer plans when you go to joindeleteme.com/ThioJoe and use promo code ThioJoe at checkout.
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Mentioned Links:
• My script for disabling power management: gist.github.com/ThioJoe/3ee8f...
• HowToGeek article about Windows 11 old context menu: www.howtogeek.com/759449/how-...
▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:19 - Special Characters Alphabetical Order
1:25 - Windows File Groupings
2:51 - Expanded Context Menu
3:43 - Windows 11: Bringing Back Old Context Menu
4:02 - A Very Excellent Thing
5:31 - Digitizing Product Manuals
6:46 - Fixing Windows Device Power Management
8:35 - Terminal Preview Admin Trick
9:52 - Extracting Text From Images
10:58 - Shortcut Directly to BIOS Menu
12:33 - Deleting Text Word-By-Word
12:55 - Sending Window to Back
13:05 - Scrolling to Zoom Common Shortcut
13:20 - The Quick Assist Tool
14:09 - "Turn it off and on again" (But Better)
15:17 - Windows Long File Paths
16:41 - Finding Launch Parameters
18:17 - Increase Event Viewer Log Size
19:41 - Set UAC to Highest Setting
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[@ThioJoe]

Sponsored: Get 20% off DeleteMe US consumer plans when you go to joindeleteme.com/ThioJoe and use promo code ThioJoe at checkout. • DeleteMe International Plans: international.joindeleteme.com/

[@piggy004]

Powertools became powertoys 😢

[@_SJ]

[@jamesfox2857]

Hey Joe on the expanded version , you can actually turn that on in your os in shared folder exp. just as long a s you keep it local and no speed boost from downloading off other computers

[@jamesfox2857]

save settings i a file as specified prior to and update , pop that open after , boom right back where you were prior to update . like a standalone driver

[@michaelcaywood6070]

I got a HP laptop computer. How can I use the camera to take my photos?

[@RobBulmahn]

I really hate the exclamation point trick. At work, everything is on shared network drives. It was bad enough when some genius started numbering all the folders (so that you needed to know its specific number instead of just being able to start typing and jump to a name), but then people started fighting over top billing, so you'd see a bunch of exclamations, and other stuff, and it all makes for a giant unnavigable mess.

[@realcartoongirl]

skill issue

[@protonmaster76]

It sounds like your network drive needs a folder structure on it allowing things to be organized.

[@RobBulmahn]

@@protonmaster76 The problem is entirely the people using it. You can create structure, but it means jack squat if no one uses it. People just want to dump everything in one location, whether it makes sense to be in that location or not. They would act like I was a wizard for finding training materials in the folder labeled "Training." So yeah...use this trick if you're the only person using the computer, but if you're using a shared resource, for the love of god don't.

[@protonmaster76]

@RobBulmahn I get it. The thing is to train people up on the structure and when new people start train them too. But it sounds like you just need to format the drive, it's beyond hope

[@DavidM2002]

Those are the same people who mark all of their emails as "Priority"

[@bhgemini]

⚠️One thing about tossing owners manuals. If you have a house fire, burglary, etc and don't have receipts for a claim. Many insurance companies accept the physical manuals as proof of purchase. This saved my bacon on a large claim. ⚠️ Edit to add: I do both physical and the pdf copies.

[@EbrahimHasan]

Keeping the receipts does the trick though. I keep scans of the receipts because I can't find them when I need them.

[@AnonYmous-yz9zq]

A copy of the warranty can be useful, sometimes it'a seperate.

[@solar3mpire]

ctrl+0 = return back to 100% after zooming in or out.

[@ianharcourtsmith]

+ for every time I scroll by accident and everything looks like the wrong size zoom

[@Tay12345]

oh my god that is so good

[@jesse21374]

Hold Ctrl+Shift when you click "Open in Terminal" to run in Administrator mode. This trick works in other places in Windows too.

[@steven_doan]

in Run as well if you do ctrl + shift + enter I think

[@the.mikeyy]

does not work in context menus.

[@meow.supernova]

@@steven_doan yes that is correct

[@maliciousfry]

Can't wait for sudo to make its way into mainline. Should be fun.

[@johanponken]

@@maliciousfry Mainlining sudo :o

[@davidadams421]

CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to instantly open Task Manager. Also, your CTRL + BACKSPACE/DELETE to delete by word also works to move the cursor by words using CTRL + L/R-ARROW, and select by words using CTRL + SHIFT + L/R-ARROW. Up and Down, moves or selects text by line and End and Home moves or selects text by paragraph.

[@dccarajay]

I know the text editing/selection ones because of my extensive use of MS Word, but the Task Manager one is quite new to me. 🤣🤣. I always just go Ctrl+Alt+Del or right click start to enter the Task Manager from there. Never knew there was something more direct.

[@scout8145]

If you actively use both Windows and MacOS, be warned that CMD + SHIFT + L/R ARROW works differently on MacOS. Instead of selecting one word, it selects the whole line. I use both OSs often, and my muscle memory for this in Windows is constantly messing me up in MacOS.

[@LifeWulf]

I knew every one of these tips except for the Ctrl + Backspace/Del. Dunno why I never thought of that, I learned the rest through intuition!

[@Kat21]

There's another tip that you've mentioned before but I'm surprised you didn't mention in this video. In almost all native Windows popup dialogs (error messages, yes/no, ok/cancel, etc.) you can hit CTRL + C to effectively copy an identical text version of the dialog to the clipboard so you can share the exact contents quickly without having to take a screenshot and send it to someone. This could also make it more effective to look up any details about an error, just paste it into notepad and copy the part you want so you won't have to go typing the error message by hand into google or something like that.

[@fusion9258]

Damn I wish I knew that sooner 💀

[@Valle641]

No. Fucking. Way! How did I not know about this?!!

[@Kat21]

@@Valle641 Funny enough in most dialogs it will play an error sound if you try to copy it which makes it seem like it doesn't do anything at all, but if you check the clipboard it's there...

[@tyrelli001]

Most useful one I learned a couple months ago I use almost every day now. When exploring a file directory and the file name is too long to fit in the column and it truncates off, making you have to drag the divider awkwardly to the right or left to read. Just simply "double-left click" the mouse over the divider (say between Name and Date Modified column header) and the column will expand to the width of the longest file name in the column. Simple, but very useful.

[@ThePharphis]

This works in spreadsheets too!

[@johanponken]

Right-click on the header row, choose "Size column to fit". Even though it is a click and a choice (but it's the top choice), it's easier as in: you don't have to target the small divider. _Also_ you get the choice (#2) so size ALL columns → saves space!

[@ThePharphis]

I think ctrl +A + the double click trick works, too. Or something like that. But I like your suggestion, too@@johanponken

[@xiarno3373]

WHAT

[@harkisingh]

For excel trick this is great

[@thisislilraskal]

When you drop & drag a file from one drive to another, the file will be _copied_ by default, but if you _hold_ _shift_ while dragging & dropping the file will be moved.

[@Kavyatej]

thanks for that one!

[@ilkeryoldas]

You can also RMB+drag if you want a popup window to choose what you want it to do with them

[@ggugvrunt]

On the same drive the default is move, but if you hold ctrl then it's copy.

[@OfficialKJM]

Thank you SO MUCH this is life changing I’m not kidding! :) thanks

[@Stratelier]

The file naming trick is valuable in INVERSE proportion to how much you actually use it. Because if every file is the most important one, _none of them are!_

[@mchenrynick]

He does point out that the ! files are his custom ones, so they stay separated from the default ones.

[@Stratelier]

@@mchenrynick Not actually the point. Using this on too many files at once devalues the whole point of doing it at all, and in extreme cases (which I've witnessed firsthand, thanks Mom) leads to runaway "prefix creep" -- not just one or two key files prefixed by one symbol, but dozens of files each prefixed with anywhere from two to _five_ symbols because the user wanted an easy way to "pin" some important file at the top of the list yet couldn't bear the thought of ... y'know, _actually removing that prefix_ after a file had served its purpose and no longer needed priority in the sort order.

[@sivalley]

Welcome home Syndrome.

[@madcow3417]

I had an undocumented launch parameter that I needed. A small program could only open from within another large main program. In Task Manger, Processes tab, right click on a column header and enable Command Line. This shows you what launch parameters were used to launch a process. In my case, the main program launched the other program with a big long key. I typed that into a shortcut for the small program and it opens just fine without the main program. You cannot copy this value, so the Text Extractor tip can be really useful here if it's a long launch parameter.

[@nwalkewicz]

Thank you so much for this! Just seeing an example of how a process was started is extremely useful in some cases. First one that comes to mind is launching Minecraft, where the entire game is just a ton of arguments passed to a Java executable. Even if I can't copy/paste them, it helps a lot when trying to understand how to generate all those args programmatically.

[@Yakuzaxpl]

I included some shortcuts I know: F5 - Refreshes the page, but Crtl + F5 refreshes the page and clears the cache (this may be useful if errors appear on a specific page) ctrl + scroll (as mentioned in the video) zooms the text, but e.g. Google Chrome crtl + 0 resets to the default view Win+D will show your desktop and press it again to display opened windows on the screen again. I found out about this recently: Ctr+Win+Alt+Shift+[letter] W - opens Word O - opens Outlook T - opens Teams P - opens Powerpoint and so on... try a different letter and surprise yourself :D And that's an interesting one: If you have several windows open. Grab one and start shaking. Everything will be minimized and the window you were shaking will stay.

[@scratchbeginner2954]

I hate the last one (kinda)

[@TechOfs7747]

Ctrl + shift + Win + Alt + B resets your graphics driver

[@Killerjerick]

@@TechOfs7747 Alt is not needed, just Ctrl + Shift + Win + B

[@user-rc6mw9ju6m]

how did you find the wotp ones!? did you do reverse engineering? i never seen them on microsoft docs

[@alexandreman8601]

X opens Excel and N opens OneNote

[@Lofote]

Funny that you mentioned the "use ! or some character at the beginning of a file name to customize alphabetical ordering, yet the most important way to sort filenames or folders that start with a DATE you do not use (as I saw in your example at #1): Always use YYYY-MM-DD way, for example you put your trip to Italy pictures in Sep 28th 2023 into a folder named "2023-09-28 Trip to Italy", and not some stupid localized way like "09-28-2023" or "28.09.2023" or "Sep 28, 2023", because that will not work with alphabetical order at all. Plus always use leading zeros, so use "2023-09-28" and not "2023-9-28". And always use 4-digit year names, that way it is also clear, that the first thing is in fact a year ("23-09-28" could also be the 23th of September 2028).

[@johanponken]

Oh, how I loath when screenshots (or other pictures) get those localized formats, and especially when there's no way to change it. WoW comes to mind (though I haven't played it in many years, might have changed.)

[@protonmaster76]

I organize my photos like this

[@Tom-kl9jf]

yes, I do this. as an Australian, using day-month-year is normal, so this is a simple flip. so similar to your method, for example today is 20240331. the hyphens help with human readability of course, but make no difference to sort order

[@aldyreal]

ISO 8601 for the win!

[@andreylucass]

You know the 'stupid localized way' is actually that American way, right?

[@jomascarbalProc]

Just to clarify, the period and backslash to run the script it's not because powershell is weird, it serves to point that you're running a file inside the directory you're in. When you just type the file name it reads as if you're trying to run an environment variable

[@AltonV]

It's the same in Linux but with a slash instead of a backslash

[@jcorey333]

Sure, but I think the fact that the default is not to have the current directory in the path is weird.

[@eDoc2020]

@@jcorey333 It's not weird if you think about it. Having the current directory in the path makes it super easy to execute the wrong version of a program by mistake. This can be a major security risk if you execute something you didn't mean to, especially since Windows gives all files execute permission by default.

[@jcorey333]

@@eDoc2020 I do understand that there are valid reasons for it, but I still personally think it's weird and unintuitive.

[@mikepanchaud1]

Another way to get to the command prompt is to just type 'cmd' into the address bar of the folder you are in. CMD will open in that folder!

[@Unpiloted0922]

Or the reverse, typing "explorer ." (without the quotes and the dot is important) will open an explorer window at the current path

[@Moon-_-Power]

using "powershell" opens powershell

[@Mister6]

I love your stream. I've been a heavy MS-OS user since DOS 3 days but I haven't been a desktop tech since the early 90s. I love doing things more efficiently but am too lazy to keep up with the new tips and tricks. Your concise videos always reveal something useful. Thank you!

[@surject]

Same, started with CP/M even, but I pretty much knew every single tip already :/ If you're looking for efficiency, use Total Commander, you will love it! I'm using it since the mid 90s, when Norton f'ed it up. Don'forget to install "Everything" as well if you have a lot of files/drives.

[@barsadal1738]

14:30 you should make sure to disable "quick restart (or similar) in Control Panel power settings, or this won't have any effect (search for "what power buttons do" in Start Menu)

[@lritzdorf]

In case it helps anyone, that Fast Startup setting can also play havoc if you're dual-booting with Linux and trying to access your Windows drive/partition. Essentially, it means Windows won't do a full shutdown - and this leaves the filesystem in a weird state, causing issues when other OSes try to access it

[@aaronbrookins8694]

Also, unless Fast Startup is disabled, Shutdown will not clear the active RAM contents, but Restart will. If you disable fast startup, the RAM contents do appear to clear in my recent experience upon Shutdown

[@eDoc2020]

AFAIK holding Shift when clicking Shutdown does a full shutdown.

[@barsadal1738]

​@@eDoc2020 yep, that too. btw that also works with the restart button where it would restart to the advanced options screen... but I feel if you want your computer to start up fast you just put it in hibernation/sleep mode, since that's what happens in the first place by default if you shut down with that option enabled (minus open apps). PCs these days take less than a few seconds to boot anyway, why not make a full shutdown the default when you click that button is anyone's guess

[@tasmanwinchcombe9774]

@@lritzdorf yes, wish I knew this when I started dual booting, I had to reinstall windows multiple times before I learnt about fastboot.

[@ryansamarakoon8268]

In Australia you can claim tax back for days you work from home. You normally need to hold a log book with times you've worked, but I've found using event log viewer to see when i start my computer during a work day at 9am to be a good indicator. Then a simple python script to turn it into an excel doc works for me. Only possible if the log size is higher since you'd need to do this for a full year

[@danytoob]

Theo Joe, 1 More - Love these tips! Some I do know, many I've forgotten (LOL) but always useful. One you didn't mention here (though you likely have before) is the Windows "Steps Recorder" . Start it then do whatever you want to record (ie - clicking through Settings options to a specific function) ... the recording gives text instructions and pics of each step process you did. Great teaching or help tool!

[@EdwinvandenAkker]

1:26 _"…Group files in downloadfolder…"_ That's a very useful tip. I have a Mac, and apparently it works in MacOS as well. Thanks!

[@igorthelight]

The alternative would be to set your browser to download files right to your Desktop. That way you would need to deal with every file you download (and your Download folder would not grow to 1 Tb in time! xD ).

[@terawattyear]

These are the type of tips I really appreciate and enjoy learning. Keep making videos like this and I will always watch.

[@peterdobson3435]

That power management tip might just have solved a couple of USB issues that I have been having. I knew about the feature, but didn't know about the issue with some of the older devices having a problem with that checked setting. We will see. Thanks for the script as well. Saves some time that way.

[@Paul_Wetor]

I had that problem with my computer where if I plugged in a new drive, the other plugged-in drive would drop out. Or maybe it was when I removed a drive. Either way, that option was the cause of the problem.

[@peterdobson3435]

@@Paul_Wetor Yup. It was a head scratcher for me for a while now. I too would have devices cut in and out for no obvious reason. So far, I haven't had it do that since I made the change. Looks like that solved it.

[@pedro4205]

I use exclamation point always, learned it in the mod community to organize mod load order.

[@_SJ]

Thanks for the tips, ThioJoe 🙂

[@bikeny]

Scene 1 of Episode 1 of THE IT CROWD tells all about the turn it off steps. So much useful info in that show. Thank you, ThioJoe, for the other tips as well.

[@montpierce424]

Great video. Tip 13 at 14:10, you mention turning a computer or device off, waiting 5-10 minutes, and then powering back on. This works, but requires an additional step for any device that you can power on/off by a remote control because they don't actually fully power off. In this case, it needs to be physically unplugged from power source to fully power off. I had a VCR years ago that every 6 months or so it would go wacky. To fix, I would unplug it, wait 10-15 minutes, then plug it back in, and it would then work fine for another 6 months or so... go figure... Thanks again for all the tips.

[@randomtoxx]

Almost every PC motherboard (and other devices as Modems, Switches etc.) will keep power on them, if you just power them off and leave the power cord connected. It usually will not reset anything. Most modern PC Motherboards will have some kind of light on them so you can see that there is still power on them. Being an certified Computer Service Field Engineer for over 30 years, for me, the only way to really reset a Motherboard is to disconnect all cables. Including all external (USB) devices clear the BIOS and then take out the battery and wait at least a few minutes. Electrolytic capacitors generally hold a charge for a couple of minutes, up to an hour or two. With other devices, my experience is, take the power cord off and wait at least a minute or 3.

[@NoEgg4u]

Joe, here is a nearly unknown setting that you will wonder how you lived without: I used to work with UNIX and Linux systems, where the company's IT head set them up for the focus to be on the window below the mouse pointer. So if that window is behind other windows, but still some portion is visible, then when you hover your mouse over that portion, then that window will be the focus -- meaning, when you start typing, it will be applied to that window. The same thing is possible with Windows. I use it, and cannot live without it. There are countless times when I want to type something in to a window, but I do not want to bring that window to the foreground. The above described setting allows you to keep that window where it is (you do not need to click on it). But you can paste into it with the keyboard and type into it, simply by having your mouse hovering over any exposed portion of it. Setting it up involves a change to accessibility options, and also a registry change. If you do only the accessibility change, then when you hover over a window, it will be brought to the front (without clicking on it). That is annoying. When you also make the registry change, then the window will not get raised to the foreground (unless you click on it). When you get it to work, you will likely end up occasionally typing in the wrong window, from time-to-time, not realizing that you moved your mouse over some other window. But you will learn quickly to avoid that. Also, when you hover your mouse over the window of your choice, its border will change, making it clear that it has the focus; that it is the active window. There is yet one more registry change to make. It determines how long your mouse must hover over the window for that window to get the focus. I believe that the default is 1000 ms (one second). That is too long for my taste. One second might seem fast. But when you want to type into a windows, that one second will seem like an eternity. I have mine set to 250 ms. That ends the waiting, and also allows you to quickly move your mouse to somewhere else, without losing the focus where you had it. Once you set up the above, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. Let me know if you are interested in the specific accessibility setting and the registry settings. It will take some time to document it in a comment. Years ago, I found the information on only one site, and I can't find it now. But I have it printed out. I had a bear of a time searching for it, and so I printed it out.

[@Stratelier]

Egad, keyboard focus handling is just a huge can of worms to begin with. Back when I worked with Visual Basic, I remember always toggling a property called "KeyPreview" so that keystrokes would go to the window-level key handler _first,_ before optionally getting passed through to the key handler for any specific control on the window. Which was important to my usecase where the bulk of the window's UI (and overall functionality) was rendered manually (not using the stock controls). And that version of VB didn't have a by-reference parameter to control whether or not the more-specific key handler should passthrough the event to the next one in the chain; IIRC the first key handler to execute was the _only_ key handler to execute at all (or maybe it was the reverse; either way, it was not workable for my usecase). Even in current versions of well-known modern applications, the problem with keyboard focus handlers is how (from the user's perspective) certain keyboard functions should be handled globally regardless of any active control, but others should not, and the line between the two is not always intuitive. For example, in GIMP the Spacebar is a modifier key to pan (scroll) the image view while moving the mouse, but Spacebar is also a perfectly valid character input for any and every text control _everywhere_ on the UI (when it has focus), and it's super easy to lose track of just where your keyboard focus is and then wonder "why isn't Spacebar panning the image?" Similarly, many tools are accessible via various letter keys but ONLY when the main window has keyboard focus; any time a more-specific control has focus instead, you get left wondering why the keyboard shortcut is suddenly "not working".

[@sambouza]

Definitely document it! I used to use Linux as my personal daily driver for a month, and my personal opinion about linux is that it has so much potential, since it lacks in compatibility which can only be achieved through emulation or native support, but not many people natively support some apps and instead depend on emulators like wine. I find it so funny on Windows I open up a program and see a setting "Optimise for wine". Anyway, that distro which I used had that focus feature automatically enabled. And switching back to windows got some needing to get used to. I definitely want that feature and honestly I wouldn't have known if it weren't for you. So please, send a link or a quick documentation on the steps required for it. Helps others too!

[@elvendragonhammer5433]

Just to specify- You may be un-aware of this, but ever since Windows Vista, Windows V, 7, 8, 10 & 11 currently uses emulators to run it's OWN programs. ANY 32-Bit executable runs via emulation. (The STEAM Launcher is a good example- it DOESN'T have a 64-Bit Executable- even though it would run far better if it did, but that would likely lead to game comparability or issues running on the platform. XP, & Vista did the same for 16-Bit programs, though in newer OS's they have no support at all. Intel stopped adding physical 32-Bit processing cores in it's chips by the time the first i3's came out. The last one that had them was the Core-2Duo line of procs. They are planning on doing the same thing & removing Hyper-Threading from the new Core Ultra line. They have already stripped the ability to use Direct x-12 on older i9 chips. Like the i9-11900H in order to force gamer's to upgrade to the 14'000 series. Also, If you want to be purely technical, every program we run is an emulator. It runs in Human readable code, which needs to converted to Machine readable code, whether that's assembly, or hex to be make changes to values in ram & eventually gets converted again to binary to run on the processor. than the result gets converted back to let the program know if it did or didn't do what it was asked to; & all that happens before you see a change to your screen. It's not Linux that lacks the compatibility, it's that many developers don't add the ability to use Linux to their application. Many windows apps run in Linux just fine w/o wine even being installed. (Obviously there are some that require them), but that's because of the lack of underlying support by the program's Devs. A perfect example of that is any Adobe program- They don't give a rats @$$ about their own windows customers, why would they go out of their way; & "waste" resources to make something work on a less used OS. Nowadays your more likely to find Linux programs that won't run properly on Windows instead, unlike 10 yrs ago. Many Devs don't consider Linux real, because they've never knowingly used it, or don't use it as a daily driver. You can do ANYTHING on Linux you can do on windows, it's just not as point & click easy, & in you will likely need a better grasp of the terminal commands of parameters to make it work the way you want. Many of those ppl are of course ignorant to the fact that 90% of the servers they are probably connecting to, even @ work are running it. Gaming on it is one of the few area's where it still lags a bit behind windows, but Steam, GOG, EGS' Launcher run just fine now, though u will probably need to tweak a few settings.@@sambouza

[@sambouza]

​ @elvendragonhammer5433 I know that Windows also emulates yes, but it does it seamlessly, and you don't go into configuration hell (unlike **most** linux distros). And I also pointed out that developers don't give 2 craps to create a native port to Linux, and that's not really attractive as a Windows user. It's the convenience of Windows which is the actual reason why I use Windows. I know so many shortcuts, use so many programs, that I just can't live without them. Every installation is simple (although you do need to be careful from malware, a disadvantage from closed-source software). The best analogy I can think of is that It's like getting trapped into Adobe's Suite where the subscription price is absurd, but you depend on the Suite so much that you can't not use it. But Linux also has some pros of its own, such as it has native programs which Windows does not have. You would need to emulate Linux on Windows so you could use those programs. Now I use a windows-linux hybrid on my PC, so I'm getting the best of both worlds. WSL + Windows is perfect for me, and I don't really need a full-fledged linux machine anymore. And on my slow laptop, I dual boot a modded version of windows and a light linux distro.​ At the end, Linux and Windows are both suited for different tasks, and for people with different preferences. I'm the type of person to click on "Accept All Cookies" mindlessly, click yes on "Can we trach your every mouse move, where you live and who you are?", because I don't really care, and I do want personalized ads. In contrast, some people absolutely hate that, but not me.

[@Lurker-dk8jk]

For clarity, I'd like to know the settings to make this happen. As often as I juggle between text windows, I NEED THIS.

[@aurisbunni]

I've been using the 'exclamation mark' trick for months, it's really helpful.

[@jim8432]

Always good information. Thank You. Stay well stay safe

[@sectorgamma]

12:33 there are many more modifiers for text editing and selection. You can use Ctrl + Left/right arrow key to move around text one word at a time rather than one character. Also, you can add shift to any text movement input so that it also _selects_ all the text from the previous cursor position to the one after the movement. For example, Shift + end (self explanatory), or Shift + Ctrl + Left/right arrow key to select an entire word. You can then chain more movements while keeping shift held down to add to that selection or modify it. This is absolutely crucial to know if you spend a long time editing text or coding, it makes the workflow that much faster.

[@aravjain]

Great video Joe!! Your videos are always informative and also entertaining at the same time!

[@NtGism]

I've got to admit that I don't take the time to watch your every video but damn when I do it's always packed with usefulness. Thank you for these

[@RedPyramidHead666]

You always provide new information even for advanced users. Thank you so much. 😊

[@soulstenance]

0:20 Fun fact, in Linux Mint's Nemo file manager, you can pin files in a folder which will make them look bold, as well as make them appear at the top (even above other folders inside that one). Very handy, I use that a lot!

[@johanponken]

But I suppose that doesn't transfer when syncing.

[@soulstenance]

@@johanponken Not to my knowledge. Unfortunately it will need to be redone on a per system basis. It does seem to "stick" if you copy that folder to other locations on the same system or external media connected to that system though!

[@stylis666]

@@soulstenance That can be very handy in work settings where people share files and folders and not everyone wants a specific file to show at the top.

[@soulstenance]

@@zorkman777 Thiojoe makes good stuff. Very Windows centric usually, but not always. I like staying up to date on the latest malware (aka Windows) that people are using, and remind people they do have a choice. That's all I can do. 🫠🤓

[@soulstenance]

@@zorkman777 Thiojoe makes good stuff. Very Windows centric usually, but not always. I like staying up to date on the latest malware (aka Windows) that people are using, and remind people they _do_ have a choice. That's all I can do. 🫠🤓

[@cbbcbb6803]

The "long path" information will be very useful to me! All the other tips are very useful too. Some I did not know, some I knew but forgot. Thanks.

[@LarcR]

Setting UAC at the top may improve security, but it will constantly nag the life out of you. Some of us keep it set at the bottom and have never had any problems with that.

[@AbhishekMTC]

Choosing 'Yes' in a Popup is that hard for you?

[@Bigos4]

If you have password set for UAC instead of Yes/No then it becomes annoying to type it out everytime

[@AbhishekMTC]

@@Bigos4 Yeah, that's pretty annoying but still a little extra layer...

[@sambouza]

​@@AbhishekMTCyeah, if you do it repeatedly lol

[@AbhishekMTC]

@@zorkman777 but it also lacks many Windows apps., Linux don't support the vast collection of Windows Apps and Games unless you are comfortable with an emulator...

[@carlbenz1431]

I started downloading manuals because I could never find them when I needed them. Now it is an automatic thing I do for everything like appliances and other electronics. They are also searchable so I can find the topic I want very easily.

[@baumthetree]

Ever annoyed of windows moving files to trash when deleting them? If you really want to fully delete them, hold shift while clicking the delete button and it will let you permanently delete it right away (Very sure someone else in the comments already mentioned that but good to know and saves me quite some time sometimes)

[@feynstein1004]

😂

[@BarrySwords]

Great video, I love these useful tips, I really like the command to reboot into BIOS.

[@AriaAlessandra]

I’ve learned a lot from you. Thank you so much for your content ❤

[@harkisingh]

Text extractor was cool thanks! Would love to see more videos about different power toys tools.

[@brucethen]

CTRL SCROLL works on the desktop too, to change icon size. CTRL SHIFT left arrow or right arrow selects a whole word.

[@AltonV]

ctrl + scroll also works in folders

[@vinching926]

about the turning off and on it's also okay to unplug the power then spam the power button a few times (of course for desktop PCs having all these) forcing it to drain out all the power inside, if you don't really want to wait for that 30 seconds. Not related to this video, but in the video you introduced virtual desktop (win+Tab) you forgot to say we can ctrl+win+left / right arrow key to switch virtual desktops right away.

[@chris_3729]

Another thing he should have talked about is you should use restart instead of shut down and hitting the power button again because of the fast start default in Windows

[@vinching926]

@@chris_3729 I think he had mentioned that in videos like "You're not using the Windows right"?

[@barsadal1738]

13:27 There's actually a quicker way to do this: CTRL+WIN+Q ; that way you can just tell them to press these keys on their keyboard when you want them to open it

[@fluffy_fluffinity]

Having to type ".\" at the start of the command is not a weirdness of Power Shell but a security feature. Not having this would allow potential attackers to fake existing programs on your system by having programs in your current directory with the same name. If you want to execute a program in the current directory you have to be explicit about it. On Linux it's the same

[@I.____.....__...__]

Bingo. Microsoft used CWD as the default way back in DOS, which was convenient, and of course carried it forward to the Windows command-prompt. But of course, convenience and security are usually mutually-exclusive. 😕

[@antys8621]

Great video Joe! Probably helpful for alot of none power user 👍🏽👍🏽

[@gavincstewart]

Man, that BIOS shortcut tip is KILLER! Thanks for that, Thio! I forget if you mentioned it in the video or not, but I had to go into the shortcut properties and enable 'Run as Admin' for the shortcut to work. First time I tried it, it said I didn't have privilege. After enabling Admin in the shortcut properties it works as expected.

[@Observe411]

Quality content. Making peoples lives better. Your existence on this planet has a positive impact. Good job!

[@BradHouser]

I knew several of these (I have every version of DOS and Windows going back to my first IBM PC. However, I learned several new ones: including ones I am likely to use: Boot to BIOS and Quick Assist. Thanks Joe! 🖥

[@charleslord2433]

Adding a low ascii char at the start of a directory has been my go-to method of flagging current project folders, particularly in cloud storage like dropbox .I typically use 0 or 1. The max path length is absolutely necessary for programmers as linker paths can get outrageously long. Good collection!

[@tayzzed]

Some top tips there, nice one 👍

[@cryptoafc7655]

thanks for existing. very helpful

[@DynamixWarePro]

Thanks for the BIOS start shortcut. I have had issues trying to get onto the BIOS on my PC. I can press the right key to get onto the BIOS, either hold it down or press it multiple time when the computer starts and it will still not go into the settings and instead load Windows like normal. I didn't know about enabling long file names. I have multiple projects with multiple folders in them so knowing how to make the file paths longer is great to know.

[@nikirose7673]

Some good stuff here ... Love the Shift + Right Click, I didn't know about that. I've been using the reg hack for ages but I quite like the tidiness of the reduced W11 context menu. So this is a great tip for me. Ctrl Backspace/Delete is a v useful one too ( I just discovered that Ctrl + cursor arrows also works in the same way for navigating text), and I really like the "Reboot to BIOS" shortcut.

[@RedOneM]

Thanks for the alt+escape shortcut 😻

[@johanponken]

Do you do Alt-tab, keep holding alt, then arrow? _edit_ Because you can use also down and up.

[@RedOneM]

@@johanponken Yeah, I already knew about those. I didn't know that there is a shortcut for setting a window to the background.

[@thenucleardom]

new thiojoe upload, its a good day 🔥

[@kevbu4]

Another nice thing to know about are keyboard shortcuts. Like how [ctrl] + [shift] + [1-8] changes the view in windows explorer. For example, [ctrl] + [shift] + [6] gives you the detailed view, shows file size and dates etc. A web search can help you find entire lists of keyboard shortcuts for a variety of different contexts.

[@cambabiak]

My favorite part of your tips videos, is to see how many I already know/use.

[@ElvenSpellmaker]

Powershell isn't weird, it's the same behaviour as in Unix shells, except they use `./`

[@MrAndy12878]

Right on 🙌🏽 post appreciated as always

[@bl4ckscor3]

12:33 This actually also works similarly with selecting text. CTRL+Shift+arrow key left/right will de-/select text word-by-word.

[@SpaceGuy101]

For tip number 4, there is a tool called paperless that does all that for you, OCR and categorize documents i highly recommend it, it saved me so much time. It may be a little complicated to setup but there are tutorials out there.

[@siddiki9778]

Is that for Linux only? I found another called "OCRmyPDF" that supports windows + other operating systems. Anyways, thanks for reminding me to OCR my documents

[@SpaceGuy101]

@@siddiki9778 Unfortunately yes you can only host it on Linux but I do believe there are alternatives they just most likely don't have so many features. (You could run it in a VM as you don't need to have it running 24/7

[@ironcito1101]

Turn on "Clipboard history" in the settings and then you can Win+V to display a menu of everything you copied in the past (since boot, anyway) and click to paste it. Essentially, the clipboard can now hold many things, not just one. You can even delete an entry, pin it to the top of the list, and such. I find it very useful. Of course, you can Ctrl+V to paste the most recent thing you copied, as usual. I also use Mouse Keys to move the mouse pointer with the arrow keys on the keyboard, one pixel at a time. It's great when working in design stuff, for pixel-perfect adjustments that can be hard to do with the mouse.

[@MrBroady02]

Under Launch parameters, not sure if you noticed but GUI applications actually can output data to the terminal the same as console applications. When you run a GUI program from the command line the terminal usually holds up until its closed and you can see information logged that might be interesting or useful.

[@Trevorodunne]

WOW 16:08 Long file names that's brilliant always ran into this problem with file shares

[@flight505]

I so needed and thank you for shift right click to bypass 'more options.'

[@Tom-kl9jf]

+1 to the product manual tip! I did that 6 months ago, and was then able to buy a much smaller filing cabinet, as manuals used a third of my previous space. If they were text or greyscale I saved the pdfs as high resolution 1-bit files for smaller file sizes. for the same reason I also scanned almost everything else - tax records, insurance docs, remittance advice, etc. needless to say I have off site backups...

[@johanponken]

Yes, black-white hi-res scan, tif with CCITT Fax 4-encoding is very efficient.

[@Tom-kl9jf]

@@johanponken and that is exactly the compression type used by VueScan (which I use) :)

[@EIRE55]

I love to learn something new each and every day. Today, I've learnt at least 17 new tricks. Thanks everyone!!!😊

[@An.Individual]

Useful video, Thanks.

[@jovetj]

18:02 My own pro tip: with any standard Message Box displayed with the focus, you can press *Ctrl+C* to copy all of the text (title bar and message text and buttons) to the Clipboard. You can then paste it somewhere to save it as needed.

[@fizixx]

Thanks Joe, good stuff. I made a couple changes based on this info.

[@AltonV]

Win + number opens or switches to the corresponding running/pinned program in the taskbar. Win + alt + number opens a new window of that program if one already exists. Also, there is a handy tool called altdrag that allows you to move windows by dragging anywhere in the windows while holding alt, not just the top bar. And if you use the right mouse button instead you can resize it without needing to grab onto the edge of the window.

[@jandg_tdu]

I never knew about the shortcut to BIOS, cool tip :)

[@wb5rue]

I’d like to add something about the BIOS shortcut. When using the shutdown command with the timer (/t option) it’s best not to use /t 0. If you set the time to zero seconds it’s like using the /f option and it will force shutdown of background processes even if they aren’t done “cleaning up” after themselves. This can corrupt files by not allowing buffer flushes. Excellent video btw.

[@thefrub]

As a 30yo boomer, OCR still wows me a little. I remember just like 7 years ago OCR was a pain in the ass and some companies were charging hundreds of dollars for it. Now you can use your phone camera to copy text and auto translate it.

[@mikechaffee4331]

Great point! But how are you a 30 year old boomer when the last boomers were born in 1964? What year is it where you're at? 1994...or earlier (to 1976)? Because that's the range that all of the boomers hit age 30: 1976 - 1994.

[@JosephNFS]

Hi ThioJoe, hope you have a great day!

[@N....]

11:11 you can also usually just hold the key down, no need to press it repeatedly. Shift+Restart and the shortcut are often more convenient though if you're actually trying to get into the BIOS and not a separate boot selection menu.

[@phizc]

The reason for repeatedly pressing the key is that as part of the startup it checks for struck keys, such as when the key is being held.. The computer would beep at you and display an error. That said, it's quite possible that it's been changed the last 15 years or so, and we're just repeatedly pressing the key out of habit since we haven't tried just holding it to see if they've stopped checking for stuck keys.

[@N....]

@@phizc It's definitely been changed in general but varies by manufacturer, for example on many MSI motherboards you can just hold down the F11 key from poweroff and it'll go straight to the boot media selection menu.

[@eDoc2020]

@@phizc It has (mostly) changed. On some systems which take forever to POST I'll put a weight on the key. On some systems you _need_ to hold the key because the detection window is too short or possibly even zero. On other systems you still _need_ to press it repeatedly.

[@desmondhow343]

You may make a video about mouse shortcut or how to make it work better. I have use the options that mouse will select if hover above the file and double click when I click it once. Nice features. Saves times

[@zxuiji]

1:53, that grouping feature is one thing linux devs just don't seem to understand the value of, I really wish they'd implement the option in their explorers because it's the one thing I miss from windows.

[@xdanic3]

kde's dolphin might have it, but I hate how it doesn't group by something like months, not very useful if I'm on a folder > a year old

[@soulstenance]

Cause in Linux we have this thing called folders/directories for grouping things together. Hehe. Sorry, added a bit too much salt to that comment. That _is_ kinda a neat feature but plenty of Linux nerds would consider that bloat. 😅

[@Mr._Mythical]

@@soulstenance you know windows also has folders, right?

[@soulstenance]

@@Mr._Mythical Yes. It was a bit of a salty joke lol. 😅

[@zxuiji]

@@soulstenance folders/dirs are obviously available in msw too so that was never a valid excuse. Making it an option would not have created an bloat. They can't claim linux is about being fully custimisable and then go and refuse to implement a basic feature many like myself want.

[@pranavakshit]

Just to add to you 9:15 You can set the regular Windows Terminal to always open in admin mode from the terminal settings. If you know the risks, go for it.

[@mae2759]

One that helped me immensely is in text editors, hold Alt then click and drag your mouse. It makes a perfect box. This is useful if you want to delete say the first 3 characters of a word in many consecutive lines. Just select and hit delete.

[@azudevcr]

Hi. Nice video thanks. Sometimes I want or I need to keep my computer On while I sleep and I don't want to keep pressing the power button of my monitor every time. So, I created a couple of batch file to help me with that, one for "sleep"(that is turn off the monitor) and another to "wakeup", then got some fancy icons and apply accordingly(a moon and a game controller). Turn-off powercfg -change -monitor-timeout-ac 1 (Consider that this 1 is taken by Windows 11 as 1 minute. Haven't tested but I think Windows 10 uses seconds there... beware if you use it on Win10) Turn-on powercfg -change -monitor-timeout-ac 0

[@UmVtCg]

The file/folder type can be quite important. I sort the Windows Explorer tables like this: type, name, date, etc. This way it is easier to spot potential malicious files because the eye is trained to read from left to right.

[@wiedapp]

CTRL + mouse wheel allows you to change the icon size on your desktop as well. Just js it on the open Windows desktop, you dont even need to point to an icon.

[@hans_xwh]

If you need to open terminal as administrator on a folder, you can hold down shift + ctrl while you click on open terminal, and it will open as admin. This actually works for any programs.

[@JerryDodge]

0:25 You could also categorize stuff yourself by adding a [Your Category] prefix to file / folder names.

[@D0Samp]

2:31 Not only are files usually extracted from archives with their original modified date, some download tools retain the modification date from its respective HTTP header as well. Which is why my Downloads folder is littered with quite a lot of files dated older than my PC, but still with a sensible creation date.

[@ilkeryoldas]

You can also use multiple exclamation points if you want them higher on the list

[@servanofmyGod]

thankyou. enjoyed it.

[@jcorey333]

Alt+tab. Commonly known, but super useful. Also ctrl+shift+esc opens the task manager.

[@room2738]

thanks!!! :) best video on this stuff ever :) - will defo be pointing other users at this :)

[@levangugulashvili1296]

Saved my day) very useful!

[@skeleton_craftGaming]

Also a nice thing about grouping by date modified is that the date modified only is only updated when the file is actually touched, so it could be used to sort different versiins of the same application folder

[@Bukki13]

0:25 You can also put AA_, AB_, AC_ and so on (or ZZ_ if it’s reverse alphabetical)

[@lukeskywalker2]

Counterpoint: date modified often has the true create date if the file was transferred from another computer, date created only corresponds to when the file was created on that specific filesystem. I have files created this year that have a modified date of decades ago just from transferring them to new drives over the years

[@johanponken]

This. I try to use a commander (FreeCommander for me) to keep dates when moving. Or zip/unzip with keep dates.

[@ejb7969]

Yes. Notice in Joe's example that for the top file listed, Modified Date was in Jan 2024, whereas Created Date was later, in Mar 2024.

[@I.____.....__...__]

Yup. Moving them to another volume will touch the created timestamp, even if the other volume is another partition on the same physical disk. It's always been like this, even back in DOS. You can use a touch program to copy one to the other to get the older of the two. Joe's example was also valid though, sometimes you don't want edits to be counted in the timestamp (eg fixing a minor typo in your own file).

[@ejb7969]

@@I.____.....__...__ I use SyncToy to avoid this with large copy jobs.

[@AleksandarDragosavac]

great video! thanks a lot!

[@ibtchip]

In relation to the extended context menu, there is an open source software called Nilesoft Shell that overhauls the context menu in a Windows 11 style and it's extremely customizable and powerful. This software is so great I can't image using my computer without it and so much more logical than the default context menu

[@deventerprises2640]

One time saver is when you edit the registory or do anything which requires a restart you can instead got to the task manager and right click "Windows Explorer" and click restart to achieve the affect in less time although complex operations on computer can require complete reboot so it works most of the time but not all

[@jeronimo5455]

for tip 15, the launch parameters, if you often use one or two specific parameters you can add them to the shortcut icon for the .exe file. Simply open the properties of the shortcut and add the launch parameter to the 'Target' field. Or make a copy of the shortcut, add the launch parameter and rename the shortcut so you know which parameter is used.

[@rastanz]

I've been using the file rename trick for over a decade but I use "#" character because it is far easier to see rather than the "!" sign which I think blends a little to well when you have smaller sized fonts.