It’s no longer a secret that modern students can’t get through their academic paths without some technology. Young people leverage a variety of gadgets, software, and other tech tools to access learning materials, stay in touch with teachers and fellow students, complete homework, and even attend virtual classes.
In the 21st century, the options for student tech are extensive. There are gadgets for literally any task and purpose. Yet, in all this variety, a PC is still one of the key things in a student’s toolkit.
There are so many things that you can do with a PC. Apart from the obvious, like doing research and typing your academic papers, you can use this device to make your life simpler. You can find someone to ask, “please, write my dissertation,” and save time on tedious assignments and get high grades. And there are also plenty of hacks that are built into your PC. Read on to learn about the top six of them!
Copy/Cut
This one might sound rather obvious to some of you. Yet, the truth is that not everyone knows this hack. As a student, we bet that you do plenty of research online, and obviously, you often get into situations when you need to copy or cut a piece of information. Here is a quick shortcut to do it faster:
- Ctrl+C for Windows and Cmd+C for Mac to copy
- Ctrl+X for Windows and Cmd+X for Mac to cut
Paste
So you copied a piece of information from the web, document, or another source and want to paste it somewhere else. Of course, there is a drop-down menu option for this, so you can always do it manually. But here is a quicker way to get this done:
- Ctrl+V for Windows
- Cmd+V for Mac
Recover Closed Tab(s)
All students should agree that nothing feels worse than spending hours researching the information and then losing all the results just because you accidentally closed the tab(s). Typically, when this happens, a user would go to the browsing history and manually look for the lost tabs. Needless to say, this takes plenty of time. But the good news is that you can reopen all closed tabs instantly with this command:
- Ctrl+Shift+T for Windows
- Cmd+Shift+T for Mac
Note: Even when you accidentally close the entire browser, or your PC shuts down, you can recover all closed tabs with the same shortcut. However, note that this feature is only available when browsing history is enabled on your device.
Undo
When working on your assignments, you might accidentally make mistakes and unwanted changes. In such cases, you will probably use the undo button in your text editing software to reverse the action. But do you know that there is a separate command for this?
Here is the combination of keys to use:
- Ctrl+Z for Windows
- Cmd+Z for Mac
Best part? This shortcut works not only when it comes to typing. You can also use it to reverse other changes. For example, if you move or delete a file on your PC by mistake, you can use the same command to get it back the way it used to be.
Incognito Mode
There are plenty of uses for this mode. First and foremost, it’s there to let you browse the web without leaving any tracks in your browser’s history. On top of that, when in incognito mode, you prevent site data, cookies, and other information from being saved on your device as well. For example, it can help when using someone else’s or a public PC. And it will also come in handy when you don’t want other users to see your previous activity.
An easy way to launch incognito mode is:
- Ctrl+Shift+N for Windows
- Cmd+Shift+N for Mac
Extra hint: As a student, you must be living on a tight budget. Though not many know this, incognito mode also offers a way to save money. The thing is that when sites can’t track any info or use cookies on you, they might reveal targeted discounts that wouldn’t be shown to you otherwise. Therefore, shopping from incognito mode can help you get better deals on all sorts of products. To test this trick, try finding the same product without and with incognito mode turned on, and you might be surprised by the differences in price.
Find
If you work on your PC a lot, you must know how hard it can be to find something specific in a large document or on a web page. And if there are plenty of apps and files on your computer, you must also know how much time it can take to find something you need ASAP.
The good news is that there is a single hack that can solve all these problems at once:
- Ctrl+F for Windows
- Cmd+F for Mac
The beauty of this hack is that it’s super versatile. When reading a book or a large document, use this shortcut to quickly find a specific word/phrase/piece of info. When browsing the web, use it to quickly find the needed information on different pages. And when looking for something on your PC, go to the home screen and use this combination of keys to find whatever you need in seconds. Indeed, this is a trick that students should find very helpful.
The Bottom Line
Probably every modern student knows about the supplementary software and tools that can help make their studies simpler. Yet, not everyone knows the real, built-in capabilities of their PCs.
After reading this article, you know about some of the most crucial PC hacks that you can use every day to handle your tasks easier and perform different commands faster. Using these hacks and other supplementary tools will help you get through college easily and achieve greater academic success. So don’t hesitate to test them out right now!
