Learn / Technology / Tech Tips 101: Beginner
Tech Tips 101: Beginner
A comprehensive beginners crash course to the ins and outs of computers that you and your non-tech savvy folks should probably know
We all have friends and family - and sometimes ourselves - who are guilty of struggling a little with tech. I personally know many people older, younger, and the same age as myself who find it difficult to wrap their head around how to best use computers and how their actions affect everything. So I've constructed a little crash course to assist you in picking up some new skills or to send to friends and family who think you're a hacker every time you plug an HDMI cable in; and some of what I've written here has even educated tech leads!
Best to also keep in mind that these tips are pretty standard and gravitate heavily to the Windows operating system, so if you have a Mac my condolences.
Index
Easy Beginner
Shortcuts
General
Keyboard shortcuts are probably the most common thing you'll find yourself doing on a computer next to moving a mouse. What they do is provide functionality for processes that might normally take you clicking through a few boxes or menus, with a simple combination of key presses on your keyboard. Most of these shortcuts are activated through your keyboard's ctrl (control) button (command button on Apple Mac). Without a doubt the five most common keyboard shortcuts are (and whenever you see shortcuts written, the keys are generally separated by a + icon. This means you need to hold them all down in order of left to right):
Copy : Ctrl + C
Paste : Ctrl + V
Cut : Ctrl + X
Select All : Ctrl + A
Undo / Redo: Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Shift + Z (Ctrl + Y for Windows Redo)
Let's play with it a little. Below I've provided you with two text boxes, the one on the left has some text inside of it. Try clicking the first box and instead of dragging your mouse across to highlight the text (and instead of holding shift and tapping the left and right arrow buttons if you're dexterous), try holding Ctrl and pressing A on your keyboard. Hopefully it should select the whole word for you; and since you're in a text box it wont highlight this entire article - you're welcome. Once the text is highlighted, it means our commands will now apply to it. If you press Ctrl and C now, it should copy and store that text in your computer's memory. Now click the next box and hold Ctrl and press V. Why don't you try doing some more shortcuts then try the Undo and Redo commands and see what happens?
You've now learned to copy and paste text! When you're ready, you can also press backspace after selecting everything to remove it, or you could try the Cut command. The Cut command acts as a Copy AND a backspace in one swoop.
These core shortcuts are so useful because they apply to the realms beyond text. You can apply these shortcuts to files anywhere on your computer. Select All will select all files in a folder (often referred to as a directory), and is the same as clicking and dragging your mouse except you don't need to scroll to the bottom. Cut is what happens when you click and drag between local directories, and paste is what happens when you let go; Undo and Redo will rectify a transferral mistake too.
How much nicer is it now not having to rely on your dexterity to hold a mouse button down at the risk of accidentally pasting everything in the wrong location? Stupendous, is my answer too. My ex's mum famously would click and drag each file individually over because she didn't trust the computer to work when using short cuts. Don't be my ex's mum. Dragging files you've selected and running the commands individually call the same computer logic from the same places. You could be saving yourself a LOT of time if you also drag files individually.
Text Manipulation Specifically
Most of the software we engage with on computers revolves around typing text. If you're using any of the Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc), tracking your notes, or even your internet browser, it pays to know how to manipulate text faster. Now you might be thinking, "Marty, I know how to copy/cut, and paste text now. Hell, I even know how to undo my mistakes and select large bodies of text. I also saw that comment you made about holding shift and figured out that I can also use the up and down arrows in paragraphs to select lines of text. What can you teach me?". To that I would respond "I'm super glad to see you figuring out that arrow keys are useful for more than just old school Windows Pinball. But do you know what the Home and End keys do? How about that weird Alt key? You could even italicise, bold, and underline text with shortcuts, you silly goose.".
Now that you have a feel for the base commands, open up Word (if you can. Some text editors like Microsoft's Notepad don't support stuff like this) and type a sentence and highlight it. Now try expermenting with Ctrl + B / U / I (it's the letter i) (every time you see a forward slash, that means it's what's before the slash OR after the slash - Ctrl + B OR Ctrl + U et cetera). You know that the Tab button indents out to the right, but try experimenting with Shift + Tab to go backwards. Often you'll find that the Shift key can perform the negation of a command when the command isn't togglable (unlike bolding or italicising, etc).
Talk to any software engineer and you will probably find that they use the Home and End keys frequently. They essentially let us jump the text cursor (or text caret for you old schoolers) to the start or end of a line. Ctrl + Home / End can jump you to the top or bottom of a text document also. So what about the Alt key? Alt stands for alternative, and it's often a key you can use to start accessing even more shortcuts which we wont get super into today. The alt key is also used with the numpad on your keyboard to enter foreign characters. I remember in primary school learning Alt + 0 + 2 + 3 + 2 to enter an "è".
Alt has a really useful function in text manipulation that one of my mentors taught me about. Alt essentially lets you place multiple caret's through your document. I find myself using it to mainly add indentation and remove repetitive "fluff" from any logs I placed in a text editor. If you copy and paste a bunch of text into a document, then click anywhere in the document and hold Alt + Shift then start to press the down or up arrows and you'll notice you're almost forming a wall of carets. From here you can press tab or backspace or type whatever you want to fill those spots in. Super useful if you copy pasted something totally unformatted or you want to structure your bullet-points.
The last function I want to discuss isn't really a "text manipulation" shortcut, but I'll be damned if it wasn't meant for every block of text you come across. Ctrl + F is a shortcut integrated into most software (Command + F on Mac) used to search an open document for a key word. When some one calls out a typo I made in one of my articles, you can bet I am slapping Ctrl + F to locate it. This is useful in general if you click an article that has one of the keywords you google and you want to find where it's referenced; use your imagination really. You can test it now by doing a Ctrl + F to find where I wrote an intentionally misspelled "expermenting". Some softwares also let you use Ctrl + Shift + F to access a more complicated search menu that would additionally let you find and replace text, or search for text patterns!
Windows Operating System (OS) & General Software
There are also a whole bunch of keyboard short cuts for different operating systems (OS), but today I am going to talk specifically about the useful ones for the Windows OS. A lot of Windows commands are prefaced with the Windows key being held down, but also have their general set of Ctrl commands that seem to be shared between other operating systems. Some of these global commands (before I get into the Windows specific commands) include Ctrl + O, which when inside editing software will try to open a file. Ctrl + S (a command you want to frequently spam to ensure you have up to date records) which will write the contents of that document to disk (a technical way of saying save your information). If you're editing in a document, Ctrl + N creates a new page (and will open a new web browser instance if you try it now). Again, these are all pretty globally standard wherever you're using a computer.
Let's talk about ways we can leverage what Windows has to offer. My likely most used OS shortcut would have to be Windows Key + E which opens up your file explorer so you can quickly navigate your files. Windows Key + Shift + S uses Windows in-built "snipping" shortcut and alternate to the PrtSc (print screen) button. This lets you take a screenshot of whatever is on your screen by freezing the frame and letting you drag a box around it. I use it almost daily at work to capture information or show someone what I'm seeing (although some businesses like Netflix are clever and found a way to make it not work for video streams, try it out ;) ). Windows Key + R calls the Run command which lets you type a subsequent program to run. I use it 99% of the time to start up "notepad" for quick and short notes, but I've also been caught using it for "calc", "%appdata%", "cmd", and other stuff we will get to at another time. In general it can just be useful to hit the Windows Key alone and type in a program you want to look up that you've installed via the Windows menu.
You can use Alt + Tab to switch between your current window and the previously used one (once you learn this you'll never go back); it's great for quickly switching back and forth between two information sources. You can also press Alt + Tab and let go of the tab key while holding Alt still. This will display to you all your currently opened windows which you can additionally navigate with the arrow keys. You can use Alt + F4 (F standing for function key which you may have noticed aren't present on the Mac OS!) to close the currently active window. Super useful for windows that are full screen instead of windowed mode such that the close button is hidden.
Ctrl + Shift + Esc is a lovely one. It opens up the Task Manager if you ever need to quickly gather computer performance metrics to see what software is slowing down your machine or more so, to close obnoxious software. Sometimes programs wont close if they're in a frozen state and "bombing" it from the Task Manager often does the trick. I've also used it to close software that's making advertisement noises that were hidden away, and in an earlier time to halt malicious software. Windows Key + L will lock your computer (can't recommend this enough every time you leave your computer).
These are just the ones I use primarily but there are a bunch of interesting shortcuts out there. If you're interested, you can find a detailed list of shortcuts in the Microsoft docs here.
Web Browser Manipulation
The fact you're even reading this means you're a fan of using a web browser. Browsers are great because they let us explore the never ending depths of accumulated human knowledge that is the internet; so it pays to navigate swiftly and with style.
You can create new tabs with Ctrl + T, and delete them with Ctrl + W (literally try it now, it's probably my most used browser command). If your cursor is anywhere that isn't the website search bar, you can quickly shoot a caret up there with Ctrl + E. Ctrl + N will open a whole brand new window and Ctrl + Tab to cycle back and forth between two tabs. If you want to navigate tabs specifically, you can use Ctrl + any number between and including 1 - 9 to select that tab. Like Alt + Tab, you can hold Ctrl after pressing Ctrl + Tab to see the actively opened tabs and tap tab to cycle through them.
One of my personal favourite commands for browsers is Ctrl + Shift + T which will re-open the last tabs I closed in order of the most recently closed. It is shocking how often I use this command and definitely a useful one to add to the repertoire.
Mouse
There's a bit of a classic joke you see in the hacker movies around the programmers being too skilled to use a computer mouse. Sometimes I've noticed in my profession this is surprisingly accurate, but of course there are times where it's indisputably just more convenient to use a mouse. So let's quickly touch on times where the mouse has a bit more use than just selecting things and right clicking for options. For starters, the scroll wheel itself is a button and outside of scrolling finds it's most practical use opening browser links in a new tab instead of the current window by default (which you wont notice here because I've specifically written these pages to open links in new tabs). Most 3D modelling softwares use this to angle cameras, and it can also be generally used to scroll in the direction the mouse is relative to the height of the page.
If you hold Ctrl on your keyboard and scroll, you can zoom in and out of a web page to enlarge the text or make it smaller. If you want to reset this to normal, instead of trying to scroll until your eyes guess it's right or until the percentage in the top corner hits 100%, you can simply use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + 0 (zero).
Double clicking words selects them and triple clicking words selects the paragraph that they're in.
When selecting things like files, you can click one file then hold the Shift key and click another file. This will select every file between those two. However if you hold Ctrl instead of click, it will select them individually but keep them in a collection for you to manipulate as you please.
Easy Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is/are the:
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Ins Key
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The ins key stands for insert. It changes the way text is written past the caret such that it overwrites the character after the caret with what you're inputting. In contrast, disabling the insert key ironically makes it so that you insert the next input before the following character.
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Fn Key
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The fn key stands for function. It's more commonly found on laptops than desktop keyboards and it opens up additional functions to your keyboard. Similarly to how you see the "%" character above the "5" but on the same key, with the "shift" key giving you access to that "%" when you press "5", the fn key gives us access to functions above keys that share the same colour as your keyboards fn button - like brightness or volume.
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Sticky Keys
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A Windows function commonly discovered through video games placing you in situations where your reaction may be to tap the Shift key multiple times (which will enable sticky keys at 5 presses and leave you frustratedly shaking your hands at your newly discovered lack of control of the game), sticky keys makes it so that modifier keys (ctrl, alt, shift, windows key) remain active after you press them. This makes it less strenuous for people who have difficulties holding down multiple keys to activate a command and instead ensures that they only need to tap each key in sequence without needing to hold them down.
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A Private Browser Session
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Private browser sessions are activated by right clicking on your browser icon and selecting the option there or pressing Ctrl + Shift + N. There is a lot of general misunderstanding as to what private sessions do. It won't stop companies sniffing your internet traffic if you're on their network, but it will provide use for if people ever use the same machine as you or if you're using multiple accounts and can't be bothered signing out. Whatever you do in a private browser is gone once you close it and is unaware of current sessions (Like social media or email). Specifically, search history is not tracked in the browser, search records are cleared, and most importantly any credentials you enter aren't cached or stored - this can be useful if your friend needs to use a browser and you both want privacy between each others use of your browser.
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Computer Peripherals
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If whoever sent you this article is a certified dork, or you're here after building a computer or looking at parts, you've probably heard the term peripherals tossed around. Peripherals at a high level refer to your input and output devices (it definitely gets more complicated with that as even stuff like GPUs and hard drives are considered peripherals but the term is widely used for I/O devices). Stuff like your keyboard, mouse, monitors, speakers or headphones, are all example of peripherals. So at a low level what are peripherals? No, they have nothing to do with the corners of your eye sight, instead it's actually a reference to their storage in some "side" memory. "Peripheral memory" is basically a block of separate memory from main memory designed to specifically house input and output devices.
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Intermediate Beginner
Recommended Software
Where computers have hardware which refers to all the physical parts that comprises it (from the different processors, coolers, memory and storage, etc), it also has software; which refers to all the code that runs on and integrates the OS that talks to firmware. The browser you're reading this article in is a piece of internet browsing software, as is the operating system on this computer, and all the fun applications you have running, including video games, music, or communication software. Sometimes you might run into terms like Firmware (software that's used specifically to provide control to hardware at a low level), or Middleware (software that lies between other software that generally offers a service between the two), but today we are going to focus on some software I'd recommend you install on your computer:
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CCleaner is generally one of my first go-to softwares if I'm ever starting from a fresh machine. It is an "all in one" tool that can help you uninstall software, update drivers, check PC health, clear our unnecessary items from your registry (a windows storage of settings data), and generally scan your computer for random junk which you can configure. I remember I noticed how great this piece of software was before I knew much about computers. I was running a game on my PC and often things were notoriously slow; even outside of the game. A friend of mine recommended I download CCleaner and run a clean and restart. I was in awe at how smoothly my PC ran after that and have used it ever since. It's also generally well maintained by the developers.
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Before working in the industry as an engineer, I never really questioned cyber security. It wasn't until I eventually was told that some one was in Minecraft playing on my account that I realised having a guessable password (which you can check if your password is compromised in tracked data breaches here) and the same password for all my online accounts was a catastrophic. I cannot recommend you get a password manager enough. After you integrate a password manager in your life, every one of your online accounts will have a large password full of arbitrary characters that you can manage with software. It's generally super easy to work with, harder to humanly guess, harder to brute force, and if one account is compromised, none of the others are. Initially I was skeptical of cloud-based password managers because I always thought "what if something happened to them, I'd rather control it all on my machines individually".
At the time I relied on software like KeePass (which is by no means bad software and is also free to use) but eventually decided to bite the bullet (to save me the time of syncing which I'll explain later) of a financially crippling $2.99 USD a month. Immediately I knew it was worth it. For starters, the UI (user interface - how it looks) is much cleaner, smoother and coherent. It's obvious the tech is well documented and the website is professional. They take security seriously and ensure that your identity is linked to your account. The software is packed with tons of cool features like storing files, scraping data, you can generate SSH keys, there are loads of small workflow shortcuts (like clicking your password to copy it) to make usability simple and smooth. 1Password also checks your passwords against databases of publicly exposed passwords to see if yours is at risk/common; even when checking your password against these, they send only half the hash and do the remaining validation on your end for extra security (as neatly summarised by engadget.com). 1Password has loads of ways to generate unique passwords (tailored to the different requirements of a business), and my favourite bit of it all, real time cloud synchronising across all devices (coming from a day when I had to manually export, collate the most up to date passwords, and redistribute).
Mainstream PWMs (password managers) like this (and lastpass if you're curious) can also integrate into your browser and have mobile apps to make creating new passwords and entering your existing ones as easy as possible for your daily uses. A PWM is of the utmost importance.
Notepad++ / VSCode / Sublime Text
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It's always useful to have a good text editor on your computer. Whether it's for taking notes or formatting text. Windows comes in built with Notepad and it's generally rubbish. I only ever use Notepad for temporary notes I need to quickly jot down. Never use it for important notes or text editing; especially when you learn that it can only do one undo operation. You can't go back twice so there's no room for error! Thankfully, there are alternatives. For Windows I enjoy using Notepad++ and - although I know some people who prefer it for Windows - I recommend Sublime Text for MacOS (since Notepad++ isn't available on Mac). There's plenty of other options out there such as Atom but for me look and feel is just as important for my workflow. I don't know too much about Sublime, but Notepad++ comes with heaps of community driven plugins like comparing text files or validating text models like JSON. There's loads of configuring you can do to how the text looks regarding font, size, colour, syntax highlighting, background colour, highlight colour, etc. Has a bunch of shortcut macros, tab support, and one of my favourite: auto save and cached instances.
When I say cached instances, I mean that unlike software such as Microsoft Notepad, Notepad++ will maintain my text session even if I turn off my computer or close the app; with data probably stored in my local app settings without saving. This is super useful for anyone who knows the frustration of an ad hoc windows update, power outage, etc. Text editors are especially useful to me because of my profession and manipulating data, but there's no reason why it can't be leveraged by individuals in other fields. Visual Studio Code can do everything Notepad++ can do with maybe some more extensively supported add-ons and is definitely preferred for editing front end code, but I've been using Notepad++ for so long that I'm more familiar with it.
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Opera, Chrome, Firefox, Not IE
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Let's talk internet browsers. Windows come built in with Internet Explorer (recently rebranded to Edge), and Safari on MacOS. The same way alternate softwares listed above help us do existing things with much more finesse, the same goes for how you browse the internet. Microsoft try nobly to make IE (Internet Explorer / Edge) trendy and hip with the kids, but its comedically popular use is primarily to download other browsers. A go to option for most people is Google's browser, Chrome. I always used to use it until I encountered a few performance hiccups in the past which have probably since been patched. Since, I've found myself choosing Opera as my preferred browser, and Firefox as a back up browser (in case a website isn't supported on Opera - which used to be Netflix until that was recently patched). There's nothing outstanding that sets Opera apart for the most part, but I do enjoy its small feature additions like animated backgrounds, the clean layout, inbuilt VPN (Virtual Private Network (it lets you pretend to other servers that you are originated in a different location, this can help bypass region based checks or integrate your computer into another network) - most browsers now days have this), and text highlight options like copy and metric conversions, and it also contains battery saving settings. Sometimes I find myself alternating between browsers for example in the cafe I am writing this article in: Opera deemed it unsafe to browse on a network (which is honestly an appropriate thing to do), but knowing the risks I continued on in Firefox just the same.
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VLC is pretty cool. I use it primarily to play my movies on as it can handle a myriad of video and audio file types; I've used it in the past to optimise such files and convert them to other formats to make them compatible for different software - you can even convert mp4 to mp3 audio files. You can use it to download Youtube videos, equalise audio data, but I mainly use it to watch movies. I've read it described as the Swiss Army Knife of digital media and it is always on my list of primary software to download.
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If you're anything like me and can't believe the subscription costs of mainstream image editing software like Adobe Photoshop, you might find solace in the free alternative dumber brother: Paint.net. Paint.net allows add-on tools, and generally covers all your general use cases for image editing. There are heaps of import and export options, an intuitive UI, it's extensively supported and maintained. It does the job 90% of the time, and the rare 10% of the time I want to do a more complicated job I generally just turn to the super affordable and powerful tech on my iPad: Procreate, or turn to websites like Canva.
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You could probably be fine without 7zip but it still makes my list for archiving software. Tech like this basically condenses your files into archives or zip files of a smaller file size. This is super useful for transferring large files online or on usb with less transfer delay. Generally dominating its competition like the wholesomely ignored WinRAR, 7zip offers an additional plethora of functionality. It is free, open source (which means anyone can contribute and generally means its maintained), when archived in its 7z format it can compress files much better than most built in compression software (they claim 30%-70% better for the 7z format and 2% - 10% better than other softwares; which is insane considering some of their competition is Microsoft itself), it is compatible with a bunch of zip types, it's integrated with Windows Shell and the CLI, and also has strong AES-256 encryption which means you can password protect your archived data and it is not easy to crack!
Intermediate FAQs
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My computer isn't super new and sometimes I see a notification about "Safely Ejecting" my usb. What does that mean?
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So if your computer ever pops up with a little notification saying something about safely ejecting a usb before you remove it or your helpful niece or nephew talks about carefully removing usbs, it is referring to an operation on Windows computers that prevents data corruption and prepares a hard drive to be removed. This has since been removed since Windows 10 and clever buffer management has become integrated into the OS so if you're past Windows 10 you don't need to worry about it. Back in the day, there was a risk that after moving data to or from your USB that another process was still working with that data or it was still being transferred despite the loading window saying it was done. Selecting to safely remove the usb would clean up all those processes so nothing was relying on your USB's data.
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What does it mean when website URLs have a http prefix? And how come sometimes it's https?
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http stands for hyper text transfer protocol and it prefixes all of our website urls regardless of if we see it in the search box. Sometimes you may notice an additional s as https, this stands for hyper text transfer protocol secure. Websites that have https in front of them mean that where the website is being hosted has a Certificate that implements TLS (Transport Layer Security) which creates an encrypted communication channel between the client and the server (and they're all courteous with all their handshaking going on). With the use of public keys and private keys, a server can use your public key to encrypt a websites contents and send it to you, then your browser uses your private key to decrypt it and display it to you. This means that any external parties "sniffing" your network traffic don't have access to the raw contents of doings. For further reading, I found this resource was useful.
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I was a hardcore IE fan until I read your article and have since converted. Can I bring my bookmarks with me when I migrate browsers?
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You absolutely can! Bookmarks can be exported into an HTML file - a format globally utilised by all browsers. I can't speak for other browsers, but in Opera I simply right click my bookmarks to view them all, and in the bottom corner there is an export option; I imagine it's just as simple on any browser.
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What's a computer virus? Do I need antivirus?
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Viruses are a very interesting thing. They are malicious software (malware) that finds its way onto your computer and will do bad things to you, or others on your behalf, and often without you noticing. You will find a magnitude of different types of viruses. Some revolve around discretion like the classic Trojan Horse Virus or Worm which aim to trick you in some way to downloading them under the guise of other software (or even just a link to the sexy singles in your area) with the intent of spreading. A Worm is generally harmless data wise but by rapidly producing, it can damage internet bandwidth and slowdown networks. Whereas a Virus generally aims to corrupt or leverage data. You may have seen some of these display popup windows that keep opening or preventing you from closing it (which is where we might turn to Windows Safe Mode), their goal is to destroy things or make your life misery. Sometimes for fun, sometimes to test the grasp of ones reach, and sometimes it's personal; the reasoning can often never be known. Then you will find malware that takes pride on being as visible as possible. A classic example is Ransomware, which endeavours to lock you out of your computer unless you pay a ransom to unlock it. A very famous example of the scary danger of ransomeware (which found its way into hospital terminals) and its hilarious downfall is the WannaCry ransomeware attack. Anyway, I'm digressing. Let's talk antivirus (AV).
These days sufficient antivirus software is embedded in modern operating systems with companies like Mac going the extra mile to actually add a security chip to the hardware. Back in my day you'd see software from brands like McAfee or Norton. Quick pause, if you want to read about the absolute insane late life of John McAfee, give this article a read. These days you'll find paid software like Bitdefender and Kapersky which I am sure are great (and also are very up to date with security vulnerabilities and modern attacks to check your computer against) but unless you're concerned about being attacked, Microsoft Defender does a relatively good job and is better than the average AV software. I personally use Bitdefender's free tier as an extra layer of security.
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What does it mean to run programs in Administrator?
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This is all about permissions on your computer between users. Think of Administrator as special privileges to perform some operations. Certain files if you want to delete or run will require authorisation from someone with administrative privileges; more often than not it will be you for your home computer. Some software might run differently in administrator mode to other software; granting additional features. I remember at one of my old jobs some software wouldn't do certain functions correctly (like version control connectivity) unless you had booted it up in admin, so I went into the files properties and set it up to automatically boot as administrator so I didn't forget. This can get a bit more technical if you're responsible for a team of people who all work on your network, in which case you'd implement a Windows Active Directory (AD) structure, but that's out of the bounds of this article.
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Hard Beginner
Basic Command Line
I'm mindful this is a beginners guide so we wont explore too deeply into the CLI (Command Line Interface), just the basics and a few useful commands. So what is a CLI? It stands for Command Line Interface and it's a totally different way to handle your computer. Most software engineers use a combination of CLI and UI to handle the function of their machines. You ever see those text screen in computer hacking scenes where all you do is type text and not really click anything? That's the CLI! I prefer to download Windows Terminal from the Windows Store but all Windows computers are built in with Command Prompt. The average computer user won't generally interact with the CLI but it can save your bacon if your mouse isn't working or you need to make a large amount of file changes etc. Hold the Windows Key + R and type in cmd and hit enter, this should bring it up.
Since this is an introduction into the CLI let's start with baby commands that aren't pertaining to moving data around. Try these following two commands and hit enter:
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dxdiag
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This is a command to grab stats on the audio and video hardware on your computer and can reveal general details about your machine in one organised place like how much memory you have or what processor or OS you're running.
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ping
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The ping command allows you to send out a "signal" to a server and see if you receive one back (pong). Try entering "ping www.google.com" and see what happens. This command can be useful to see if you've lost connection to your computer or if a server has gone down, or generally diagnose network problems. You can cancel the ping using Ctrl + C, although sometimes q, or the escape key (esc) can help.
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If you ever want to execute a command you have previously written, keep hitting the up arrow on your keyboard to cycle through them.
If you're interested in some basic commands to play with your computer, take a look at some of these examples.
Harder FAQs
What's all that quick white text that appears when I boot / start up my PC?
That is all booting information from your BIOS. The BIOS is firmware that runs from your computer's motherboard to help your operating system integrate with the hardware. In the olden days when viruses were much more common (I myself being victim to a nasty one or two), one of the tools we had in our arsenal was to consult with the BIOS, a place which wouldn't be affected by OS damage. In the worst of cases, we could do stuff like format hard drives or boot from others, etc. It can also be used to manage the temperatures and overclocking performances of your computers hardware.
How does my pc store data when I turn off the power?
So up until the last decade or so, data storage was generally done on an HDD (unless you live in the dark ages with hole-punched cards). HDD stands for Hard Disk Drive, and that's exactly what it contained: Hard (silver spinny) disks. Like a record player, there was a little stylus that would read tiny spaces on that hard drive using magnetism. The needle either magnetically charges or removes the charge from those microscopic spaces and can read them the same way, so when your computer isn't on it doesn't matter - the magnet doesn't magically lose charge. Does this on and off charge concept sound familiar? It's binary! A single piece of binary on its own is called a bit, and 8 of them together are called a byte. On your classic 2TB Hard drive, you'll find 2 trillion bytes to read and write to! These days a lot of people use Solid State Drives (SSDs) and that shit is magic to me, I haven't learned how they work yet.
What's internet cache and does that have anything to do with internet cookies? I'm hungry >:(
This is actually a great question. Cache and cookies are separate ideas but are still involved with one another. Let's start with caching. Caching in layman's terms is setting something aside for later use, but not too much later. To an engineer programming some complicated logic that needs to perform a lengthy query in order to populate a page, they might cache that so next time under the same circumstances they need that data, they have it ready to go instead of having to perform the operation again. This is a solution incorporated in fibonacci calculators and a myriad of other programming challenges (I can remember it being required in an interview I had once with Amazon). A more common example of caching is your browser storing data that helps websites perform faster. How annoying would it be if every time you left a website and came back you were logged out?? Fortunately you need not fret because your browser stores information of that session so that the website doesn't get a bout of amnesia! What kind of data would it need to store to remember who you are? This is where cookies come in because that is exactly what it stores. A cookie is essentially just a block of data. When you go to Facebook for example, Facebook will create a cookie containing your session metadata and give it to your browser to hold onto (but not munch on). Then when you visit facebook again (provided the cookie hasn't expired), your browser and Facebook's servers will do a gangster handshake with a dap and maybe a fist bump and agree not to require you to log in. Now it's worth noting, even though cookies never (or should never) store personal information that is not obfuscated, some session cookies can be duplicated to trick websites into believing that some one else is logged in on your account (I use this trick to mitigate the chances Instagram will think I am brute forcing my account when I wrote a website scraper).
Extras
Useful Tricks
Windows Task Manager
Accessed from the Ctrl + Alt + Delete menu or simply Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open it up, the Task Manager is a titan in every Windows user's utility belt. It gives you useful information on how much of its resources your computer is using and what is running in the background. With those metrics, I noticed my mum's computer was using 100% of its ram so I replaced that with 4x as much. I've used it to close down unresponsive software (Alt+E is a quick way to close the selected process FYI) and you can see which background software is using up your computers resources, potentially to be closed if you don't need it. You can see what software your computer starts when your computer is turned on and processes that you may not be aware are running.
Volume Mixer
I use the volume mixer (bottom right of your computers task bar, right click the sound icon and select it from the menu) surprisingly a lot. The general settings help me configure any audio peripherals, but the volume mixer shows you any software currently emitting sound. You can use it to tweak online calls to be a bit louder and movies to be a bit quieter so that it all scales relatively when you change your main volume. I've listed it as a useful trick because sometimes randomly some software might freak out and randomly start playing an ad, so I track it down with the volume mixer and kill it with task manager.
Creating shortcuts
It's not really at the apex of computer tricks, but shortcuts are nifty to know about. Shortcuts are links on your computer that look like any other entry that direct to a specific directory/software. Most software you download will automatically create a shortcut to the software on your desktop. You can create shortcuts on your computer with a right click and tell it where to point. I've made small scripts that I keep elsewhere on my computer that my shortcuts have helped me quickly load. It's nice to write a backup script and instead of keeping all the required files on my desktop I can just have a link for it, it's cleaner.
Startup Programs
As I briefly mentioned above, the Task Manager shows us startup programs that run when our computer boots. It's helpful to know about this incase you're tired of closing the usual crap. Inversely, you may be tired of opening all the same crap you usually open when your computer starts up: your preferred browser, Steam, Spotify, whatever. This can all be configured in your startup menu so give it a look.
Internet Speeds
Speedtest.net is a useful resource to help you understand how fast your computer can download and upload data. When you're in coms with other people, it can be useful in determining who needs to look into their slower internet speed - should it be an issue. It once helped me identify that my friend's download speed wasn't an issue and that our call was impacted by my upload speed, which made me instantly realise it was due to torrent seeding.
15 Good Habits
1. Get a password manager, and if you want to be overly protective, update them annually or bi-annually.
2. Set up Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) on any service you're with that allows it. This ensures that important changes are checked by you and your mobile device first.
3. Turn off your computer when you're done using it. This will clear your computer's memory (which stores a bunch of crap for all active software) close things you might not be aware are open, and a whole bunch of other good things. Give your computer a hard earned nap.
4. Save, and save often. This is no foreign idea to your fellow video game fanatic caught mashing their F5 key, but I've tripped up hundreds of times during my life by being too immersed in something to remember to save. Make Ctrl+S part of your muscle memory and when you are working on things, flex that muscle often!
5. Backup your stuff. You never know when disaster will strike! This is an insurance policy that is covered by a premium of your time and has a fantastic ROI. I prefer to back up to hard drives and the cloud for different reasons, but make a routine of backing up your most important stuff . If it's an assignment or a piece of work, no harm keeping it on the cloud if it's not too sensitive depending on your preferences.
6. Give your computer a routine clean. Boot up CCleaner, clear your browser caches (be sure not to clear out any important cookies or historical data), clean your registry, empty your recycle bin, uninstall programs you don't use. If you know some one (or are some one) a bit tech savvier, open up your computer and give it a dust with an air pressure canister, replace your CPU's thermal paste, can go above and beyond and replace your motherboards internal battery but it's really not that necessary outside of a few electricity and durability reasons. Organise your desktop, cull items from your task bar. Clean your monitors, your peripheral devices; it's a good feeling!
7. Always be aware what wifi network you're on and what websites you visit. Certain people might be sniffing network traffic on public networks so at least be mindful of what you look up on those (this goes through my mind any time I use my city's public wifi, but leave my phone password-protected-hotspot as a trusted network for more sensitive things). If you're ever suspicious about the legitimacy of a website from how it looks or the URL, it doesn't hurt to either not visit it or look it up. Tons of great people online have threads and shared resources discussing the legitimacy of websites. Whenever I'm purchasing items from non-mainstream sites, I am always careful to assess how well the website was designed (because that can be a give away of an unprotected or corrupt site like one time I received a text and call to action from my bank which was actually a phishing link. The website looked almost the same except the give away was that the hamburger icon didn't work and the URL di); and finally look them up if I'm still unsure. Start to form an understanding of how websites convey information for you and you'll start to pick up an instinct for it.
8. Updates? Updates! Who enjoys updating? No one. Hell, even I am guilty of not wanting to restart my computer or install the latest update; and you know what? I'm kind of dumb for it. It's inconvenient to update while we are busy or sometimes we just don't trust that we need the update (like that time apple slowed down older tech with a software update). Updates are good. They provide more features and more importantly fix broken ones. Windows updates are especially critical. The Windows OS is complicated and when new OS' are released, some very clever people find vulnerabilities and try to abuse them (like there used to be one that would allow people to change a user's password and log in). Microsoft even reward people who find vulnerabilities and report them so that they can patch the problem and provide you the fix so no one can use it against you. For the extra savvy computer user, you should also frequently update your drivers (software that your hardware specifically uses). It can fix a lot of random hiccups. Recently, my mum - without any direction from me - fixed her disconnected keyboard by updating her Bluetooth adapter driver, so you have no excuses really. When you have time update your tech!
9. Think twice before clicking on links. Emails, websites, text messages, private messages, doesn't matter. When some one sends you a link take a look at it first unless it's obviously a trusted source (like some one you're actively on a call with). Some emails seem legit but will have slight give-aways like "help-support@microsft.com" for example, "microsft" is clearly not "Microsoft" which we can assume is a domain that is owned by Microsoft. Sometimes companies will actually own several domains (the things after the @ or the things between www. and .com/net/org, etc) and you can validate it's legitimate by looking it up. Sometimes emails will try to scare you with urgency or start with crap like "Hey mum I was..." to get you to let down your guard. Always verify where the info is coming from, then verify what you're clicking. Be suspicious of things that seem too good to be true or are threats from an authority, "We believe you have been fraudulent with your taxes. Kind regards, The ATO" crap like that. These days, content is becoming more and more believable. Be on the lookout for sentences that just don't quite read that right bla bla bla you get the point.
10. If you're feeling overly paranoid, you can set a system restore point which will hold a snapshot of your computer's state from a given point in time for you to reset to at a later date. Here's a guide from Microsoft.
11. Lock your computer when you're not using it. Simple as that. I don't trust anyone around my tech and it's important that my work laptop is treated with the same degree of security. You can simply never be certain of your surroundings that in your absence some one wont try something. Windows Key + L (Control + command + Q on Mac) will quickly secure things.
12. Close shit you're not using. Free up resources on your Ram and CPU (it's free realestate).
13. Keep personal details personal. Refrain from texting passcodes/passwords to your family members, refrain from writing it down - and if you have to, store in a very safe place. Recently I moved house, do you think I would've ever imagined in my wildest dreams that some loser would break in and steal my safe and run away? Nope! But it happened, and I couldn't imagine how colossally fucked I would've been if I kept written passwords in there. I even refrain from speaking about sensitive information in public places or with open windows in my own home.
14. Structure your files. Until I was an engineer I didn't really do this and sometimes it can lead to a really messy and disorganised state of being. You'll find yourself scratching at your head trying to remember where important things are placed. Keep generally monotonous data in your documents, keep downloads in your downloads, put project directories somewhere meaningful, and maybe generally key things to you on your desktop or important and sensitive data hidden deeper in a password protected directory. It'll make life easy when you need to find those things that you've lost track of but common sense will lead you to.
15. Is it time for an upgrade? Be on the lookout for a slow computer or dysfunctional parts. Your RAM at 100% use? Buy more RAM. Your mouse clicking weirdly and its effecting your productivity? Get a better mouse. You are a designer and your models are rendering slowly? Consider a new GPU. Does your computer take forever to start up? Consider buying an SSD and installing your OS on it. This one requires a bit of careful research and I definitely encourage you to consult on it. I'm pretty good with tech but dumb enough to buy the wrong RAM for my mums computer on first attempt because I was too sluggish to check what hertz her motherboard would accept. Don't be me, be smart.
Common Tech Acronyms
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tl;dr:
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It means "Too long, didn't read." Generally a 'tag' that is followed by a summary of whatever it is you're reading.
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VM
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Virtual Machine - another computer running inside your computer while you use your computer while it uses another computer, woah.
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VPN
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Virtual Private Network - Conceals your machine from servers, saying that you came from another place on earth.
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PC
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Personal Computer
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HDD
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Hard Disk Drive - Holds your stuff
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GPU / CPU
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Graphics / Central Processing Unit - Responsible for your computer's calculating speeds (if we're talking high-level)
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RAM
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Random Access Memory - Smaller place to hold your stuff but is used lots more
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MFA
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Multi Factor Authentication - An additional way to verify your identity
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PWM
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Password Manager - A place to store your passwords!
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IO
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Input/Output
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UI / GUI
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User Interface / Graphics User Interface - The things you can see that neatly sit on top of software.
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AV
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Anti Virus
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