The Keys and The Programs

Here at Computer Geeks we try to help the people who might not be so computer-savvy or people who are new to using them. At this blog, that is our mission: to instruct, to teach, and to educate everyone who is interested in knowing certain tips, tricks, and general information from everything to viruses and security to basic functions.

For today, let’s look at taking “Control” of your computer. The key located directly at the bottom left of your keyboard has the letters CTRL on it. This little button lives up to its title, as it controls many short, quick actions to help you move around the computer more efficiently.

Below is a list of the CTRL functions you can use:

Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert

Copy the highlighted text or selected item.

Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert

Paste the text or object that’s in the?clipboard.

Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Y

Undo any change. For example, if you cut text, pressing this will undo it. This can also often be pressed multiple times to undo multiple changes. Pressing Ctrl + Y would re-do the undo.

Ctrl + F

Open the Find in any program. This includes your Internet browser to find text on the current page.

Ctrl + P

Print what’s currently being viewed in programs such as Microsoft Word or your Internet browser.

Ctrl + Left arrow / Right arrow

Move the cursor one word at a time instead of one character at a time. If you wanted to highlight one word at a time you can hold down Ctrl + Alt and then press the left or right arrow key to move one word at a time in that direction while highlighting each word.

Ctrl + Home / End

Move the cursor to the beginning or end of a document.

Page Up / Space bar and Page Down

Pressing either the page up or page down key will move that page one page at a time in that direction. When browsing the Internet pressing the space bar will also move the page down one page at a time.

Alt + Tab or Alt + Esc

Quickly switch between open programs.

F1

Open help for the program you’re in.

Now that you know how what the pro’s know, let’s move on to programs that everyone should have downloaded to their computer.

Anti-virus and malware protection

Anti-virus: Avast! or?AVG

Malware / Spyware protection: Malwarebytes

Browsers

Although Microsoft Internet Explorer comes pre-installed on Windows computers, there are several excellent free alternatives that everyone should try. These free alternatives can often be faster, have more options, and in many cases be more secure than Internet Explorer. Try?Mozilla Firefox or?Google Chrome, you will be impressed.

Backup

There are dozens of free and commercially available backup programs for computers. Unfortunately many of those backups are stored locally, meaning if your house were to catch fire, get robbed, or if you simply lost your backup discs all your data would be lost. This is why when dealing with important data we suggest users use online backup services.?Mozy or?Dropbox are two options that give you the necessary solutions to make sure that accidents don’t turn into disasters!

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