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Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

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Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#11

Post by yyyk »

machocam wrote: post #10
yyyk wrote: post #9

I can't recall when I found it about it, and OSX already has it - one of Windows' neatest tricks is being able to do some regular file operations in the standard open/save dialogs. It saved me countless clicks over the years at $WORK. Was Windows the first to allow this, or was there some antecedent? There are 'modern' Linux GUI toolkits which still do not allow this, like GTK's GtkFileChooser which apparently lives…

To be clear is this feature being able to move or rename files from the save/open dialog?

Yes, also copy and clipboard integration. So many little uses. I can rename a file in the open dialog to ensure correct program behaviour, or forget where I saved something, open the save dialog again, and copy the file without needing to navigate with another program to the path. Note that the path is copyable in explorer dialogs, so I can copy it and navigate more easily with another program if that is still required.

I'm running KDE and it gets the open/save dialog just right, but every GTK program I run shows that barebones picker.

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#12

Post by utf_8x »

machocam wrote: post #3
QuadrupleA wrote: post #2

Recently discovered the Snipping Tool (start menu) - crop a screenshot rectangle, annotate with pen / highlighter, and save as JPG/PNG. Handy.

I discovered that one too: win + shift + s The only frustrating thing is that with that hotkey it just copies it to the clipboard (usefult often) but sometimes I want to do what you mentioned (save it). For that I don't know a hotkey...

There's no hotkey for that but boy do I have a solution for you. The dumbest thing I've ever made but it might actually help someone's workflow so here you go: https://gitlab.com/utf_8x/pastesave

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#13

Post by 72deluxe »

Loads of shortcuts: F2: rename

F3: find

Alt F4: close window, ctrl-w seems to do this a lot these days too

Alt minus: show child document window menu

Alt space: show window menu, useful if you remember the X for maximize/minimize, z for resize, m for move, r for restore immediately afterwards.

F4 go to address bar in Explorer

F5 refresh

Ctrl F6 switch windows in MDI interface

Ctrl escape: show start menu

Shift-F10: right click menu

Windows E: explorer

Alt-up in explorer: go to directory above; backspace/alt-left: go to previous history item

Windows W windows ink for annotation

Windows R for run

Windows U for narrator

Windows F used to do find but now shows the feedback tool, which I think is a loss

Any command after the word control will open control panel to the right place, eg control display

Windows D show desktop toggle

Windows M minimise all windows, windows shift M restore windows

Ctrl-shift-escape: show task manager

Ctrl tab/ctrl-shift-tab move to next/previous UI item so you can use the UI with a keyboard; this is why web apps that pretend to be native are so useless and annoying because this doesn't work

Also system items normally end with .msc to open the management console, eg. Compmgmt.msc. There's a load of these that help you get to the nitty gritty of the system.

Turn on "show accelerators" in accessibility and menu entries and buttons will have their accelerator underlined, eg the O in OK or F in File. You can then use alt-(letter) to go to it, eg alt-f to open the file menu, s for save.

Honestly I don't know how I would have got through using Windows for decades without these shortcuts. I always find the Mac relies on mouse usage a lot more and the ctrl-F2 and ctrl-F3 shortcut to get to the menu bar and dock on Mac doesn't compare.

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#14

Post by 72deluxe »

I also find that people forget about the tricks on macos:

You can drag the icon from any title of a window into a finder window or dialog to go to that directory.

You can right-click on the title bar of any window and see the path to that window's document.

But enjoy Windows!

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#16

Post by athriren »

utf_8x wrote: post #12
machocam wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discovered that one too: win + shift + s The only frustrating thing is that with that hotkey it just copies it to the clipboard (usefult often) but sometimes I want to do what you mentioned (save it). For that I don't know a hotkey...

There's no hotkey for that but boy do I have a solution for you. The dumbest thing I've ever made but it might actually help someone's workflow so here you go: https://gitlab.com/utf_8x/pastesave

Some of the dumbest things I have made have been the most useful. Thanks for posting this, appreciated that the first commit was when you made this comment so you got it online specifically for people in the thread in case they would find it useful.

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#18

Post by 2rsf »

yyyk wrote: post #9

I can't recall when I found it about it, and OSX already has it - one of Windows' neatest tricks is being able to do some regular file operations in the standard open/save dialogs. It saved me countless clicks over the years at $WORK. Was Windows the first to allow this, or was there some antecedent? There are 'modern' Linux GUI toolkits which still do not allow this, like GTK's GtkFileChooser which apparently lives…

It is probably unknown to many, but I still remember someone telling me about it when Windows 95 was about to come out

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#19

Post by machocam »

72deluxe wrote: post #13

Loads of shortcuts: F2: rename F3: find Alt F4: close window, ctrl-w seems to do this a lot these days too Alt minus: show child document window menu Alt space: show window menu, useful if you remember the X for maximize/minimize, z for resize, m for move, r for restore immediately afterwards. F4 go to address bar in Explorer F5 refresh Ctrl F6 switch windows in MDI interface Ctrl escape: show start menu Shift-F10: r…

Thanks for the list - there are quite a few I didn't know! Hopefully more keyboard navigation is in my future.

Re: Ask HN: What feature did you find after years of using Windows?

#20

Post by utf_8x »

athriren wrote: post #16
utf_8x wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no hotkey for that but boy do I have a solution for you. The dumbest thing I've ever made but it might actually help someone's workflow so here you go: https://gitlab.com/utf_8x/pastesave

Some of the dumbest things I have made have been the most useful. Thanks for posting this, appreciated that the first commit was when you made this comment so you got it online specifically for people in the thread in case they would find it useful.

Cheers :) I do a lot of reactive programming, that is I react to people's problems and hack up quick and dirty solutions :D
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