10 useful tech tips you’ll use over and over

 

Kim Komando  |  Special to USA TODAY

Everybody loves a cool trick. No matter how well we know an app or program, there’s almost always some shortcut we never learned. The same goes for hardware: We may use gadgets every day without knowing their helpful quirks.

A great example is Zoom, which millions of Americans have recently discovered for the first time. Tap or click here for 11 of the best Zoom tricks you’ll wish you’d known sooner.

In quarantine, you may spend a lot of time with the tech you already own, especially if you’re working from a home office. Little do you know, you may be doing things “the hard way,” when you could be cutting corners for free.

Speaking of free, tap or click here for 15 tech upgrades you can get for free, including no-cost programs that work like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office.

Here are some of my favorite popular tech tips, tricks, and shortcuts for a range of popular programs and tools:

1. Put your USB drive in the right way the first time

Plugging in a USB cable the right way feels like a no-brainer. Then why do we get it wrong on the first try so often?

Here's the secret: Grab any USB cable sitting around your house. See that symbol on one side? It’s not just branding or decoration. That symbol will point up if you’re plugging in horizontally and if you're plugging a cable vertically, the USB symbol will face you. Now you know.

While you’re streamlining your tech life, tap or click here for seven steps to lower your internet bill.

2. Reopen a closed browser tab

It happens all the time. You have a dozen tabs open in your browser and accidentally close the wrong one. You could open up your browser’s history and reopen the tab from there, or you can do it with a couple of keystrokes.

Hit Ctrl+Shift+T on your PC or Command+Shift+T on your Mac to automatically reopen the tab you just closed.