OS X tips & tricks – Keyboard shortcuts February 4, 2009

For those of you who are sick of reading my ever-so-clever windows 7 posts, fear not. I’m still a mac user, and I think Microsoft needs to do way more than putting a 7 in its brands to make me do a switcheroo.

Anyways, I’m starting a new series called “OS X Tips and Tricks”, which I’m sure isn’t original at all, but for what it’s worth, I’ll share some of the secrets and other nifty things in OS X(Namely Leopard) I’ve learned and know about.

This post will be all about keyboard shortcuts. There’s always need for shortcuts, and key strokes have always been the preferred method. Mouse gestures just don’t cut it, in my humble opinion.

1. Turning off the monitor
   For switching that monitor off quickly, and hiding your secret documents/porn from over-the-shoulder-viewers, hit ctrl+shift+eject
2. Precise volume control
   Just in case your Mac is hooked up to 1000W speakers, it’s better to use these simple shortcuts to enable a smoother and more precise volume control, to hinder ear-bleeding. alt+shift+F11 to turn it down, and alt+shift+F12 to crank it up.
3. Noiseless volume control
   Is that “pop” sound when you hit a volume key annoying you too? There’s simple ways around everything. shift+F11 will silently lower your volume, whilst shift+F12 will “silently” blow your speakers(not literally).
   Note that this isn’t directly what it sounds like. If you’ve already disabled the sounds for this, this trick will do the opposite.
4. Moving directly to Safari’s Google search box
   Yeah, I know. If tab isn’t working, just press cmd+alt+f to get to the Google box, should your mouse-finger be too lazy to move those inches.
5. Opening search results in a new tab
   If you don’t like to lose your current window, or just want to be cool, press cmd+enter instead of just enter when using the Google box. It’ll open up the results in a new tab instead of the one you’re in, so that you don’t lose any sites you’re viewing.
6. Zooming the screen
   Okay, this one you probably knew about already, either by mistake, or just basic knowledge, but if you hold down ctrl while scrolling the mouse, you get to zoom in on the screen. It’s pretty handy if you need an exact pixel’s color, but other than that… It’s just cool.
7. Quick shut-down and quick reboot
   This one you probably didn’t know, but if you’re just too busy to shut the Mac down using your mouse, simply press cmd+ctrl+alt+eject. If you’re just looking for a quick reboot, it’s ctrl+alt+eject. Same thing, just stay away from the cmd button.
8. Quick hibernation
   Same as above, just this one’s cmd+alt+eject. It’ll hibernate the Mac without having to move the mouse a pixel.
9. Quick log-out
   I’m beginning to think I don’t really need an own bullet-point for all of these things, but in any case, ctrl+alt+shift+q logs you out of the system, without a hassle.
10. Apple logo
    This one’s pretty pointless, but if you ever need to view the infamous apple logo, hit alt+a.
11. Invert the monitor’s colors
    This, on the other hand, is actually really handy. If you’re doing designing, and would like to know how the logo you’re making would look inverted, without having to re-color the stuff, just hit ctrl+alt+8. Note that this doesn’t harm your mac in any way, it’s just instant invert. How neat is that? It inverts whatever you’re looking at, so it works while watching movies or playing games as well.
12. Hide/Show the dock
    If you’ve set the dock to hide, you can bring it right up again by pressing cmd+alt+d. To hide it again, press it again.
13. Moving directly to Safari’s address line
    Doesn’t need a description, but press cmd+L to go directly to the address line.
14. Exposé in slow-motion
    Another pointless trick, holding down shift while doing any of the exposé commands will do them in slow-motion.
15. Screenshots and screen clips
    This one is for all the windows users saying that Mac’s are lacking the PrintScreen button. Well, on the mac, we just press cmd+shift+3, and we don’t even have to go into MSPaint to save it, as OS X saves a high-quality PNG on the desktop. In addition to that, pressing cmd+shift+4 will let you grab whatever portion of the screen you desire. If you want them on the clipboard instead, add shift to the formula.

That’s all the ones for now, but keep reading up on this blog, I’ll share some more mac tips later on.

 

-Tom out.

Windows 7 Beta 1 – Three weeks in. February 1, 2009

About 3 weeks ago, I reviewed the Windows 7 Beta 1. So now, three weeks in, I found it only natural to blog a new post about how it’s keeping up with the normal windows-sickness that Microsoft has suffered since the dawn of Windows 95.

Here’s the topics and bugs I’m specifically looking for, and whether or not they’re still around, in no specific order.

Note that I’m not blogging just about the issues, I’m also giving thorough information about why they happen at all, and how to solve them.

 

1. BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)
2. Registry speed
3. USB devices
4. Copy/Paste
5. Delete
6. General performance
7. Updates
8. Default Programs

 

1. The infamous Blue Screen of Death

Although I’ve heard stories of people experiencing this phenomenon, I’ve yet to see it. In fact, the last time I personally gawked upon the all so precious kernel panic was in Windows XP(pre SP1), and that was my own fault, benchmarking, multi-tasking, watching videos and downloading at the same time. With a 32-bit processor and 1GB RAM, I was kind of asking for it anyways. However, if windows is used correctly, the BSOD should not appear. If it does, however, you’re either doing something wrong, or windows itself is having issues. It’s mostly directed at the memory though, so you might want to do a RAM diagnostics, should it happen frequently.

Anyways, so far, Win7 has not displayed a BSOD as of yet. I will, however let you know.

 

2. Registry, and the speed of windows accessing it

Now, some of you might know this, but one of the main reasons why Windows installs get slower after months of use, without doing a clean install, is the registry. Mac OS X does not suffer this, since it has no registry, but this post is about windows, so I’ll get to the point.

Once you install an application, it registers information in the registry, including licensing, runtime data and some other stuff necessary to run.

However, this information is static, but once the application is uninstalled, it still leaves traces in the registry, just in case you should choose to install them again. Suffice to say, if you keep installing/uninstalling applications often, the registry gets cluttered. The issue with most family computers is, that the average Joe doesn’t really know what he’s doing. This goes for Jane’s too, though. They use windows every day, but they also let their kids use it, and kids generally installs/uninstalls apps more often than adults. So, naturally, the kids get the blame for screwing up the computer.

Now, what you should know, is this; The registry CAN be accessed by running the “Regedit” command in the windows run dialogue, BUT, it shouldn’t be tampered with if you don’t really know what you’re doing. In fact, you should leave it alone all together, as it also contains critical windows runtime files and other valuable information that enables windows to run.

So, what CAN you do? well, there’s actually several applications out there that help clean the register, and thus optimizes your computer’s access to it. My personal favourite for this, is Auslogic’s Registry Defrag. It’s free, and does exactly what you’d expect of it. It defrags the registry, and makes your computer’s general speed much improved.

Now that that’s settled, how is this issue in windows 7? Well, I’ve been installing and uninstalling apps frequently, to help settle the fact whether or not it’s supported in 7, and so far, the registry seems to be a bit more optimized in win 7, compared to Vista and XP, but it’s also worth noting that there’s only so much Microsoft can do about it, to make applications still compatible. All in all, it’s running faster than XP/Vista, but it’s still got a long way to go to match a 4-year old OS X install. Using windows for 4 years without doing a clean install again, without tending the registry is near-fatal.

 

3. Usb Devices. Compatibility, speed, and stability.

This topic is rather short. Everyone knows what USB is these days. Granted, not everyone knows that it’s an acronym for Universal Serial Bus, but that’s not relevant.

In windows 7, the general compatibility is just how you would expect a new OS to be. I’ve yet to find a product that’s not supported, and since almost all USB devices are Vista-compatible, there’s no hassle at all. Let’s remember that Windows 7 uses the same driver structure and system as Vista, so whatever drivers that are compatible with Vista, will also work seamlessly in Win 7. That’s all there is to it.

As for speed, USB 2 is just as fast as ever, and the general stability is just as Vista. No problems at all. All in all, it’s how you expect it to be; working.

 

4. Copy/Paste. Speed, Compared to Vista.

If you’ve lived under a rock for the last 2 years, you’ve not noticed how Vista royally screwed up the copy/paste speed, since it oftentimes used longer time to estimate the time remaining, than it actually used to complete the process. For instance, a <1MB file should take less than 10 seconds to copy and paste, but Vista could use way longer, as it started estimating the time remaining instead of actually copying the file.

In 7, this issue is resolved slightly, but lately, I’ve been noticing it starting to estimate a lot more than it used to. This isn’t really a huge problem, but it sure as hell is annoying, if you’re downloading a lot of small files, and want to re-organize it later on.

 

5. Deleting files.

As with the previous topic, Vista had a tendency of estimating time to delete the files instead of actually deleting them, and in 7, this is still pretty annoying. Granted, huge files are deleted quickly, as windows starts to delete it, and estimates while it’s doing so. With smaller files, the file is sometimes actually deleted already while windows is trying to estimate the time remaining. 7 still has some very annoying flaws in this field, beta or not, and it’s pretty aggravating to delete 100 small .RAR files to clean up the folders.

 

6. General Performance. How 7 is stacking up, after 3 weeks of solid, main-computer usage.

Well, I’m pleased to say, I’m still not going back to Vista. Or Xp, for that matter. I’m still gonna use my OS X Leopard, but on my laptop, this isn’t really a possibility, so I’m keeping within the Windows genre here. I’ve used my fair share of Linux distributions since ‘97, and I’m still not going there. Windows is generally the consumer OS anyways, and 7 is evidently, the flagship. It’s like Vista, just good, and about a month in, it’s still packing a punch, and is still as easy on the system as it was in the beginning. Vista’s got a lot to learn, but let’s hope MS decides to jump ship on that, and continue developing 7 instead.

 

7. Updates. How Microsoft is choosing to keep its beta testers updated.

Windows Update(tm) is still present, of course, and it’s more seamless than ever. It’s in style of Vista, meaning that you don’t have to open a browser like IE to download the updates, and it’s all done automatically, should you wish it. This is, of course as expected, but I find that windows update finds a LOT of drivers for external devices automatically, and almost removes the need for any manual search for drivers and the discs that usually come with the product, which are almost always outdated anyways. Windows update has updated drivers ready for your stuff.

On a side-note, there’s frequently new updates for 7 itself too, so MS is keeping you up-to-date very well.

 

8. Default Programs.

This is still worth a topic in itself, and the annoying way of choosing default programs in Vista is still present. By that, I mean that in XP, there was a dialog box that took care of this, and it opened way faster than the new “center” in Vista. I’ve always preferred the way XP handled this, and so Vista pretty much annoyed me. The time it takes to right-click a file, choosing open with, default program and waiting for the window to open, and then selecting the stuff, takes too much time. Applications also have a tendency(Windows Media Player, most frequently) of taking the files back, making you have to re-claim the files again, and again.

This is still present in 7, and if it were up to me, it’d be revamped, or integrated in the right-click menu.

 

 

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll keep you updated later on, as the Beta is said to run out in August, so there’s still plenty of time to keep analyzing it.