Month: August 2023

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Oops! I closed that tab! (in Windows 10)

You’re working on a research project, and you’ve dug through the bowels of the internet to find some information that is relevant to your question. After a brief interlude of looking up which artist sang the song you have stuck in your head in a new tab, your caffeine-saturated finger muscles accidentally press the close button/Ctrl + W one too many times. Oh no! We’ve all been there, but not all of us know what to do about it. Until now.

Press Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen the tab you’ve just closed, and the tab you closed before that, and so on. What’s more, if your computer updated overnight and closed your browser, you can use this same trick after you open your browser back up to recall all the tabs that you lost. This trick works in every browser on Windows 10.

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Windows 10 MAGNIFY!

Another day at work, and your boss is checking in to see what you’ve accomplished. Of the several windows you have open, both for the project and for reference, one has very small text, and another has a font colour that doesn’t stand out against the background. How can you show your boss your progress without them having to squint 6 inches away from your screen? Or perhaps you’re presenting an Excel spreadsheet to a huge room. How can you make sure the people at the back can see the values in the cells?

Windows 10’s magnifier shortcut is your easy accommodation for this problem. By pressing Windows Logo Key + = (equals), you can zoom your screen in on wherever your cursor sits. This shortcut comes in three versions. In Full Screen Version (Ctrl + Alt + F), the entire screen zooms in on your cursor. In Lens Version ( Ctrl + Alt + L), a small window showing the magnified area appears. In Docked Version (Ctrl + Alt + D), the magnified area is displayed in a wide panel that appears at the top of the screen. These versions can be cycled between using Ctrl + Alt + M. In all three versions, the area magnified changes depending on where you move your mouse, and each version is also accompanied by a miniature window which allows you to:

  • Change the degree of magnification
  • Access a text-to-speech feature
  • Change the speed and accent of the text-to-speech feature*

Exit the magnifier by pressing Windows Logo Key + Esc.