Note: This material is provided for educational purposes only. Consult with a computer expert at MyCuredComputer for professional assistance and the best intended outcome.

A password is the main key to unlock your online accounts and logins. It is important to try creating a strong password that cannot be easily guessed.  Most people use a single password in all their accounts. Remember that if it falls in a wrong hand, no matter how you trust the person, they might be able to impersonate you, change your account settings, and get all personal confidential information, or worst, hack all your other accounts that have the same password. We recommend spreading your login accounts across two or three passwords that you will remember.

Here are some suggestions to make your online accounts safe.

1. Choose a password that you can easily remember. It should be something no one knows but you.
2. Make it unique and avoid using words or names. Try to be creative when thinging of a password. Use combinations of prefixes or suffixes from phrases. E.g. (“I Love John” ILJ2011) for some people it seems to be senseless. But it’s something easily remembered by you and hard for others to guess.
3. Use alphanumeric characters and capitalization. Although it is a little bit harder sometimes but combining letters and characters is the most effective way to create a password. Just make sure that you will never forget it.
4. Do not use dates. Using your birthday, anniversary, etc. is not a wise choice in choosing a good password. If you really want to use a date as a password, make sure that it is something clueless and includes a combination of letters and capitalizations. (Like the first time you saw your secret crush.)
5. Avoid easily captured passwords. While you are typing a password, you may never know who’s watching your back. If your password is like 0123456789, someone can easily see that as you type. Make sure that even when someone is watching as you type, he or she will not be able to capture what you are typing. For example, “my favorite food is chicken” –Mf@vFichkn. It is something easy to remember and hard for someone to capture.
6. Do not write it down. Try to create a password that is memorable and that you do not need to write down. Someone can easily find your passwords when they are written down.

Choosing a creative and smart password will always keep your personal data safe. Another way to keep your password safe is not to save your passwords in any browser. You can delete history and cookies, or permanently disable saving cookies. If you need help deleting history contact a computer expert at MyCuredComputer for assistance.

Category: Computer Tips & How Tos

Note: This material is provided for educational purposes only. Consult with a computer expert at MyCuredComputer for professional assistance and the best intended outcome.

Most people rely on mouse and/or a touch pad in using their computer. Learning how to use keyboard shortcuts can make things easy for you.

Based on reviews and expert studies, using keyboard shortcuts can be up to 10 times faster than a mouse. For example, when you are typing a document, it consumes more time if you have to stop typing to use your mouse to do something. Being able to apply commands using you keyboard while you are typing speeds up the job.

Although there are many keyboard shortcuts, simply learning a few common shortcuts will make things easier.

Windows key

It is used to pull up the start menu. It is also called Start key, WinKey, or Super key. Most keyboards have these key with a Windows logo printed on it. Instead of using your mouse to click over the Start  button or using Ctrl+Esc to open it, just click the WinKey, and it will pull-up the Start Menu.

Function Keys

These are shortcut keys programmed to perform a certain functions or no function at all. It varies in different application and the operating system used. They can be applied alone or with the combination of Ctrl or Alt key. You will find these keys lined on top of your keyboard.

F1 – Help. It opens help menu of almost all applications

F2 – Rename. Use to rename file names of a document or icon. Can also use with MS Excel in editing cells.

F3 – Find/Search. It opens search feature of a program

F4 – It opens address bar when working on Internet Explorer.

F5 – Refresh. In MS Office, it works as “Find and Replace” but in using Windows it refreshes the desktop, or refresh Internet Explorer.

F6 – It brings the cursor to the address bar in most browsers.

F7 – Spell & Grammar check.

F8 – This key used to pull up Windows Safe Mode. It will only work upon computer’s boot up process before the OS is starting up.

F9 – It does not have much functionality but opens  the Measurements toolbar in Quark 5.0

F10 – Activates menu bars in an open application

F11 – It can turn your browser into full screen mode, and restores it back when pressed again.

F12 – Opens Save As option in most applications.

Windows Keyboard Shortcuts and Combinations

There are hundreds of keyboard shortcuts in Windows. You can start by learning the basics.

Windows basic shortcut combinations

• CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
• ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
• ALT+F4: Quit program
• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently
• Windows Logo+L: Lock the computer (without using CTRL+ALT+DELETE)

Basic shortcuts for all Applications including Windows Explorer

• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+V: Paste
• CTRL+Z: Undo
• CTRL+B: Bold
• CTRL+U: Underline
• CTRL+I: Italic
• CTRL+A: Select All

Keyboard Shortcut with Mouse combination

• SHIFT+right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands
• SHIFT+double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu)
• ALT+double click: Displays properties
• SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin

General keyboard-only commands

• SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
• CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
• CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
• CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager
• ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
• ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
• SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
• ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window’s System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)
• ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window’s System menu (from the MDI child window’s System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)
• CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program
• ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
• ALT+F4: Closes the current window
• CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
• ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)

Windows Explorer shortcuts

• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin
• ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object

Windows Explorer tree control

• Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection
• Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection
• Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection.
• RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child
• LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent

Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts

• Windows Logo: Start menu
• Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box
• Windows Logo+M: Minimize all
• SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all
• Windows Logo+F1: Help
• Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer
• Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders
• Windows Logo+D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop
• CTRL+Windows Logo+F: Find computer
• CTRL+Windows Logo+TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray)
• Windows Logo+TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons
• Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialog box
• Application key: Displays a shortcut menu for the selected item

Dialog box keyboard commands

• TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box
• SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box
• SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button. If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current control is an option, this selects the option.
• ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline)
• ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button
• ALT+underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item

Category: Computer Tips & How Tos