How to Be a Power User

Last Updated: January 21, 2022

A power user is someone who knows a lot about the advanced features in operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux. If you want to transition from an average user to a power user, check out these tips, tricks, and tools that will help you expand your computer knowledge.

Steps

1

Seriously consider using the command-line. You can still tweet, instant message, play mp3 (with mplayer), browse the web (with Lynx or Links2), p2p (amulecmd), torrent (rtorrent), image edit (ImageMagick), read feeds (raggle), chat (irssi), ofm (midnight commander), manage downloads (axel, wget) and everything else. Linux and BSD make it easy to use the command-line, whereas OS X and especially Windows don't.

action	Windows/DOS	Windows Powershell, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD etc.
list directory	dir	ls
clear console	cls	clear
copy file(s)	copy	cp
move file(s)	move	mv
delete file(s)	del	rm
create directory	md	mkdir
remove directory	rd	rm
change current directory	cd	cd
current directory	cd, chdir	pwd
search	find	grep
concatenate	cat	cat
permissions	chmod	chmod
display/output text	echo	echo
add user	net user	adduser

If you must use a GUI read on to the next step. But the efficiency advantages of the CLI are as follows.

If you need to move all folders ending with "photos" this is easy in the command line but difficult and slow in a GUI.
Command-line completion is also known as tab-completion and can speed things up.
Pipe command-line output into other commands if needed.
Shell aliases can be set in Linux.

2
Consider a tiling window manager (TWM). Most systems use floating window managers where windows aren't automatically aligned and can overlap one another. If you spend a lot of time moving, resizing, maximizing, minimizing, restoring and generally switching windows then a tiling window manager might be for you. A TWM presents multiple windows on one screen aligned in a tile formation. The following is the manifesto of Ion, a dynamic tiling window manager with tabs for each frame.

"So-called “modern desktop environments” converge on total unusability, and present-day mainstream graphical user interfaces in general are far less usable than they are praised to be. Usability simply does not equal low learning curve, and hiding system details from the user, as the Official Truth seems to be these days."

Key Tiling
function

Alt+k next tile

Alt+j previous tile

Alt+space switch layout

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3

Ditch the mouse. Use the keyboard. Set up key bindings for everything, basic windows operation and browsing . Learn the key bindings. Familiarize yourself with them.

Key	Operating system function
Win+e	Opens My Computer in Windows Explorer
Win+f	Find
Win+m	Minimize all windows
Win+d	Toggle minimize all windows
Win+r	Open run dialog
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+B	Bold
Ctrl+O	Open
Ctrl+C	Copy
Ctrl+X	Cut
Ctrl+V	Paste
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+PgUp	Next tab
Ctrl+PgDn	Previous tab
Alt-tab	Switch open windows
Alt+F4	Quit app
Alt+F5	Restore window
Alt+F7	Move window
Alt+F8	Resize window
Alt+F9	Minimize window
Alt+F10	Maximize current window

.

Use application keyboard shortcuts (Vimperator^{[1]
X
Research source} and other Firefox add-ons are useful for this).

Key	Browser Function
Alt+left arrow	Back
Alt+right arrow	Forward
Alt+home	Home
Ctrl+L	Location/address bar
Ctrl+k	Search bar
Ctrl+T	New tab
Ctrl+W	Close tab
Ctrl+PgUp	Previous tab
Ctrl+PgDn	Next tab
Ctrl+R	Refresh
Ctrl+u	View source

Image titled Be a Power User Step 3Bullet1

4
If you don't want to ditch the mouse totally, Use Mouse Gestures. Strokeit (Windows), Opera (Cross platform), gMote (Windows), Easystroke (Linux), Mouse Gestures Redox (Firefox) are all applications.
5
Write scripts. You won't become a programmer, but scripts help to automate common repetitive tasks. In Windows they're sometimes called batch files.
- If you need to copy photos until you reach a certain number of megabytes, a script is needed.
- Use browser scripts. Greasemonkey, iMacros and Chickenfoot are some on Firefox. Opera supports user javascript.
6
Use an Orthodox File Manager (OFM). Also known as Commander-like, Midnight Commander is one for command-line users. Alternatively use something like Directory Opus, as long as you don't use a basic (usually bundled) file manager. Again, it is all about key bindings, so learn the keyboard shortcuts.

Key OFM Function

F1 help

F2 user menu/scripting

F3 view

F4 edit

F5 copy

F6 move

F7 new directory

F8 delete

F9 top menu

F10 quit
7
Turn off any eye-candy that might slow you down.
- In Windows, right-click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, under Performance click Settings, then Adjust for Best Performance.
- In KDE 4+, press Alt+F3, then Configure Window Behaviour, then Desktop Effects then uncheck Enable Desktop Effects.
8
Choose appropriate software. Don't just use the bundled software just because it's bundled, unless it's a conscious decision.
- Choose a web browser, don't just use the bundled one because it's bundled.
- Organize your audio and images with appropriate software designed for this purpose.
- Don't use a word-processor where a decent plain text editor will do. Use Regular Expressions^{[2]
  X
  Research source}. Where you don't need to format documents, use plain text.
  - Asterisk * matches any number of what's before it, from zero to infinity.
  - ? matches zero or one.
  - + matches one or more.
- For chatrooms use IRC. For forums use Usenet.
9
Use a job scheduler for regular tasks. In Windows use Task Manager, in Mac OS X use Launchd, in Linux/BSD use cron/anacron.
10
Power users in word processing use styles (or even Latex) for formatting documents.

Warnings

Many myths exist about performance^{[3]
X
Research source} including;
- defragging,
- turning off services,
- registry cleaning,
- memory optimization software tools.
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