How to undo any mistake you made while using the computer

 

Mistakes always happen while using a computer - one accidental press of a button on your keyboard can delete a document containing important information, or reduce the words of your 10,000-word article. Installing an unknown program, or changing settings in the operating system, may most likely cause the system to crash and become unbootable. But don't panic no matter how bad, if you need to undo a single action or restore changes you made weeks ago, there is always a way to do it.

 

Although the error occurred; And suppose it was a file deleted intentionally or unintentionally, the word delete here naturally means that the thing is not recoverable. However, this principle does not apply to the computer, as there are some ways to circumvent the matter, even partially, and try to undo what happened by mistake or as a result of inattention. We will focus here on explaining what you should do to undo errors after they occur, whether in the Windows system or within programs, but you may also be able to recover deleted files from the hard drive if the error leads to reformatting.

 

Undo mistakes you make in Windows

 

The Windows operating system is a system full of options and settings that any user can easily access and modify. But there are some modifications that if they were done incorrectly or you did them without knowing anything about their results, a catastrophe may occur that may affect not only the operating system itself - but all your files (stored on the hard drive), which reminds me of the mistake I made once when using clean command, which is one of the DISKPART commands to manage volumes through a CMD prompt, as its result was deleting every bit on the hard drive. But we are also talking here about changing the registry, deleting and renaming folders and system files by mistake, or installing unwanted software.

 

Fortunately, the Windows system provides more than one way to undo the mistakes made by the user. If you change the registry values ​​or manipulate the settings via the Control Panel or any other command, it eventually leads to something unfamiliar while using the computer. You can simply use the System Restore tool, which saves what is called "restore points", and the system state is restored to what it was before a specific action at a specific time. If there are no points saved, System Restore will not be useful - you should consider using the Reset this PC feature to perform a factory reset of Windows.

 

Restore changes to software settings

 

Most of the programs that you install and use on your computer have their own settings panel to control features and activate/disable features, even the operating system itself has a dedicated settings panel to make it work according to your needs. But sometimes the wrong change in these settings may lead to the failure of the program, the appearance of multiple Errors messages, the occurrence of a spasm of the program when using it, or anything out of the ordinary in general.

 

You can simply go to the settings panel and return everything to the way it was to solve the problem. If you don't remember exactly which setting you changed, there is always a button called "Reset" or "Reset To Default"or"Reset settings" or "Reset Options" and whatever they are called, this button is responsible for returning all the settings of the program to their default. So, I look for this button and click on it to undo the mistakes that you made as a result of your wrong change of settings. If you do not find this button or the program no longer works until you reach it, the final solution is to remove and reinstall the program again.

 

Always use Ctrl+Z

 

Ctrl + Z in Windows or Cmd + Z in Mac OS is one of the most popular keyboard shortcuts, and almost even beginners know it. This shortcut is usually called the "digital savior" as pressing these two keys to undo any actions that occurred or take a step back again, and this shortcut works in almost all programs.

 

If you delete a large amount of text while writing an article on the Internet or within a program, or cut out the wrong person while editing a photo, Ctrl + Z will work like a magic wand as if your mistake never happened. And whenever you continue to press Ctrl + Z, the steps that you took will be rolled back one by one in the opposite chronological order, bearing in mind that some programs have a certain limit for the steps saved in memory.

 

Sometimes, Ctrl + Z may not be able to help you. In the event that if you save the file and close it and then close the program or restart the computer, your actions saved in memory will be deleted, and therefore no matter how you press Ctrl + Z, nothing will be done. So use this abbreviation as the first contact in an emergency.

 

Note that this shortcut also works in the File Explorer tool for managing files in Windows. If you've renamed a file, moved a file, or copy a file and deeply regret that rash act, you can simply press Ctrl + Z to undo the change.

 

Undo errors in office application packages

 

One of the reasons that may prompt you to use the Google Docs office package, consisting of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, is that it saves every step you take in your work almost in real-time, and the wonderful thing is that your files and all your work are saved in the cloud service of the same company as well. Google Drive" so if you are using this package for your work and something goes wrong, you can easily undo it even from a year ago.

 

You can first try using the Ctrl + Z shortcut, but if it is not enough to help fix the errors, open the file on your browser, then click on the File section at the top, then point the mouse pointer to “Version history” and from there click on “See version history”. This will display a history of all changes made to the file on the right side of the screen. You can scroll down to see more saved versions of the same file showing the time and date each version was created after changes were made to the file.

 

Click on any version to preview it and see if the error committed has been reversed or not. If not, then preview an older version. Thus, you may reach the old version that was saved before the error occurred and press the "Restore This Version" button to replace it with the current version. Or, press the "three dots" button next to When to save a copy and choose "Make a copy" to create a new, separate copy of the file rather than overwrite the current version.

 

If you are using the Microsoft Office office package, which is the most popular and used, and you make several mistakes while creating a document in Word, trying to enter data in Excel, or creating a PowerPoint presentation. You can always undo those mistakes by pressing the undo button "arrow pointing back" in the upper left corner of the program window, then press the Undo Actions button to undo a number of steps you have taken recently, you can continue to click on the same button to undo more of actions until you reach the desired part.

 

Unfortunately, if you close and reopen the file, the undo list will be permanently erased because the changes are saved to the hard drive. Whereas, if the file is saved to a OneDrive folder, then you can easily go back to the previously saved versions of the file. Open the program, then click on File, then on the right side of the Info section, click on “View and restore previous versions.” Previous modifications will appear in the left pane. Click on any version to open and preview it in a separate window. If you want to restore, click on the Restore button.

 

And also photo and video editing software...

 

There is a lot of photo and video editing software out there, and almost all of them provide ample options to undo the mistakes that users make while editing. We can't cover the methods for each program, but we will take the most popular photo editing software, yes! Launch Adobe Photoshop and note that all Adobe Editing programs work the same way.

 

You can initially use the Ctrl + Z shortcut, as it also works in Photoshop, and if you add the Alt button to the shortcut to be Alt + Ctrl + Z, you will be able to undo every step you made since you designed the image or opened it inside the program. You can also click on the Window section above and choose History from the drop-down list to display a separate window with a record of each tool you used in the program to edit the image, and whenever you click on any of them, previous errors will be undone. Unfortunately, when you close the image, its history is automatically erased from memory, and you cannot access the older versions of the files saved in Photoshop unless you activate the Auto Saving feature, as we explained in the topic How to recover unsaved Photoshop design files.

 

You can continue in this way in every program in which you make mistakes and want to undo them. Perhaps this will work by using the Ctrl + Z shortcut or by searching for the log that keeps every change you make.