UNDO The Previous Action

If you close, delete or change something by accident, don't panic. Let's explains 10 easy ways to recover from web and Windows blunders.

Undo the previous action in programs

Probably the most useful keyboard shortcut of all, Ctrl+Z lets you instantly undo mistakes you make in almost any Windows program. These range from deleting a chunk of text in Microsoft Word to messing up a photo in an image editor or pasting the wrong web address into your browser. Pressing the key combination reverses only the most recent action, but in some software, if you keep hitting Z while holding down Ctrl, you can undo the actions previous to that. Alternatively, you can click the Edit menu and choose Undo from there, although certain programs, including Chrome, don't provide that option.  

Reopen closed browser tabs 

If you accidentally close a tab in virtually any web browser, you can easily reopen it by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+T. Alternatively, you can right-click another tab and choose 'Reopen closed tab' ( in Chrome and IE) or Undo Close Tab (in Firefox).

Cancel an email you've just sent 

One of our favorite extra tools for Gmail is Undo Send, which gives you 10 seconds to cancel an email after you click the Send button. To turn on the feature, click the Opt ions (cog) icon in the top-right corner, choose 'Mail settings' and click Labs. Scroll down to Undo Send, select Enable and click Save Changes. Now, when you've fired off a message in haste or anger, you can click the Undo button to stop it being delivered. It could prove a life-saver if you've just told your boss where to stick their job!