Ctrl+Shift+T: A keyboard shortcut that can save you valuable time

Today we spend hours every day in our browser. Accidentally closing a tab happens quite often. Luckily, this shortcut fixes the error quickly.

Why does your mouse click on the cross on a browser tab so often when you don’t want to close that tab? This is a truth that, unfortunately, is too often tested daily. And if you don’t know the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+T, then you’ll have to lose precious to open this tab again.

Ctrl + Shift + T (or Cmd + Shift + T for Mac users) is probably one of the most useful keyboard shortcuts today. With Ctrl + Z, of course. But in the end, the operation is very similar, namely canceling the error. More precisely, stupidity to accidentally close a tab or window. Ctrl+Shift+T is the fastest way to restore a tab you just closed.

Four Ways to Reopen a Closed Tab in Google Chrome

Google Chrome provides several options for restoring tabs and windows after closing them, and depending on your needs, it’s good to know them. Namely, reopening a tab is not possible when you are in private browsing mode.

1. Keyboard shortcut

The fastest way to restore an accidentally closed tab is with a keyboard shortcut. On a PC, it’s Ctrl + Shift + T. On a Mac, Cmd + Shift + T. tabs in the order they’re closed.

If you accidentally closed the entire browser window, open a new Chrome window and the shortcut will open all tabs again. Ideal if your machine rebooted without warning.

2. Browsing history

Browsing history keeps track of recently closed tabs. It’s not as fast as a shortcut, but useful if you’ve closed said tab a long time ago.

There are several ways to access history in Chrome. One of them is with the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + H. You can also click on the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the browser and select “History”. Third option: In the address bar, type “chrome://history”and press Enter.

You will then see all the sites and tabs you have visited, from newest to oldest. Click on the entry and it will reopen for you. There is also a Recently Closed option in the History menu which can be useful.

3. Search bar

Have you ever noticed the little arrow pointing down on the Chrome tab bar? On Windows, it’s next to the icons to minimize, maximize, or close the window. On a Mac, it’s in the top right corner. This icon allows you to search within tabs, it is accessible through the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + A. You will then see a list of all open tabs and another list, a list of recently closed tabs. You can re-open the one you want or use the search bar to find a specific one. Convenient if you have dozens of tabs open.

4. Taskbar

If you have a Chrome window open or if the application is pinned to the taskbar, right-click on the taskbar icon and you will see a list of links: Most visited and Recently closed. From here, you can restore the tab by clicking on it. An option that unfortunately doesn’t exist on the Mac.

Bonus: “Resume from where you left off”option

Chrome has a setting that simply uses, so to speak, the default behavior of the Ctrl + Shift + T hotkeys. By activating this option, every time you open Chrome, the browser will automatically open the tabs you had open during the previous session. To activate it, go to “Settings”(via the hamburger menu), then to the “On Startup”section. There, select “Resume from where you left off.”

What about other browsers like Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Opera?

In these browsers, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+T works. The same as most of the methods described above, although the menus and texts may differ slightly.

For a bonus option in Firefox, go to Settings > General and check the “Open previous windows and tabs”box under Startup. In Microsoft Edge, go to Settings > Startup, Home & New Tabs, and under When Edge starts, select Open tabs from the previous section. In Opera, choose Preferences > On Startup, then select the Keep tabs from previous session check box.