Although awesome, keyboard shortcuts will only get you so far. If you truly want to harness the real power of your computer you need to take it to the command line. This week, learn to use it like a master.

We’ve talked about some quick little hacks for macOS screenshots before—and, yes, I always have to look up which keyboard shortcut lets you capture windows with and without the fancy borders and drop shadows. But resident Lifehacker finance queen-turned-screenshot-master Lisa Rowan recently tipped me off to a little screen hack in macOS that I hadn’t previously know about. I now share this with you.

When it’s time to install a new version of macOS or download a new update, nearly everyone turns to the Mac App Store to start the process. While the App Store makes OS installations easy and relatively painless, it doesn’t always work—and it might be time to turn to Terminal (and a little creativity) instead.

Mac: Recently we told you how to clear off your cluttered Mac desktop. But if you just want your Mac to stop saving your screenshots to your desktop, commenter Jägs has a solution. Just enter a couple of commands into your Mac's Terminal app, and your computer will create those images in a different folder.

The command line (or Terminal for you Mac fans) is a throwback to a simpler age of computing, before mouse pointers and application windows and desktop wallpaper. Back when it was just you and a window full of text. Operating systems have long since evolved beyond the humble command line interface, but there's still no better tool for quickly disseminating complex information in your operating system -- and you can actually do some other pretty cool stuff with them, too.

If you use the terminal a lot to code, then you know it's easy to get lost deep inside those blinking commands. Tiny-Care-Terminal is a small little dashboard that reminds you to stop and take care of yourself every once in a while.

Mac: In order to manually update any apps you download from the Mac App Store, you have to open the app, click the download tab, wait for it to update, then click the update all button. Mas is a little command line interface that lets you do all that from your favourite Terminal app.

While the Raspberry Pi's operating system is Linux, that doesn't necessarily mean you should go out and memorise every Linux command. The Pi is a different type of computer that's used for different kinds of projects, so the most useful commands differ from what you'd use on an everyday Linux machine. Over at Circuit Basics, they tallied up their 42 most used commands.

Whether you're a seasoned veteran or a command line noob, there's no way you remember every command, manual page, or tooltip. Lucky for you, we have some tools to make the command line less intimidating to newcomers that also help old timers remember what to do in a number of common circumstances.

Mac: If you tend to run the same Terminal command pretty often, then it makes sense to do one of two things: Create a text expander snippet or turn it into a keyboard shortcut. How-To Geek shows you how to do the latter using Apple's built-in Automator tool.

Typically, if you wanted to control your Raspberry Pi from outside your network, you'd need to go through and set up your router to allow access from the internet, install some software on your Pi, set up a DNS server, and cross your fingers you're doing that all securely. Dataplicity makes this a heck of a lot easier.

Mac: Playing around with settings in Terminal is a time honoured tradition amongst tinkerers, but that doesn't make any of those commands any less obtuse. M-cli is a tool that provides you with several plain language commands for common actions.

iOS: A terminal emulator on your iPhone might sound a little silly for most of us, but SSH can come in pretty handy sometimes. For a while, one the best apps for doing so was Panic's Prompt 2, but Blink Shell is an option that's worth a look too.

Mac: Debug menus are great little secrets that often hide useful extra settings. Apple's hidden these menus in its default software for a while, and it's often easy to unlock with a Terminal command.

Apple decided to kill off the startup chime from the new model of MacBook Pro, which aside from being a mainstay on Macs for years, has also always helped troubleshoot boot issues. Thankfully, you can get the sound back with a Terminal command.

Mac: Have you somehow managed to customise your Mac's Dock to an unusable state? Or perhaps you're just longing for instant access to all that Apple software? If so, Defaults-Write points out you can get your default Dock back easily.

If simply popping into the command line isn't enough to make you feel like a '90s hacker, GitHub user bartobri created a neat decryption text effect pulled from the movie Sneakers.

Windows: Windows 10 automatically downloads updates in the background, which can be rough on slow or capped internet. Fortunately, there's a way to pause downloads from the command line.

Time Machine is a great service for backing up your computer, and by default it doesn't use much CPU power to do it. That's great most of the time, but sometimes you need to get stuff backed up as soon as possible. Defaults-Write points out the Terminal command for doing so.