Windows keyboard shortcuts


Why should you use keyboard shortcuts when you have a perfectly functional mouse? :D. It is a great time saver because of keyboard shortcuts provide a simple way to speed up your workflow. Would you rather get to certain areas of windows with one keyboard action or several clicks of mouse?

I mentioned bellow a number of keyboard shortcuts which are most recently used.

Windows system key combinations
• F1: Help
• CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
• ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
• ALT+F4: Quit program
• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently
• Windows Logo+L: Lock the computer (without using CTRL+ALT+DELETE)

Windows program key combinations
• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+V: Paste
• CTRL+Z: Undo
• CTRL+Y: Redo
• CTRL+B: Bold
• CTRL+U: Underline
• CTRL+I: Italic

General keyboard-only commands
• F1: Universal help in almost all windows programs.
• F10: Activates menu bar options.
• SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object

• CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
• CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)

• CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager
• ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
• ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)

• SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature

• ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window’s System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)

• ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window’s System menu (from the MDI child window’s System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)

• CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program

• ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
• ALT+F4: Closes the current window
• CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
• ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)

Shell objects and general folder/Windows Explorer shortcuts
For a selected object:
• F2: Rename object
• F3: Open a search window
• CTRL+X: Cut
• CTRL+C: Copy
• CTRL+V: Paste
• SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin (Delete selection permanently)

• ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object
To copy a file

Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.

To create a shortcut

Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.

Leave a comment