Windows Keyboard Shortcuts

I just set up the wireless keyboard that I bought about a year ago and things are off to a great start. I haven’t had  any problems with it what-so-ever. No sudden signal drops, I love the clicky sound that it makes and I love having access to a full number pad, it makes number crunching much easier. However, since I keep the keyboard on my lap I find the few seconds that it takes me to move my had to my mouse (which is on my desk) is a bit of a hassle. I’ve been trying to find shortcuts for everything and here are a few of my favourites:

WIN+E
This shortcut allows you to pop open a new explorer window pointed at My Computer. I haven’t looked into if there was any way of changing the default directory, but even so being able to open a window like this is pretty nifty.

F2
If you select a file and press F2 you’ll instantly start renaming the file. It even highlights the filename and leaves the extension alone so that you don’t accidentally mess anything up.

ESC
The ultimate cancel. If you ever want to stop doing something, just tap the escape button. It works like instant cancel is most applications, and if you use it after F2, you’ll rename the file back to its original name and stop selecting it

Enter
I don’t think I need to explain this one. Enter acts like a universal accept button.

WIN
This key will pop open the start menu regardless of what application or game you’re in. A constant source of frustration for PC gamers who accidentally hit it during their gaming sessions.

WIN+R
This will pop open a little Run.. window which will let you enter different commands or utilities that you can launch. You can even specify a path to a directory and when you hit enter you’ll automatically launch windows explorer pointed at that directory.

WIN+D
Will toggle the “Show Desktop” button and take you to your desktop. Pressing it again will restore all the windows you had open

Alt+Tab
This is one that most people know. Alt+Tab lets you shift through all open windows.

Alt+Shift+Tab
This one you’re probably not all that familiar with. Instead of shifting forwards through tabs, using the Shift modifier you’ll now move backwards. Great for going back to a window after you passed it with Alt+Tab

Tab
Tab acts as either a “next” button or a larger version of the space button.

Alt
If you have a window open Alt will highlight the keyboard functions that you can perform. For example pressing alt will generally change your focus from whatever you’re working on to the menus in the window itself.

CTRL+Arrow keys
Skip a word in the direction you want

Shift+Arrow keys
Will highlight letters depending on which arrow key you hit

Shift+CTRL+Arrow keys
Will highlight whole words depending on which arrow key you hit

CTRL+A
Highlight the whole document

CTRL+C
Copy whatever you have highlighted and place it on your clipboard

CTRL+X
This will cut whatever you have highlighted from the document and place it on your clipboard

CTRL+V
This will paste whatever is on your clipboard.

There are probably a lot more commands out there for windows users, but to be honest, I haven’t had much time to find them all. If you think of something I missed, definitely post it in the comments and I’ll add it.