Useful Keyboard Shortcuts In Windows

February 26, 2008

Okay, so I want to share with you some very useful keyboard shortcuts that various Microsoft Windows operating systems let you take advantage of, only you may not know it! Note before we start let me add the usual disclaimer, that this is list is not at all meant to be exhaustive, but rather a collection of the shortcuts that I personally take advantage of…that’s not to say there aren’t other useful shortcuts either…in fact, if you have some you think are useful, go ahead and comment here letting us know!

Okay, without further ado, here we go…

Window Switching - Though this may not be news to many of you, I know still others will be pleased to know you don’t need the mouse to switch between various open folders/windows at the bottom of your taskbar…that’s right, simply press ALT+TAB and your operating system will let you scroll through all your open windows.

Start Button - Tired of moving your mouse or pointer all the way to the lower left of the screen only to click the infamous “Start” button? Me too! Instead, try hitting CTRL+ESC. Isn’t that nice?

Browser Tabs - What did we do before tabbed browsing? I don’t know either! But you know, I still hate using my mouse to select the other tab I have open… So instead, try hitting CTRL+TAB while in your favorite browser.

Closing Open Windows - Sure, you can click the “X” like everyone else, but you’re better than that! Try ALT+F4 instead…too easy!

DOS Prompt - Need to get to DOS quick? Try going to the Start Menu / clicking Run and typing cmd.

Run Menu - Oh, speaking of the Run menu…instead of clicking “Run”, once in the Start Menu, just hit R.

Services - For you geeks who need to modify the services…sure, you can go through Control panel…but that’s no fun. How about typing services.msc from the Run menu?

Edit The Registry - Any geek worth his salt has spent time in the infamous Windows registry…so if you’re gonna get there you might as well get there quick! Try typing regedit from the run menu!

Start Your Favorite Programs Quickly - Do you use MS Word every day? How about Excel? No? I bet you use Firefox or Internet Explorer every day though, eh? Any of these can be started in an instant by typing the main executable filename of the program in question from the Run menu. For example, if you want to start Word, simply navigate to the Run menu (CTRL+ESC / R) and type winword. Excel is the same process but instead type (ready for this?) excel. Also, I bet you can guess the filenames for Outlook and Firefox too, can’t ya smart guy?? Oh, and Internet Explorer is iexplore.

So there you go, some of the Windows shortcuts I use every single day…have some more to add? Let’s hear ‘em!

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