Discover Invaluable Windows Shortcuts
You’ll need this
Windows 10 And a keyboard with a Windows key.
Using a mouse is so 2018. These days, anyone who’s anyone is using keyboard shortcuts to get things done. Not only are they so much quicker than using the mouse, but they let you impress your friends at cool bars and parties. Probably.
Anyway, most us know the standard Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V shortcuts, but Windows has a whole lot more up its sleeve when it comes to clever shortcuts. Make use of a couple of modifier keys and your keyboard suddenly becomes the launchpad of your desires (or of Windows Explorer, whichever you prefer).
For instance, the Windows key is best known for snapping you out of full-screen programs when you accidentally tap it, but did you know it has other, less annoying uses? It turns out it’s actually one of the most useful keys when it comes to shortcuts. Who knew?
That’s not your only option. The Ctrl, Shift, and Alt keys all unlock extra features in the apps you use most frequently. Make use of these shortcuts and you’ll be a Windows workflow wizard. Who needs to use a mouse anyway?
1 Quickly open pinned programs
Pinning programs to the Windows 10 taskbar is a good way to quickly access the apps you use most often. But rather than using the mouse to open them, there’s an even swifter way. Moving left to right, each program on the taskbar corresponds to a number. Press the Windows key and that number to open that program.
>> For example, if you have Microsoft Edge pinned on the first spot on the taskbar, you’d press Win-1 to open it. Win-5 opens the program pinned in the fifth spot [ Image A], and so on. If you press Win-1 and already have an instance of this application open, this shortcut switches to it; press Win-Shift-1 to open a new instance of the app.
>> Alternatively, you can press Win-T to cycle through the programs on the taskbar, then press Enter to open the selected app. Or press Win-Alt-(number) to access the context menu for that particular program.
>> Note that the Win-(number) tip only applies to programs—if you have the Windows 10 search icon or Task View button listed in the first spot, Win-1 doesn’t open them.
2 Window management tricks
Windows 10 puts plenty of handy window management tools at your disposal. For example, dragging a window to the left edge of the screen snaps it to that side, while dragging it to the top edge maximizes it. But did you know that you can do all this—and more much more quickly—with keyboard shortcuts?
>> For example, you can press the Windows key and either the left or right directional button to snap the current window to the corresponding edge of your screen. Once you’ve done that, Windows presents thumbnails of your other open programs [ Image B]— navigate through them using the arrow keys, and press
Enter to snap one to the other side of your screen.
>> The up and down arrow keys also come into play here. If your current program isn’t maximized, press
Win-Up to maximize it; press Win-Down to restore it to its previous size.
>> And if you have additional monitors, you can quickly move programs to them without using the mouse. If you have a secondary monitor to the left of your main screen, for example, press Win-Shift-Left to move the current program to the left-hand display.
3 Navigate through windows
Navigating through content is much easier and quicker when you can do it through keyboard shortcuts, and these three are particularly useful. First up, press Alt and either the left or right arrow key to navigate backward and forward through pages or screens. This one is especially helpful because it works across programs, including Windows Explorer, web browsers, and apps such as Spotify. Because almost every program seems to put its back and forward buttons in different places, this keyboard shortcut saves you searching for them.
>> You probably know that pressing Space in web browsers scrolls you a certain way down the page, much like the Page
Down key. If you accidentally press Space and want to get back to where you were, just hold Shift and press Space again. It’s useful for those times you accidentally zip down the page and lose your place.
>> Another shortcut that’s useful for undoing an action is
Ctrl-Shift-T. Use this in a web browser and it reopens the most recently closed tab.
4 Take control of your desktop
Now that Microsoft insists on confusingly storing Windows settings in both the Settings and Control Panel programs, you need a quick way to get to them as you embark on a wild goose chase trying to uncover where Microsoft hid the hibernation options. For the Settings program, press Win-I to bring it up [ Image C]. For the Control Panel, your quickest option is to press Win-R, type control, then press Enter.
>> One underrated and very underused feature of Windows 10 is its ability to create virtual desktops. These are useful if you want to keep different tasks separate from each other—one virtual desktop for work, and another for planning a holiday, for example. To quickly create a new virtual desktop, press Win-Ctrl-D. Hold
Win-Ctrl and press the left or right arrow keys to switch between desktops, and press Win-Ctrl-F4 to close the current desktop.
>> Alternatively, if you have one desktop spread across more than one monitor, you can access Windows 10’s display options by pressing Win-P [ Image D]. This enables you to choose whether to duplicate your main display on to the secondary monitor(s), extend your main desktop, or only show content on one screen.
5 Other useful shortcuts
There’s a multitude of other handy shortcuts in Windows 10, including pressing Win and = together, which opens the magnifier tool to help you zoom in on hard-to-read text. Elsewhere, pressing F2 when a file is highlighted enables you to rename it.
>> Most people know that pressing Print Screen copies an image of your current screen to the clipboard, but that requires you to then open an image-editing program, paste the image, and save it. Instead, press Win-Print
Screen and Windows automatically saves an i mage o f your screen to your “Pictures > Screenshots” folder. Alternatively, press Alt-Print Screen to copy an image of only the currently active window to the clipboard, or you can press Win-Shift-S to capture only a portion of the screen.
>> And we’ve saved the best for last. When Windows inevitably bugs out on you, press Win-F to automatically take a screenshot, open the Feedback Hub, and then attach the screenshot to it. You know even Microsoft recognizes the frequency of Windows bugs when it creates a specific shortcut for reporting them.