A Handful Of Keyboard Shortcuts
When it comes to working with a computer there are a couple types of people that I primarily divide into mouse people and keyboard people. I am a keyboard person. While some tasks require reaching for the mouse there are many others that keyboard shortcuts exist for. I find that I can type faster and navigate around some of the more common functions I use by hitting keyboard shortcuts than I can by using the mouse.
Some of my favorite keyboard shortcuts include (please note the format, the colon (:) at the end is not part of the shortcut):
- CTRL + C: Copy
- CTRL + X: Cut
- CTRL +V: Paste
- CTRL + A: Select All.
- Alt + Tab: Change / cycle through active window / application.
- Alt + PrntSc: Capture screen shot of active window.
- F2: Renames current file selected.
- F6: Toggle between active frame in explorer view.
There are also a handful of shortcuts that I find very useful that include using the Windows Logo key (often located between CTRL and ALT on most Windows keyboards). I will refer to this as WINLOGO below, the shortcuts are:
- WINLOGO + R: Open the Run… window.
- WINLOGO + Pause / Break: Display system properties.
- WINLOGO + M: Minimize all windows.
- WINLOGO + D: Show the desktop.
- WINLOGO+ E: Open Windows Explorer (I often hit E when intending to hit R for Run…, it is irritating).
- WINLOGO +F: Opens the Windows search / find dialog.
I would say that my most commonly used shortcut would have to be the WINLOGO + R for the Run… menu. I tend to open a lot of command prompts while troubleshooting and I find that WINLOGO + R type cmd and hit Enter and away I go. Anyway – I hope that someone else may find a use for some of these quick shortcut keys – are there any others that you frequently use?