We think keyboard shortcuts are great. Anything to keep you from having to take your hands off your keyboard keeps you more productive. We’ve covered Outlook keyboard shortcuts, Word keyboard shortcuts, handy run commands, and foreign language characters, but one thing we haven’t really hit on (at least that we could find – we have a lot of blog content) is the usefulness of the Windows Key .
The Windows Key is the button on your keyboard that has a Windows logo on it (sort of looks like ⊞), and is usually near the Ctrl or Alt keys on your keyboard. While the exact look has changed over the years, it’s value has only gotten better. It’s a very handy key and there are a bunch of handy shortcuts for it:
- Windows Key: Pressing the Windows Key alone allows you to open and close the Start Menu where you can then start typing the name of the program or document you are looking for (or run some programs with various commands).
- Windows Key + Up – Maximize current window
- Windows Key + Down: Minimize current window
- Windows Key + Left – Move window to left side of screen
- Windows Key + Right: Move window to right side of screen
- Windows Key + Home: Minimize all but active window
- Windows Key + Shift + Left/Right: Move an open window/application from one monitor to another
- Windows Key + M: Minimize all windows
- Windows Key + Shift + M: This will restore all minimized windows
- Windows Key + L: Lock your computer (this also allows you to switch users)
- Windows Key + Tab: Open task view
- Windows Key + E: Opens File Explorer
- Windows Key + R: Open the Run menu
- Windows Key + D: Hide/display the desktop
- Windows Key + P: Choose a presentation display mode (handy for multiple-monitor setups)
- Windows Key + I: Opens up the Window Settings interface
- Windows Key + T: Cycle through the programs currently in your Taskbar
- Windows Key + Shift + S: Opens up Screen Sketch tool
- Windows Key + Number: Start pinned Taskbar program that corresponds to the number
- Shift + Windows Key + Number: Opens a new instance of the corresponding Taskbar program
- Windows Key + Period: Opens up the Emoji Picker.
These are only the most common, but there are a ton of other ones available at Microsoft’s Site.
Image via Wikipedia.
