Sunday, April 10, 2011

My Most Used Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

Making use of the dm1z trackpad (or any laptop trackpad/pointer nub) is just too slow and too much of a pain for common tasks. You need to know and use Windows keyboard shortcuts. The shortcuts I'm talking about are more than just the ubiquitous Ctrl+C, Home, Page Up and so on; I need to open apps, close apps, close tabs, bring up search, etc. To that end I am trying to increase my every day use of Windows keyboard shortcuts. Here's the ones I'm using the most and they are roughly in the order of what I think are the most important to leverage to boost your overall Windows efficiency:




 + 1…0:

Launches/focus program pinned to the Taskbar indicated by the number.

Alt + Tab:

Cycle forward though open windows old-school way and not via Windows Flip 3D

 + D:

Show/Hide desktop

Alt + D:

Selects the address bar (useful when in a browser like Chrome)

Alt + F4:

Close current window. If in desktop context open the Shut Down Windows dialog.

Ctrl + Tab:

Move forward through tabs (as in Google Chrome/IE tabs)

Ctrl + Shift + Tab:

Move backward through tabs (as in Google Chrome/IE tabs)

F3:

Open search (i.e. in page search when in Chrome)

F5:

Refresh the page

Ctrl + F4:

Close tab (doesn't close entire app, just the IE tab that is in focus)

Ctrl + T:

Open new tab (open new tab in Chrome/IE)

Ctrl + Shift + Esc:

Open the Windows Task Manager

+ Up Arrow:

Maximize current window

 + Down Arrow:

Minimize/restore current window

 + Left Arrow:

Tile window to left side of screen

 + Right Arrow:

Tile window to right side of screen

:

Open Start Menu

 + Shift + 1…0:

Launches new instance of program pinned to the Taskbar indicated by the number.

 + Ctrl + 1…0:

Access the last active instance of a program pinned on the Taskbar in the position indicated by the number.

 + T:

Cycles through the items on the Taskbar

 + Tab:

Use Windows Flip 3D to cycle forward through open programs

 + Shift + Tab:

Use Windows Flip 3D to cycle backward through open programs

Alt + Shift + Tab:

Cycle backward though open windows old-school way and not via Windows Flip 3D

Alt + Esc:

Cycles between open programs in the order they were opened

 + M:

Minimize all Windows

 + Shift + M:

Restore all minimized windows

 + L:

Lock the computer

 + Spacebar:

Preview desktop

Ctrl + Shift + N:

Create a new folder

Tab:

Cycle forward through elements in a window or dialog box

 + X:

Open Windows Mobility Center

 + '+':

Activate Windows Magnifier to zoom in/out of screen

 + Esc:

Exit Windows Magnifier

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