Starting with Windows 95, the Windows key could perform basic desktop tasks like opening the start menu, minimizing all open windows, cycling through taskbar buttons, and so on. Windows 2000 brought the much welcome keyboard shortcut for locking your desktop. Windows XP brought new Windows Key shortcuts, such as selecting the first item in the notification area and opening “Search for Computers.” The story continued with Windows Vista, Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Windows 10 offers many useful shortcuts added to Windows over the last several decades as well as some new ones.
There are numerous keyboard shortcuts involving the Windows key. Here are some of the important important ones you should know about:
Ctrl + A — Select all items in a document or window
Ctrl + C — Copies selected text or item
Ctrl + X — Cuts selected text or item
Ctrl + V — Pastes text or item on clipboard to your cursor location or designated file location
Ctrl + D — Delete selected text or item
Ctrl + Z — Undo something
Ctrl + Y — Redo something
Ctrl + B — Turn on or turn off bold
Ctrl + I — Turn on or turn off italics
Ctrl + U — Turn on or turn off underline
Shift with any arrow key — Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document
Ctrl + Shift with any arrow key — Selects blocks of text by paragraph. Keep holding down first two buttons and each time you hit the arrow key successively more paragraphs are highlighted.
Ctrl + Shift with End key — Selects all text from the cursor to the end of the document.
Ctrl + Shift with Home key — Selects all text from the cursor to the beginning of the document.
Ctrl + Right arrow — Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word.
Ctrl + Left arrow — Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word.
Ctrl + Down arrow — Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph.
Ctrl + Up arrow — Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph.
Ctrl + S — Save a document.
Ctrl + P — Print a document.
Shortcuts for navigating the desktop, apps and settings
Ctrl + Shift + Esc — Opens the task manager.
Ctrl+plus (+) or Ctrl+minus (-) — Zoom in or out of a large number of items, like apps pinned to the Start screen
Alt + Tab — Switch between open apps (except desktop apps in Windows 8)
Windows logo key +Tab — Cycle through open apps (except desktop apps in Windows 8)
Shift + Delete — Delete the selected item without moving it to the Recycle Bin first
Windows logo key + L — Lock your PC or switch users
Windows logo key + M — Minimize all windows
Windows logo key + Shift + M — Restore minimized windows on the desktop
Ctrl + Alt with any arrow key — Rotate entire screen in direction of arrow key. Helpful for viewing photos or videos that aren't right-side up.
Windows 10 shortcuts
Windows logo key + A — Access the Action Center menu where you can view your notifications and access commonly used settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Windows logo key + I — Access Windows Settings
Windows logo key + C — Open Cortana in listening mode
Windows logo key + S — Search for any file or an app installed on your computer
0 Comments