Windows 7 Shortcut Keys Cheat Sheet
Every time you lift your hand off the keyboard and reach for your mouse or touchpad, you're wasting precious seconds. That's why I use keyboard shortcuts for everything on my PC. Not only are key combos faster to hit, but they're also more accurate than even the best mouse when it comes to precise actions like highlighting text or selecting cells in a spreadsheet. When I talk to friends - even my most tech-savvy colleagues - I find that most use basic keyboard shortcuts such as CTRL+X to cut and CTRL+V to paste, but they don't know some of the most helpful hotkeys that their PCs have to offer. These are the 22 best PC keyboard shortcuts you're probably not using, but should be. You're reading a laptop review on the Internet and want to see if the article mentions '.' You're editing a quarterly report in Word and want to find the section where the author mentions 'revenue.' Hitting CTRL + F in just about any program that involves reading - all the major web browsers, word processors, spreadsheet apps and developer tools - lets you search for a specific text string.
If the program in question finds the text string it will move your cursor to that place in the document. Some applications, for example, will highlight all instances of the text string, not just the first one.
If the document has the string appearing more than once, you can jump from one instance to the next by hitting F3. Whether you're selecting rows in an Excel spreadsheet, blocks of text in Word or files in File Explorer, you may want to highlight a number of different items. If the times are all adjacent - rows 10 to 30 in worksheet for example - you can simply Shift + Click the first one, hold down the shift key and then click the last one. However, if you want to select two or more non-adjacent items at the same time, you need to hold down CTRL and CTRL + Click all the items.
If you click without CTRL being pressed down, you'll lose all the previous selections. With today's legion of jumpy, inaccurate clickpads, it often takes a few tries to select just the text you want. And using a finger on a touchscreen PC isn't much faster or easier. To highlight text with your keyboard, simply hold down the Shift key as you move the cursor with the arrow keys. If you also hold down CTRL, you can highlight whole words rather than individual characters with each arrow press. Remember that you can also change text to bold (CTRL + B) or italics (CTRL + I) in most programs without using a mouse. One of the best features of is is the ability to next to each other so you can split the screen evenly between two to four applications.
To perform this snap feature with the mouse, you need to drag a window all the way to the left or right side of the screen if you want it to take up half or into the corner if you want it to take up a quarter of the space. Don't bother. Hit Windows + Left Arrow to snap a window to the left side of the screen or Windows + Right Arrow to snap it to the right. If you want your application to take up a quarter of the screen, hit Windows + Up Arrow or Windows + Down Arrow after you snap it to the left or right and it will move into the corner. If you have more than one screen, you can hit the key combo more than once to move a window from one screen to another and you can snap a different window to each monitor edge, allowing you to have eight snapped windows on two displays (or twelve on a three-display setup).
If a window is not snapped, hitting Windows + Up Arrow maximizes it while Window + Down Arrow minimizes it. I used to work at a company where the head of IT would patrol the office, checking to see if any of us had walked away from our PCs without locking them. If he found an unlocked PC, he would open up Outlook on it and email an embarrassing message to the whole company from the offender's account. When you walk away from your computer at work or even at home, there's no reason not to lock it. All you need to do is hit Windows Key + L, no clicking required. If you set up or, you can unlock your PC without having to enter a password.
There are so many reasons why you would need to rename a file. Perhaps it's a photo with a non-descript filename like SAM0591.jpg. Whatever your reason, the fastest and easiest way to rename a file is to select it in Windows Explorer and fit the F2 key. You can even use rename multiple files at the same time.
Just highlight all the files you want to rename (Shift + click lets you highlight many files at once), hit F2, type the new name and press Enter. All the files will have the same new name plus a number in parens (ex: mydog (1).jpg).
Welcome to the Windows 8 keyboard shortcut cheat sheet! Here, you will learn all the keyboard shortcuts available in Windows 8! Some of them you’ll recognize from Windows 7, but many of them are fresh and new.
Perhaps these keyboard shortcuts will help mitigate the shortcomings of working with a system that is more designed for touchscreen environments. Keyboard Shortcut Description Win Open the charms Win+B Gets you out of the Modern interface and into the desktop, then selects the tray notification area. If you're already on the desktop, this just selects the tray notification area. Win+C Opens the 'Charms' menu. This menu allows you to quickly access Windows settings and features such as search, shutdown, and restart. Win+D Brings you to the desktop.
Pressing the key combination again will bring you back to the original active window. Win+E Opens Windows Explorer. This quickly lets you browse the contents of your device. Win+F Opens Search charm. It's a quick way to search through all your apps. Alternatively, you can just type away in the Start screen. The app search console appears immediately as you start typing in the Start screen.
Win+H Opens Share charm. Allows you to share a selected item to your friends and other people you know. Win+I Opens Settings charm. Here, you may configure PC settings such as resolution, app notifications, and user accounts. Win+J Switch the main app and snapped app Win+K Opens Devices charm.
Allows you to see a list of devices connected to your computer. Win+L Locks the screen. You may have to log back in to the computer to unlock it.
Keep this in mind when using this shortcut. Win+M / Win+Shift+M Minimizes every window. It works like Win+D, but it isn't reversible when you press the combination again. You must press 'Shift' along with it in order to restore the windows. Win+O Lock the screen orientation (portrait or landscape) Win+P Choose the display mode.
You may duplicate the image on two displays, extend the display onto a second monitor, move the image to a projector, or keep the image on one single monitor. Win+Q Search through apps installed on your computer. Win+R Opens the ever-friendly 'Run' dialog box for running things such as the command prompt. (An easier alternative would just be to type your search term in the Start screen) Win+T Cycle through pinned programs on the taskbar. If you reach a pinned application that's not currently opened, you can open it with 'Enter.' Win+U Opens the Ease of Access Center.
This lets you access tools such as the magnifier, which zooms in on portions of the screen. Win+V / Win+Shift+V Cycle through 'toast' notifications. It shows you different notifications your apps generate. 'Win+Shift+V' does this in reverse order. Win+W Search through your settings. Win+X On the Windows 8 desktop, this displays a context menu that leads you to various locations. It comes up on the lower left corner of the screen, where the Windows 7 Start button used to be.
Win+Z Brings up the app bar in the Modern interface. Win+Period (.) Snaps an app to the right of the screen. Pressing 'Shift' along with this combination snaps the app to the left. Playstation 2 roms downloads.
Win+Print Screen Takes a screenshot and saves it to your Pictures folder. Pressing 'Print Screen' on its own will just save the image to your clipboard, and you'll have to paste it into a photo editor. This is much more convenient. Shift+Delete Bypass the Recycle Bin and just delete the selected file permanently. Win+0-9 Launch a particular application pinned to the taskbar or bring it into view. Win+Shift+0-9 Launch a new instance of an application pinned to the taskbar. This launches a new clone even if the application is already open.
Win+Spacebar Display the current language and keyboard layout. In Windows 7, this combination would show you a peek into the desktop. Win+Ctrl+Spacebar Change to a previously selected input Win+Plus (+) / Win+Minus (-) Opens the magnifier and zooms the view in or out, depending on the character used. Obviously, the plus sign zooms in and the minus sign zooms out. Win+Esc Gets out of the magnifier application.
Win+Tab / Win+Shift+Tab Cycles through Metro/Modern apps. The 'Shift' key indicates, as usual, reverse order. In Windows 7, this triggered a feature called 'Aero Flip,' which flipped through open windows in a three-dimensional plane. Win+Ctrl+Tab Cycle through open apps (except desktop apps) and snap them as they are cycled Win+Comma (,) Get a peek into the desktop. In Windows 7, the combination used to be 'Win+Spacebar.' Win+PageUp Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the left (Apps in the desktop won't change monitors) Win+PageDown Move the Start screen and apps to the monitor on the right (apps in the desktop won't change monitors) Win+Down Arrow / Win+Up Arrow Minimizes or maximizes the current window. Minimize with the down arrow and maximize with the up arrow.
Windows 10 Commands Cheat Sheet
Windows 7 Shortcut
Win+Left Arrow / Win+Right Arrow Maximizes the current desktop application on the side of the screen indicated by the direction of the arrow you pressed. 'Win+Left Arrow' will maximize the current window on the left side. This works much like app snapping in the Modern interface. Win+Shift+Up Arrow Stretch the desktop window to the top and bottom of the screen Win+Shift+Down Arrow Restore/minimize active desktop windows vertically, maintaining width Win+Home Minimize all but the active desktop window (restores all windows on second stroke) Win+Enter Brings up the narrator.
It will read the text you have in front of you. Win+Start typing Search your PC Ctrl+plus (+) or Ctrl+minus (-) or Ctrl+scroll wheel Zoom in or out of a large number of items, like apps pinned to the Start screen Download Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet Can’t get enough of this?
We have prepared a downloadable cheat sheet for you so you can access to it when you need it.