Comments on: MUO Polls: Top 5 Windows Shortcuts you Can’t Live Without

By: John Baima

John Baima — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:23:38 +0000

Tough one. I sacrificed Ctrl+Alt+Del for Alt+Tab. I only use Ctrl+Alt+Del once at bootup and keep it open always. Alt+Tab however survives when explorer.exe is killed, and is responsive when everything else isn’t. Love it.

Also, I love the AutoHotkey Script I made that makes Ctrl+Alt+F4 kill the process of the current active window (or restart explorer.exe if none are selected).

By: Joseph Z.

Joseph Z. — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:17:05 +0000

F2 for rename is one that I find useful every single day. I didn’t know about it until a few months ago, but it saves a lot of clicks.

And there’s always CTR-ARROW/SHIFT-CTRL-ARROW to move by word or section (which I use constantly). I wanted that function back in the days of Win 3.11.

By: thebeard03

thebeard03 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:17:52 +0000

[win]+s, s –> shutdown

By: Altzan

Altzan — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:05:22 +0000

I love Win-L, a fast way to lock my computer.
I use Ctrl + V,C,X a lot as well, along with Ctrl + Alt + Del, and Ctrl + A.
The rest were unfamiliar to me.

By: ctrl+enter

ctrl+enter — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:31:55 +0000

in the internet explorer address bar (i think firefox & opera too) use ctrl + enter to auto complete http://www…com

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:02:27 +0000

Windows Break. It gets the System Info box up so you can check out the hardware. I use it to quickly find if a computer will be Linux compatible.

^C, ^V, and ^X aren’t Windows-specific, though….neither is Alt+Tab.

And the “Windows” key is really the Super key. It’s the same as the Apple key, the Sun diamond key, and the Ubuntu key. They’re all just universally the Super key, for those times when hardware and software disagree.

By: RandyN

RandyN — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:37:43 +0000

Ctrl + Shift + Esc –> brings up task manager

By: James

James — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:36:11 +0000

alt+space -> ever loose the top part of window above the screen? alt+space opens a menu that alows you to navigate to the move option so even if the top of a window is above your screen you can move it back down.

way usefull

By: Rarst

Rarst — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:42:09 +0000

Ctrl+Shift+Esc

Second place to shortcut that historically means “in case of trouble”. Says something about OS, doesn’t it? (disclaimer – I am happy Windows user, just found it funny)

By: Jeff Jensen

Jeff Jensen — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:09:54 +0000

Use this great utility to extend the windows key. . Just don't ever tell your friend to come over because you want to show him your Winkey. I made that mistake. HAHAHA

By: coonj

coonj — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:59:54 +0000

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC
Goes right to Task Manager (skips that menu you get from ALT+CTRL+DELETE)

By: betty

betty — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:38:18 +0000

Ctrl+F to search the open window

By: Sasha Kovaliov

Sasha Kovaliov — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:59:14 +0000

I would like to vote for all
Really use them all

By: Pint

Pint — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:23:39 +0000

Yes. Except i didn t know the alt+ F/E. I just use alt which takes me to the menu and use the arrows to go left/right and then up and down once in th right menu.

By: idodialog

idodialog — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:36:33 +0000

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V would be high but i use the Forward-Back buttons on my mouse for that and would never use a three button mouse for that very reason. Utterly invaluable. But my top one is to call up the wonderful Launchy with Alt+Space (I think that’s the default, tho I can’t remember now). Opens anything, does lots. I use the Win button a lot when some full screen app wont let me get to the task bar.

By: Brian Kelley

Brian Kelley — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:35:02 +0000

Win + M (Minimize all windows)

By: Niko Belic

Niko Belic — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:00:38 +0000

Win + Pause/Break brings up system properties (Device manager, System restore, updates, performance settings etc. etc.), very useful

By: Aibek

Aibek — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:51:55 +0000

Yeah, Win + R is definitely a must use one, though in that case the person should be also familiar with Run commands.

By: Chetan Sachdev

Chetan Sachdev — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:34:52 +0000

I too prefer Ctrl+Shift+Esc for Task manager.

By: AttmayMB61489

AttmayMB61489 — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:28:49 +0000

Actually, I think it’s Ctrl+Shift+Esc… I was going to comment the same thing! Also, I find Win+Space to be very helpful. It brings up the Vista Sidebar.

By: Naugahyde

Naugahyde — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:26:07 +0000

The site says Ctrl+Alt+Delete for the Task Manager, but it’s actually Ctrl+Alt+Esc that brings you directly there.

By: FekketCantenel

FekketCantenel — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:15:08 +0000

Since my ergonomic keyboard has no WIN key, I have Locate32 mapped to CTRL+ALT+F, but I still voted for WIN+F, since it’s the same basic idea.

I absolutely can’t live without ALT+TAB, and I don’t know how people go without using it!

By: Simon

Simon — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:31:00 +0000

I personally never use the Alt-Tab shortcut, but it’s bound to be one of the most popular here. One shortcut I can’t live without is the WinKey+R shortcut, besides, of course, the ubiquitous Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C/V/X shortcuts

By: Bart

Bart — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:20:03 +0000

I am surprised to find out that so far I am the only one to vote on Alt + F/E shortcut.