Favorite Windows keyboard shortcuts [closed] - windows
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I'm a keyboard junkie. I love having a key sequence to do everything. What are your favorite keyboard shortcuts?
I'll start by naming a couple of mine:
1 - Alt-Space to access the windows menu for the current window
2 - F2 to rename a file in Windows Explorer
Win + Pause/Break to bring up computer information and to access environment variables under the Advanced tab.
Win + R to go straight to the run box (though I barely use this anymore since I started with Launchy).
Of course Alt + Tab but also Alt + Shift + Tab for going backwards.
Oh, and personally, I hate Ctrl + F4 for closing tabs - too much of a pinky stretch.
Oh and try Win + Tab on Windows 7 (with Aero on).
Win + 1 .. 9 -- Start quick launch shortcut at that index (Windows Vista).
Ctrl + Scroll Lock, Scroll Lock -- Crash your computer: Windows feature lets you generate a memory dump file by using the keyboard
#gabr -- Win + D is show desktop, Win + M minimizes all windows. Hitting Win + D twice brings everything back as it has only shown the desktop window in front of the other windows.
Alt-F4 to close a program.
WindowsKey + L to lock my workstation
Ctr-Shift-Ins to copy text from a textbox
Alt-Print Screen to capture a shot of just a window
WindowsKey + R to open the "Run" dialog (XP Pro only- does something else on XP Home)
Win-D to minimize all applications
Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open Task Manager
Win-L to lock the computer..
To maximize a window: Alt+Space, X
To restore a window: Alt+Space, R
To minimize a window: Alt+Space, N
To close a window: Alt+Space, C
I try to stick to my keyboard as well. I frequently use...
Win+L to Lock my system
Alt+F4 to close a program
Win+R to launch from the Run Window (Used for frequent programs instead of going through QuickLaunch)
F2 to rename a file
Win+D to go to Desktop
Alt+Tab and Alt+Tab+Shift to cycle through open programs
Visual Studio
Alt, D (debug), P (process), W (webdev process)
Alt, T (Tools), P (process), W (webdev process) for VS 2008
Alt, M, O to collapse to definitions
F5 to launch
F9, F10, and F11 for stepping through debugger
Alt+K, D to format a document
Alt+K, C to comment
Alt+K, U to uncomment
Browser
Alt+W to close tab
F6 to focus on the address bar
How is this not here?
+Pause to System Information. Then the system PATH variable is only 2 clicks away (Advanced system settings,Environment Variables...)
F4 in windows explorer to access the location bar trivially.
Menu key (next to the right-hand windows key) + W + F to create a new folder in explorer.
Win + E to open an Windows Explorer reference
Win + R from the Run box
Ctrl + Esc to open the start menu
And, of course, Alt + F4 to close things.
A few basic keyboard shortcuts for clipboard operations, text selection, and navigation that work in most Windows programs:
Clipboard
Ctrl+X - Clipboard Cut
Ctrl+C - Clipboard Copy
Ctrl+V - Clipboard Paste
Selecting Text
Ctrl+A - Select All (in the current field or document)
Shift+[navigate with ▲/▼, Home/End, or Pg Up/Pg Dn] - Select text between the caret's previous and new positions. Continue to hold Shift and navigate to select more text.
Navigation
Ctrl+left arrow / Ctrl+right arrow - Move the caret to the previous/next word
Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End - Go to beginning/end of the current field or document
Bonus Tip!
Before submitting a web form where you've entered a lot of text into a text field (for example, an email in a web-based mail client -- or a new question or answer on Stack Overflow!), do a quick Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C on the field. That way, if something goes wrong with the submit (even if the browser crashes), you haven't lost your work -- you have a copy of it sitting on the clipboard.
Ctrl+Shift+Esc to go straight to the task manager without any intermediate dialogs.
In calc, F5, F6, F7, F8 cycle between Hex, Dec, Oct, Bin mode.
I use the free AutoHotKey, then I define my own shortcuts:
dobule tap F4 quickly => Close active Windows (like Alt+F4 but with one finger only)
double tap Right Alt quickly => Find and Run Robot task manager
F12 => open Find and Run Robot Locate32 plugin (I use it like a very lightweight desktop search)
Ctrl+Up / Down in a command window => scroll back / forward command line like the mouse wheel
Ctrl+w in a command windows => close window
etc.
For when you have a window stuck under an appbar and can't get at that window's system menu to move it:
alt-spacebar -> M -> arrow keys -> return
On Windows Vista, if you bring up the Start menu and search for a program, pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter will run the selected program as Administrator. So to open an Administrator command prompt:
Windows key, type "cmd", Ctrl+Shift+Enter
My personal favourite is WinKey, U, Enter - shuts Windows down! ;-)
win+M to minimise all. Useful for quick trips to the desktop.
+[type name of program] to launch a program in Vista
+E for explorer
+F for find
Alt+Tab to swap between programs
Ctrl+Tab to swawp between tabs
Not really a 'Windows' shortcut, but the Ctrl+Alt+numpad and Ctrl+Alt+[arrows] to move and resize windows and move them to another monitor using WinSplit Revolution are absolutely great. I would never use large or multiple monitors without them.
Ctrl + Shift + ESC : Run Task Manager
Ctrl/Shift + Insert : Copy/Paste
Shift + Delete : Cut (text)
Win + L : Lock System
Win + R : Run
Ctrl + Pause Break : Break Loop (Programming)
Ctrl + Tab : Tab Change
Win+Pause/Break for System Properties
Win+E: open windows explorer
Win+F: find
Win+R: run
Win+M: minimize all windows
Win+Shift+M: restore all windows
Alt+F4: close program
Alt+Tab: switch between tasks
Ctrl+Alt+Del: task manager
Repeat Ctrl + Alt + Del Twice!
Many say that Win-D minimises all applications. Not true. It simply shows the desktop. Use Win-M to minimise all open windows. Use Win-Shift-M to restore them to their previous state.
By the way, did you notice that the Sift key can be combined with most of the usual shortcuts? e.g. Alt+Tab : cycle through applications 1->2->3->4->...1 Add Shift to the shortcut and you will be cycling in the opposite direction 1<-2<-3<-4<- ...1
Control+Tab to switch between Tabs in most Windows applications (sadly not in Eclipse) - you can already guess what Ctr+Shift+Tab will do. Especially handy in Firefox, IE, etc... where you have more than one Tab open and try going to the previous one. Very handy.
And one more tip, this is soooo handy, I love it. Only found out about it a couple of weeks ago:
FireFox users: tired of rightclick->Open Link in New Tab?
Click a link with MIDDLE mouse button and it will open in a new tab (depends on your Tabs settings in Tools->Options but by default would work). The magical thing about this is that it works even for the browser's Back button! Also when you type a search term into the Google box (usually in top right corner) and middle-click the search button, the search results are opened in a new tab. Closing tabs is also much easier with the middle mouse button (of course you can do Ctrl+W but sometimes the mouse is simply in your hand). You don't have to click the tab's red button to close it. Simply middle-click anywhere on the tab and it will be closed.
EDIT
I just tried the middle button in IE 7 and seems to work just like it does in FF, except for the Back-button and Search widget.
Ctrl + Shift + Esc -> Open Task Manager
Ctrl + W -> closes windows in MDIs where Ctrl+F4 doesn't work
Those and the Win + Number is Vista are used constantly.
Also a nice trick is Win + Tab -> cycles through program groups on task bar in Windows Xp and Server 2003. (i.e. same as Vista without the previews).
It's not a keyboard shortcut, but my favourite trick is to bind the large thumb button on the rat to move window, the smaller thumb button to resize. That way, windows can be moved and resized very easily and naturally. You can probably to that in windows too.
As for keyboard tricks, I use right ctrl+keypad to pick (one of nine) virtual screens. Very quick and natural.
In any dialog with tabs, Ctrl-Page Up/Down to cycle between the tabs.
Not really an answer, but a hint for a good source to look from - if no one cited it above wikipedia has all ( for the most important OS's) - not the best
I don't have favorites among keyboard shortcuts -- they are all utility entities to me...
Except for +L, which means another coffee break!
Windows
Windows right click key, next to the right alt can be very useful.
For the noobs,
tab and shift-tab to cycle through inputs
alt-tab and alt-shift-tab to cycle through the windows
ctrl-tab and alt-shift-tab to cycle through the tabs
ctrl-printscreen to snapshot the entire screen
and alt-printscreen to snapshot the current window
for some dialog windows ctrl-c will copy the message
Console
alt-space then e,p to paste in windows console
alt-space then e,k to mark in console
tab and shifttab to cycle autocomplete in console
Visual Studio
ctrl-shift-f Search in files
ctrl-f Search page
F12 Goto definition of the current word
F2 Rename selected text
F4 Open properties tab for selected
Highlight section and tab or shifttab Indent a block of text
ctrl-k,d Format Document
ctrl-k,c Comment out highlighted text
ctrl-k,u,c Un-comment highlighted text
ctrl-m,o Collapse to definitions
ctrl-m,m Toggle open and close the current method/function
ctrl-alt,l Open solution pane
ctrl-alt,o Open output pane
and of course ctrl-space for intellisense
My favourites are the following (which I have not been able to spot in the responses above):
F12 Save as in Office applications
Ctrl + Home Scroll to the top of the page in most applications or go to cell A1 in Excel
Ctrl + Delete Go back to the cursor in a Word document or back to the active cell in Excel
Ctrl + Shift + End Select a whole table in Excel from its top-left corner. If the table starts at A1, use in conjunction with the above for super speedy one-handed table selecting
It's already been said, but I'm repeating F6 to go directly to the browser address bar because it rocks!
Related
Visual Studio: Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump between code editor window and find results?
I can't seem to find the exact keyboard shortcut I'm looking for. When I do a "Find in Files" (Ctrl + Shift + F), the keyboard navigation automatically jumps to the Find results, and I can navigate the results with the arrow keys; the code editor window updates itself as I do so, and pressing Enter pops me from the Find Results Window to the code editor Window. Now, this is great for the initial search, but what if I want to bounce back and forth, say, if I need to make changes around a few different places in my find results? Is there a keyboard shortcut to jump back from the code editor window to the find results? I'm using MSVS 2013, if it matters.
If you have the General Development keyboard scheme, try: Alt + F6. This is bound to the Window.NextPane which is where you just came from, so it should take you back. Also, Alt + F7 is Window.NextToolWindowNav which pops up a nav selection which makes it easy to move around. This nav selection is the same one for Ctrl + Tab which, once open, can be navigated up, down, left and right via arrow keys.
Visual Studio 2013 resize window shortcut hotkey
Is there any way to make a hotkey to resize the width of the current editor window in VS2013? I do pretty much everything entirely through hotkeys EXCEPT resizing my windows. Most often I have 2 or 3 editors open in the same window vertically so each one is relatively narrow. Switching between the windows is easy with Ctrl + Tab but I really wish I could press a hotkey with left/right arrows to increase/decrease width of the current editor. EDIT: Or at least go full screen into the current window temporarily. This is not the same as going full screen normally with Shift + Alt + Enter since that full screens all 3 windows still seperated. Any way to do this?
Perhaps not quite what you want but VS has a shortcut for "Window.Float". Options > Keyboard > Window.Float Assign a shortcut for it (I've assigned Ctrl + W, Down Arrow) When you float the window, you can snap it using the Windows shortcut of WinKey + Arrows. WinKey + Left snaps the window to the next left-available position. WinKey + Right snaps the window to the next right-available position. WinKey + Up maximises. WinKey + Down minimises.
Another option is to keep the tool windows "Solution exp, Team exp, .." as hidden, and then using their shortcuts to show them again. When you are done press "Alt + _" for the alt-space menu. For example, using the default settings, I have solution explorer hidden. My use flow is: Ctrl+p ctrl+p [Show the solution explorer window] Use the keyboard to navigate or skip #1 and press "Ctrl+;" to search When I'm done, press "esc" to hide it or for windows where I want it to stay open: "Alt+_" then press "k" for dock
Visual Studio 2010 Keyboard Shortcut Chords
I started out with VB6 default shortcuts where Ctrl + R brings up the Solution Explorer window. Now when I hit Ctrl + R I see a status message saying that VS is waiting for me to hit the next sequence in the chord, suggesting to me that I have shortcuts that begin with Ctrl + R but require another keystroke. This suggests to me that having one or more shortcut sequences that begin with Ctrl + Rinvalidates the Ctrl + R shortcut, which I can understand, but the question is, how do I find what those command are so I can assign a different sequence to them? Also, shouldn't VS warn me when assigning the first chord shorcut that begins with Ctrl + R that this will invalidate my Ctrl + R shortcut or, it should clear it out so Ctrl + R is no longer a shortcut for the Solution Explorer window. Anyway, I guess the question is how do I locate the commands that begin with Ctrl + R so I can change them so they dont collide with my Solution Explorer shortcut Ctrl + R?
In VS 2010, Tools | Options | Environment | Keyboard gets you to the right place. Now, put the cursor in Press shortcut keys, and press the keys you are interested in (so Ctrl + R). The Shortcut currently used by dropdown will then show you all the shortcuts that currently involve the keys you have pressed. I agree it would be a 'nice to have' for VS to warn about overlapping shortcuts, but note that different shortcuts can have different scopes of effect (in the Use new shortcut in dropdown), so this might not be as easy as it sounds.
The keybindings poster from MSDN might be helpful. It looks Ctrl + R behaves differently depending on if you are debugging or not.
Have a look at IntelliCommand Plugin. This helped me out a lot in learning and remembering the chrod combinations. Also Learn the shortcut Plugin is pretty cool too.
"Right Click" keyboard short cut for Visual Studio?
I'm trying to force myself to use as little mouse as possible and I can't find the answer to this simple short-cut anywhere! Here the the steps: Open up Visual Studio. Open any C# file (or any code file I believe) Point your mouse anywhere on the window/file. Right Click Is there a shortcut key for this so I don't have to move my hand to the mouse?
Taken from lytebyte, you've got two options: Shift + F10 That nutty key on the bottom-right of a modern Windows keyboard, the Menu key
Depends on where/why you're right-clicking. The context-menu key is on the right of the keyboard nowadays, usually between the Windows key and the Control key on the right of your spacebar. That will open the context menu wherever the current focus is (usually in the text editor). If you're using the right mouse button just to open the refactoring tools, you can use Ctrl + . (control period) to pop open the "smart tag" on any identifier. That'll get you the "generate method stub" menu item and the like.
To open a new file without keyboard you can use CTRL + SHIFT + N (Using Resharper) To show up the right click menu for any part of your code. Point to the part that you want and use SHIFT + F10 Normally, I like using CTRL + SHIFT + G (Resharper again) for getting the Navigation menu (Usage, Base, Implementation, etc) Even better if you want to go to any Method/class/intenal/or a field, use CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + N (Again using Resharper), this will bring you a list of all that match your criteria to choose from.
Does your keyboard have the extra 'Windows' keys, ie. the Windows logo (Start key) and the one on the right-hand side of the spacebar that looks like a menu? Cause that button on the right-hand side is the 'Context menu key'. See the key between the right-hand side 'Windows' key and the Ctrl key? Windows Keyboard layout If your keyboard is less than 10 years old you should have these keys, unless you have an IBM laptop or a Mac.!
Assuming you just want a key you can press to right click, most\many keyboards have a key between alt and ctrl that right clicks.
Keyboard shortcut to paste clipboard content into command prompt window (Win XP) [closed]
Closed. This question does not meet Stack Overflow guidelines. It is not currently accepting answers. This question does not appear to be about a specific programming problem, a software algorithm, or software tools primarily used by programmers. If you believe the question would be on-topic on another Stack Exchange site, you can leave a comment to explain where the question may be able to be answered. Closed 5 years ago. Improve this question Is there a keyboard shortcut for pasting the content of the clipboard into a command prompt window on Windows XP (instead of using the right mouse button)? The typical Shift+Insert does not seem to work here.
Yes.. but awkward. Link alt + Space, e, k <-- for copy and alt + Space, e, p <-- for paste.
I personally use a little AutoHotkey script to remap certain keyboard functions, for the console window (CMD) I use:
; Redefine only when the active window is a console window
#IfWinActive ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass
; Close Command Window with Ctrl+w
$^w::
WinGetTitle sTitle
If (InStr(sTitle, "-")=0) {
Send EXIT{Enter}
} else {
Send ^w
}
return
; Ctrl+up / Down to scroll command window back and forward
^Up::
Send {WheelUp}
return
^Down::
Send {WheelDown}
return
; Paste in command window
^V::
; Spanish menu (Editar->Pegar, I suppose English version is the same, Edit->Paste)
Send !{Space}ep
return
#IfWinActive
Not really programming related, but I found this on Google, there is not a direct keyboard shortcut, but makes it a little quicker. To enable or disable QuickEdit mode: Open the MS-DOS program, or the command prompt. Right-click the title bar and press Properties. Select the Options tab. Check or un-check the QuickEdit Mode box. Press OK. In the Apply Properties To Shortcut dialog, select the Apply properties to current window only if you wish to change the QuickEdit setting for this session of this window only, or select Modify shortcut that started this window to change the QuickEdit setting for all future invocations of the command prompt, or MS-DOS program. To Copy text when QuickEdit is enabled: Click and drag the mouse pointer over the text you want. Press Enter (or right-click anywhere in the window) to copy the text to the clipboard. To Paste text when QuickEdit is enabled: Right-click anywhere in the window. To Copy text when QuickEdit is disabled: Right-click the title bar, press Edit on the menu, and press Mark. Drag the mouse over the text you want to copy. Press Enter (or right-click anywhere in the window) to copy the text to the clipboard. To Paste text when QuickEdit is disabled: Right-click the title bar, press Edit on the menu, and press Paste.
Thanks Pablo, just what I was looking for! However, if I can take the liberty of improving your script slightly, I suggest replacing your ^V macro with the following:
; Use backslash instead of backtick (yes, I am a C++ programmer).
#EscapeChar \
; Paste in command window.
^V::
StringReplace clipboard2, clipboard, \r\n, \n, All
SendInput {Raw}%clipboard2%
return
The advantage of using SendInput is that
it doesn't rely on the command prompt system menu having an "Alt+Space E P" menu item to do the pasting (works for English and Spanish, but not for all languages).
it avoids that nasty flicker you get as the menu is created and destroyed.
Note, it's important to include the "{Raw}" in the SendInput command, in case the clipboard happens to contain "!", "+", "^" or "#".
Note, it uses StringReplace to remove excess Windows carriage return characters. Thanks hugov for that suggestion!
There is also a great open source tool called clink, which extends cmd by many features. One of them is being able to use ctrl+v to insert text.
On Windows 10, you can enable Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to work in the command prompt:
Here's a free tool that will do it on Windows. I prefer it to a script as it's easy to set up. It runs as a fast native app, works on XP and up, has configuration settings that allow to remap copy/paste/selection keys for command windows: Plus I know the developers.
simplest method is just the copy the text that you want to paste it in cmd and open cmd goto "properties"---> "option" tab----> check the (give tick mark) "quickEdit mode" and click "ok" .....now you can paste any text from clipboard by doing right click from ur mouse. Thank you..
Thanks, Pablo, for referring to AutoHotkey utility.
Since I have Launchy installed which uses Alt+Space I had to modify it a but to add Shift key as shown:
; Paste in command window
^V::
; Spanish menu (Editar->Pegar, I suppose English version is the same, Edit->Paste)
Send !+{Space}ep
return
This is not really a shortcut but just a quick access to the control menu: Alt-space E P If you can use your mouse, right click on the cmd window works as paste when I tried it.
Theoretically, the application in DOS Prompt has its own clipboard and shortcuts. To import text from Windows clipboard is "extra". However you can use Alt-Space to open system menu of Prompt window, then press E, P to select Edit, Paste menu. However, MS could provide shortcut using Win-key. There is no chance to be used in DOS application.
It took me a small while to figure out why your AutoHotkey script does not work with me:
; Use backslash instead of backtick (yes, I am a C++ programmer).
#EscapeChar \
; Paste in command window.
^V::
StringReplace clipboard2, clipboard, \r\n, \n, All
SendInput {Raw}%clipboard2%
return
In fact, it relies on keystrokes and consequently on keyboard layout!
So when you are, as I am, unfortunate to have only an AZERTY keyboard, your suggestion just does not work. And worse, I found no easy way to replace SendInput method or twist its environment to fix this. For example SendInput "1" just does not send digit 1.
I had to turn every character into its unicode to make it work on my computer:
#EscapeChar \
; Paste in command window.
^V::
StringReplace clipboard2, clipboard, \r\n, \n, All
clipboard3 := ""
Loop {
if (a_index>strlen(clipboard2))
break
char_asc := Asc(SubStr(clipboard2, a_Index, 1))
if (char_asc > 127 and char_asc < 256)
add_zero := "0"
else
add_zero := ""
clipboard3 := clipboard3 . "{Asc " . add_zero . char_asc . "}"
}
SendInput %clipboard3%
return
Not very simple...
If you use the clipboard manager Ditto (open source, gratis), you can simply use the shortcut to paste from Ditto, and it will paste the clipboard in CMD for you.
I followed #PabloG's steps as follows goto http://www.autohotkey.com/ - download autohotkey follow simple installation steps after installation create new *.ahk file as follows right click on desktop > new > Autohotkey Script > giveAnyFileName.ahk right click on this file > Edit copy paste autohotkey script given by #PabloG in his answer save and close double click on file to run Done now you should be able to use Ctrl+v for paste in command prompt
You could try using Texter and create something unlikely like: ./p , triggered by space and replacing the text with %c I just tested it and it works fine. The only gotcha is to use a rare sequence, as Texter cannot restrict this to just cmd. There are probably other utilities of this kind which could work, and even AutoHotKey, upon which Texter is built could do it better, but Texter is easy :-)
A simpler way is to use windows powershell instead of cmd. itworks fine with texter.
I've recently found that command prompt has support for context menu via the right mouse click. You can find more details here: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/copy_paste_within_microsoft_windows_command_prompt.html
Pretty simple solution may be Console 2, redefine keys and you go.
If you're a Cygwin user, you can append the following to your ~/.bashrc file: stty lnext ^q stop undef start undef And the following to your ~/.inputrc file: "\C-v": paste-from-clipboard "\C-C": copy-to-clipboard Restart your Cygwin terminal. (Note, I've used an uppercase C for copy, since CTRL+c is assigned to the break function on most consoles. Season to taste.) Source
Instead of "right click"....start your session (once you're in the command prompt window) by keying Alt/SpaceBar. That will open the Command Prompt window menu and you'll see your familiar, underlined keyboard command shortcuts, just like in Windows GUI. Good luck!
Under VISTA Command prompt: Click on the System Icon Select Defaults from the Menu On the Options tab in the Options group I have "Quick Edit Mode", "Insert Mode", and "Auto Complete" selected I think that "Quick Edit Mode" is what makes it work. To paste whatever is in the Clipboard at the insertion point: Right Click. To copy from the Command Window Select by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the pointer across what you want to copy Once selected, right click To paste at the insertion point, right click again.