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Some Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are a few keyboard shortcuts to make using Windows a bit easier and quicker.

Highlight a file or folder and press Shift-Del to delete permanently,
bypassing the Recycle Bin.

Alt-Enter opens a highlighted file or folder's Properties dialog.

In Windows Explorer, highlight a folder and press

Shift-NumPadAsterisk to open a folder and all subfolders.

Click in Windows Explorer's details pane, then press Ctrl-NumPadPlus
to size each column exactly as wide as its largest item.

The Windows key brings up the Start menu, of course; but it does quite
a bit more when used in combination with other keys:

Win-D toggles between showing the desktop and restoring all windows.

Win-E invokes the Windows Explorer window.

Win-L locks your system until you enter your password—or lets you
switch active users, if you're using Fast User Switching.

Win-M minimizes all windows.

Win-R brings up the Run dialog.

Win-S, in Microsoft Word 2002 or later, invokes Windows'
text-to-speech engine, which will read either highlighted text or
everything from the cursor on.

Win-Pause/Break brings up the System Properties dialog.

Win-U invokes the Utility Manager, which controls accessibility program options.

Missing the Windows key? Ctrl-Esc will bring up your Start menu,
though it won't allow you to use Windows-key combo commands like those
above.

You can create your own keyboard shortcuts to frequently used programs
by right-clicking on their shortcut icons (in the Start menu or on the
desktop), then clickingProperties in the Shortcut key field press control/alt then some key.

Hey, presto, Ctrl-Alt-and prtessing that key will now start the app

. Don't want the Ctrl-Alt combo? You can press Ctrl-Shift-x, Shift-Alt-x, or Ctrl-Shift-Alt-x instead.

A few x keys are verboten here: Esc, Enter,
Tab, Space, Print Scrn, Del, and Backspace aren't allowed.

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