Useful keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow.
Here are many useful keyboard shortcuts for Windows 10, 8.1 (and 7). Try F3 to search for keywords. For a text-only version of this page, go here. If you need to type special characters like £$¥¢©®½, then please see the Character Map page. Also, on the Microsoft Edge tips page you can find Edge keyboard shortcuts. Most of us are probably using Windows 10, therefore let’s start with Windows 10 Keyboard shortcuts:
Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts
Windows – Open Start menu
Windows + A – Open Action Center
Windows + U – Open Ease of Access Center
Windows + F1 – How to Get Help
Windows + B – Focus in Notification Area
Windows + I – Settings
Windows + C – Cortana (Talk to her)
(See Keyboard shortcut option in Cortana Settings.)
Windows + S – Search (including Cortana)
Windows + D – Show Desktop
Windows + , – Show Desktop (quick look)
Windows + T – Cycle through Taskbar Apps
Windows + E – Open File Explorer
Windows + Shift + Enter – Open UWP Apps in Full Screen
Ctrl + F1 – Expand File Explorer ribbon
Windows + H – Open Share charm
Windows + Ctrl + D – New Virtual Desktop
Windows + Ctrl + F4 – Close Virtual Desktop
Windows + Ctrl + Left Arrow – Switch Virtual Desktop (left)
Windows + Ctrl + Right Arrow – Switch Virtual Desktop (right)
Windows + PrtScn – Save Screenshot
Alt + PrtScn – Save Screenshot of window
Windows + Enter – Open Narrator
Windows + H – Open Dictation toolbar
Ctrl + Mouse wheel – Zoom in/out on the fly
Windows + +/- – Zoom in/out
Windows + X – Start Button Context Menu
Windows + X, then P – Open Control Panel,
Windows + Left Arrow – Snap window to left
Windows + Right Arrow – Snap window to right
Windows + Up Arrow – Maximize window (or move side window up)
Windows + Down Arrow – Restore down window (or move side window down – then minimize)
Windows + M – Minimize all windows
Windows + Shift + M – Restore all minimized windows
More on the way…
General Windows keyboard shortcuts
F1 – Help
Windows + L – Lock the computer
F2 – Rename object
F3 – Find / Search
F5 – Refresh window
Alt + Tab – Switch between open items
Alt + F4 – Close program / window
Windows – Open Start menu
Ctrl + Esc – Open Start menu
F11 – Full Screen
Ctrl + Shift + Esc – Windows Task Manager
Shift + Del – Delete selection immediately
Alt + Left Arrow – Back a page
Alt + Right Arrow – Forward a page
Windows program keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl + C – Copy
Ctrl + X – Cut
Ctrl + V – Paste
Ctrl + Z – Undo
Ctrl + Y – Redo
Ctrl + A – Select All
Ctrl + B – Bold
Ctrl + I – Italic
Ctrl + U – Underline
Ctrl + P – Print
Ctrl + Right Arrow – Next word
Ctrl + Left Arrow – Previous word
Ctrl + Down Arrow – Next paragraph
Ctrl + Up Arrow – Previous paragraph
Esc – Cancel current task
Windows 8.1 keyboard shortcuts
Windows – Open Start screen
Windows + C – Access Charms bar
Windows + I – Access Settings charm
Windows + Q – Search
Windows + . followed by Left Arrow –
Screen split to left
,
Windows + . followed by Right Arrow –
Screen split to Right,
Windows + PrtScn – Save Screenshot
Windows + Enter – Open Narrator
Windows + Left Arrow – Dock window left
Windows + Right Arrow – Dock window right
Windows + Up Arrow – Maximize window
Windows + Down Arrow – Minimize window
Windows + Shift + Up Arrow –
Maximize window vertical size
Windows + Shift + Down Arrow –
Minimize window vertical size
Windows + Home – Minimize Non-active
Windows + D – Show desktop
Windows + E – Show computer drives
Windows + T – Cycle through Taskbar Apps
Windows + B – Focus System tray items
Alt + Tab – Switch between open items
Windows + +/- – Zoom in or Zoom out
Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts
Windows + Left Arrow – Dock window left
Windows + Right Arrow – Dock window right
Windows + Up Arrow – Maximize window
Windows + Down Arrow – Minimize window
Windows + Shift + Up Arrow –
Maximize window vertical size
Windows + Shift + Down Arrow –
Minimize window vertical size
Windows + Home – Minimize Non-active
Windows + Space – Preview desktop
Windows + D – Show desktop
Windows + E – Show computer drives
Windows + T – Scroll Taskbar items
Windows + B – Focus System tray items
Alt + Tab – Switch between open items
Windows + Tab – Cycle Aero Flip 3-D
Windows + +/- – Zoom in or Zoom out
(If you have a Mac computer, some of the keyboard shortcuts on this page work by pressing the Cmd key for Mac, instead of the Ctrl key for Windows.)
Feel free to recommend other Windows 10 keyboard shortcuts, and we will add them to this page.