Useful Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows


Keyboard ShortcutsEvery regular windows user will be familiar with the combination of keys: CTRL+ALT+DEL. This magic combination is used to lock the screen, log in or more often than not force an unresponsive application to close. Other commonly used key combos are CTRL+C and CTRL+V for copying and pasting or F5 to refresh a page in your Internet browser. These common shortcuts are incredibly useful and improve productivity by making tasks that would usually require some pointing and clicking possible with only a few keystrokes.

These are not the only key combos around that can improve your productivity and make your working day a few minutes shorter; in fact there are a lot more. Here are some of the more useful ones:

  • Ctrl + Shift + Esc - open task manager
  • Winkey + D - toggle ‘show desktop’ (Minimises all windows and shows the desktop)
  • Winkey + L - lock workstation (Locks the workstation if you have a password set)
  • Winkey + E - Windows Explorer (Manage your files with Windows Explorer)
  • Middle click a link (or Ctrl + click) - loads a web page in a new tab
  • Middle click a tab - close tab
  • Middle click back button - open history in new tab (not for IE)
  • Ctrl + F5 - clear page cache and refresh webpage (Try this if a page isn’t refreshing properly)
  • (Shift +) Tab - when filling out a form, skip to next (or previous) form field
  • Alt + (Shift +) Tab - switch windows forwards (or backwards)
  • Ctrl + (Shift +) Tab - switch tab/document forwards (or backwards)
  • Hold Shift while inserting removable media - prevents ‘auto run’
  • Shift + Delete - permanently deletes files (without going to recycle bin)
  • Shift + right click - usually adds ‘experienced user’ context menu options
  • F2 - ‘edit’, renames selected file. Also used with spreadsheet cells.
  • Ctrl + Scroll - zoom web page, document, file thumbnails, or desktop icons on Vista/7
  • Alt + PrtScn - copies an image of the current window to clipboard (If you ever need to take a screenshot of an application or error message for your friendly IT staff)
  • Print Screen (PrtScn) - takes a picture of your screen and puts it in the clipboard. You can paste it in Paint.
  • Drag with right click - provide additional options when dragging (copy/move/create shortcut)
  • Esc - close a dialogue box
  • Double-click window title - maximize the window
  • Space - fill in a checkbox, press the highlighted button or scroll down
  • Ctrl + F4 - close tab/document
  • Alt + F4 - close window
  • Ctrl + left/right buttons - skip text by word, rather than by letter (hold shift to select)
  • Ctrl + up/down buttons - skip text by paragraph, rather than by letter (hold shift to select)
  • PgUp, PgDn - scroll up/down one page
  • Home - skip to top of page
  • End - skip to end of page
  • F5 - refresh page/folder/dialogue
  • Backspace - navigate to the previous page (web browsers)
  • Ctrl + Enter - line-break (goes to next line, but not a full paragraph)
  • Ctrl + Z - undo
  • Ctrl + Y - redo (reverse undo)
  • Ctrl + X - cut
  • Ctrl + C - copy
  • Ctrl + V - paste
  • Ctrl +  - save
  • Ctrl +  - find in page/doc
  • Ctrl + A - select all
  • Shift + click items in a list - select a continuous group of sequential items from a list
  • Ctrl + click items in a list - select multiple individual items from a list
  • Ctrl + [B, I, U] - bold, italic, underline
  • Ctrl + Esc or Windows Key - open start menu


You may recognise a lot of these shortcuts and if you didn’t or you don’t already use them I really encourage trying them out. Once you get into the habit of using shortcut keys you won’t turn back; the usefulness is immediately obvious.