I do know, I do know – keyboard shortcuts are laborious to recollect, and most of them are so area of interest they are not even price making an attempt to waste reminiscence on.
However some are extremely helpful, and I’ve put collectively this record of the shortcuts I truly use day-to-day for work, searching, and gaming.
Chances are you’ll already know a few of them – however I am keen to wager you may be taught a minimum of one new trick from this text that’ll prevent time and Home windows-fueled complications.
|
Shortcut |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Home windows + . |
Opens the Emojis and extra desk |
|
Home windows + Shift + S |
Opens the Snippet software for screenshots and recordings |
|
Home windows + Alt + Arrow keys |
Snaps the energetic window to a part of the display screen |
|
Home windows + Shift + Arrow keys |
Strikes the energetic window between a number of shows |
|
Alt + Tab |
Cycles via energetic home windows |
|
Home windows + Alt + G |
Information a 30-second clip of gameplay |
|
Ctrl + arrow keys |
Skips cursor via phrases of textual content |
|
Ctrl + F |
Opens the Discover perform in browsers |
|
Ctrl + R |
Refreshes the present browser web page |
|
Ctrl + Shift + T |
Opens recently-closed tabs |
1. Home windows + .
Home windows + . is an extremely useful little timesaver that not many customers find out about.
For those who’ve ever Googled ‘cranium emoji,’ tried to seek out an ASCII face like ‘( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°),’ or realized you want the hyperlink you copied to your clipboard an hour in the past, this shortcut, which opens the ‘Emojis and extra’ desk for you.
It is also invaluable for many who want to make use of particular symbols like Em dashes (—), arrows (→), and numerous currencies ($ or £).
Home windows + V will take you straight to your clipboard historical past, the place you may see previous textual content you have copied with Ctrl + C, and even latest screenshots you have taken. Clipboard historical past is disabled by default, however Home windows + V will nonetheless get you there to allow it.
2. Home windows + Shift + S
If I had a dime for each time I used Home windows + Shift + S, I may purchase Microsoft and eliminate Copilot.
Home windows + Shift + S is much better than utilizing PrtScn for screenshots as a result of you may select to seize both an oblong space of your selecting, simply the energetic window, your complete display screen (taskbar and all), or perhaps a freeform form.
You may also use the toolbar on the high of Home windows + Shift + S to change to display screen recording, a coloration picker that returns Hex, RGB, or HSL values, or a textual content grabber that means that you can rapidly copy phrases from pictures or cussed PDFs.
Plus, as soon as you’re taking a screenshot, you may paste it straight into chats or image-editing software program with Ctrl + V.
Screenshots taken this fashion can be saved to the ‘Screenshots’ folder by default (not Downloads!)
3. Home windows + Alt + Arrow keys
For those who ever must divide your display screen up into halves or quadrants – so as to learn an article on the left aspect of your display screen and take notes on the appropriate half, for instance – you should use Home windows + Alt + Arrow keys for fast biking between them.
4. Home windows + Shift + Arrow keys
This one is for the multi-display customers within the viewers. For those who kitted your setup with two or extra of the greatest screens, Home windows + Shift + Arrow keys is a lifesaver.
You’ll be able to rapidly throw a full-screen video out of your left monitor to your proper one with out having to exit full display screen, drag the video over to the opposite monitor, then re-enter full display screen.
It is also nice for productiveness, permitting you to rapidly transfer spreadsheets or paperwork to your second monitor.
And for avid gamers, if a recreation begins on the fallacious monitor you may transfer it to the proper one (although generally it will mess with the sport’s show decision).
Plus, it turns out to be useful when Process Supervisor opens behind an unresponsive app and you’ll’t entry it in any other case.
5. Alt + Tab
Most of you with pores and skin within the Home windows recreation can be very conversant in Alt + Tab. It is a tried and true time-saver, letting you rapidly flip via open home windows with out having to click on round.
However it’s so helpful that I needed to embrace it on this record simply in case somebody is not already utilizing it – if this shortcut have been to vanish I’d genuinely take into account switching to Linux.
You may also use Home windows + Tab to see all of your open home windows throughout a number of desktops, and it is higher than Alt + Tab in some circumstances (for instance whenever you need to look via your open home windows with out consistently holding down Alt).
6. Home windows + Alt + G
If you wish to seize highlights of your gameplay, share humorous moments with pals, or have a replay to verify your suspicions of a dishonest enemy, Home windows + Alt + G is the way in which to go.
You may should allow it earlier than you should use it although, so you’ll want to open Xbox Sport Bar with Home windows + G (you do not want to personal an Xbox), click on the gear icon within the high nav bar to go to settings, then click on Widgets and allow ‘Report within the background whereas I am taking part in a recreation.’
As soon as enabled, Home windows + Alt + G will create a clip of the previous 30 seconds of gameplay and reserve it to your Captures folder (in Movies).
You may also select whether or not it data solely recreation audio, or desktop audio as effectively (which can seize mic inputs from Discord, for instance). You may also use Home windows + Alt + R to start out an ongoing display screen recording.
7. Ctrl + Arrow keys
Ctrl + Arrow keys is nice for rapidly navigating textual content. It jumps your cursor to the beginning or finish of a phrase, and can be utilized together with Shift (Ctrl + Shift + Arrow keys) to focus on complete phrases or traces of textual content at a time.
It is good for grabbing sure sections of textual content to repeat and paste or delete with out utilizing your mouse or Ctrl + A, which highlights the entire textual content on a web page or in a textual content enter discipline.
If you wish to spotlight textual content letter by letter, or line by line, use Shift + Arrow keys.
8. Ctrl + F
I’ve saved my pals numerous hours with this one. For those who’re looking for a reputation, a date, and even only a sure letter in a doc or internet web page, Ctrl + F will do the looking for you.
After utilizing Ctrl + F to carry up the search discipline, merely sort in no matter you are looking for and use the arrow keys to the appropriate of the search bar to leap on to the textual content you need.
It additionally tells you what number of occasions a sure phrase, quantity, or phrase seems on the web page, which is helpful for those who’re writing a paper so you may see when it is time to sub in a synonym. I simply used Ctrl + F to see that that is the primary time I used the phrase ‘paper’ on this article (it simply jumped to 2).
9. Ctrl + R
Ctrl + R refreshes the browser tab you are presently on, which is nice for getting recent outcomes on limited-time gross sales occasions, live-blog pages, and YouTube suggestions, amongst different issues.
10. Ctrl + Shift + T
Ctrl + Shift + T will open recently-closed tabs on browsers together with Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera.
This can be a big time-saver for those who shut a tab solely to comprehend you must take a look at it once more, or for those who unintentionally shut all the browser and must get your tabs again.
It reopens tabs within the order they have been closed, so for those who want a number of tabs open once more simply use Ctrl + Shift + T a number of occasions.
Bought a favourite Home windows 11 shortcut of your individual? Let me know within the feedback under!
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