After a while using the keyboard in Windows operating systems, you must feel the need to perform some everyday actions in a faster and a more simple way. Rather often, that way involves cutting back on your mouse usage and increased usage of the keyboard for performing basic operations on your desktop. In this article, we describe some of the most common keyboard shortcuts, that is, key combinations, which make your everyday work on the computer much more productive.

For example, you may have many open windows at once (applications) and in that instant, you need to fetch something from the desktop or you simply wish to hide all the windows. A very useful combination for that type of situation is pressing the Windows Key and the letter D. On the other hand, if you wish to close the currently active window then press ALT + F4. Alternatively, using the same key combination on the desktop itself will bring up the shutdown dialog where you can turn off your computer, restart it or log off.

If you have more than one open window, and need to constantly switch between them, then the best and the most useful combination is ALT + TAB.

The default Windows settings, include the option that all of the files you delete, first go into the Recycle Bin which actually means that they’re not erased from the computer and can very easily be retrieved. However, if you wish to delete some files without them going into the Recycle Bin then just hold Shift and press Delete.

Among other useful and commonly used shortcuts are the copying and pasting ones and selecting all text or all files. So, in order to select all of the text in a document at once, we press CTRL + A. We use the same combination to select, for example all icons on the desktop. To copy something we use the CTRL + C combination, and to paste that we use the CTRL + V.

At first, it might seem that these shortcuts do not speed up your work at all, but if you get used to them you will soon enough notice that they’re really useful and that they really do save time manifold.

Tags | Keyboard Shortcuts, Speed Up, Tips and Tricks, Windows