This is a topic that’s probably important for all windows users. If you use a windows laptop or PC dozens of keyboard shortcuts will make your regular tasks much easier from copying & to open the quick link menu. These windows 10 shortcuts keys will help you speed different operations and boost overall productivity.
Why you would need shortcut keys on a windows PC or Laptop?
There are several operations that users perform daily which are time-consuming.
e.g.
copying a file from a desktop to a different drive, if you follow the traditional copying methods it would take several minutes to get the job done but using the shortcut keys combinations for example CTRL + C and CTRL + V will speed up the entire process.
Similarly, to the example, there are several other keyboard shortcuts for windows that’ll make your life easier and help you get the job done from various tasks without any hassle.
Most Useful Windows 10 Shortcut Keys
These windows 10 shortcuts have been categorized into four:
- General Shortcuts.
- File Explorer Shortcuts.
- Windows Key Keyboard Shortcuts and
- Command Prompt Shortcuts.
General Shortcuts
These shortcuts are extremely useful but also very common so you should already know these:
Ctrl + A
This is one of the most commonly used windows keyboard shortcuts. You can use this key combination to select an entire content at a particular folder or location.
Ctrl + C
This key combination will copy a selected item to your clipboard.
Ctrl + V
This is used to paste the content that you pre-copied to a dedicated location.
Ctrl + D
If you want to delete an item from your PC, simply select it and press Ctrl + D on your keyboard. This won’t permanently delete the file; it will only transfer it to the recycle bin.
Shift + Del
Unlike the previous key combination, Shift + Del will permanently delete the selected file from your PC. You won’t be able to recover the deleted file so use it with caution.
Alt + Tab
If you often multi-task, opened up multiple apps and windows. It becomes challenging to navigate between them in this case, the Alt + tab will help you switch between different apps easily.
Windows Key + E
This will help you directly open the file explorer without having to double-click my computer on your desktop.
Windows Key + Prt Sc
One of the most useful windows keyboard shortcuts that save you a lot of time. When you want to capture a screenshot, simply press Windows Key + Prt Sc and this will automatically take a screenshot and save it inside your pictures folder.
- Del = Delete.
- Prt Sc = Print screen.
File Explorer Shortcuts
When you’re in windows explorer you can use various key combinations to perform different tasks.
Ctrl + F
If you want to search a specific item inside the current folder, press Ctrl + F and you’ll automatically be prompted to the search box at the top right-hand corner.
Alt + D
Using this key combination, will highlight the address bar to find a specific location.
Ctrl + W
Instead of dragging the cursor up to the close button. Ctrl + W will directly close the current window.
Alt + Enter
This shortcut will open the properties windows for the selected item.
Ctrl + Shift + N
This key combination will create a new folder in the current directory. This shortcut instantly creates a folder within a few seconds.
Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
There are several keyboard shortcuts in windows 10 that work with the Windows key and these few shortcuts help you in your daily life.
Windows key
Press the Windows key quickly bring the start menu which is probably the easiest way to launch the start menu.
Windows key + A
A windows 10 comes with a dedicated action center where you can change different preferences, by pressing the shortcut key will launch the action center instantly.
Windows key + D
This shortcut will be useful when you want to check something on the desktop instead of minimizing all the windows, simply press Windows key + D to go to your desktop and pressing it again, you’ll promptly back to your previous window.
Windows key + C
It will launch Microsoft’s voice assistant Cortana.
Windows key + L
It will lock the computer immediately and only show the password page.
Command Prompts Shortcuts
If you use the command prompt regularly, the next key combinations will be extremely helpful for you.
Ctrl + F
In the command prompt, pressing Ctrl + F will bring up the dedicated Cmd search box.
Ctrl + Up/Down
You can use the Ctrl + Up/Down-arrow keys to move the screen either up or down by one line.
Page up/down keys
It will help you move the cursor up and down through the lines you’ve written in the command prompt window
Ctrl + End
This will allow you to scroll to the end of the screen.
Ctrl + Home
This key combination will automatically scroll you to the top of the screen.
Conclusion
These key combinations will help you in your daily life and perform different operations without wasting time on any computer running on Windows 10 operating system, although there are many other windows keyboard shortcuts out there, they might not be useful in one’s life.
Also Read: How to Recover Data from Damaged/Failed/Crashed Hard Drive