Taking your hands of the keyboard to use the mouse can be annoying. Luckily, Windows has a number of keyboard shortcuts that can speed you along. Use these Windows keyboard shortcuts to perform tasks, such as cutting and pasting text, quickly and easily.
Check out the selection of shortcuts below and see if there aren’t a couple you didn’t know about that could be saving you some real time.
1. Win + F
Use this key combination to open Windows Search. If you got something quick to search for, though, you can go ahead and use the top right corner of any Explorer window. With Windows Search you can search your entire computer for something that you’ve been looking for. It will scan every volume you have installed on your computer. Don’t underestimate its power!
2. Win + E
This will open up an Explorer window. This is very useful if you want a quick way to get to My Computer.
3. Win + L
Here is an extremely interesting one. This will lock down Windows. If you have it set up to where you have to enter a password to open Windows, you will have to enter your password when it is locked. Otherwise, just hit OK and you will return to Windows. This tip could be especially useful for laptop users. Say you are leaving your laptop for a moment. If you use this shortcut, you can feel safe that nobody is going to mess with anything while you are gone.
4. Win + D
This will minimize every window you have open. I use this constantly because I tend to have about ten windows open at the same time. To move the windows back to normal you can hit the Windows Shortcut Key + D again and all the windows will be restored.
5. Win + R
This opens up the Run command. I’m not really a big fan of the Run command except to use it to speed up my startup. But if you constantly use the run command this will save you some time.
6. Ctrl + Esc
This will bring up the Start Menu. In Windows 8, the Start button is removed so you can’t access the Start Menu as convenient as before. But you can still press Ctrl + Esc to access the Start Menu quickly.
7. Ctrl + Alt + Del
The Ctrl + Alt + Del key combination is used to access the Task Manager, so that you can close the application by killing its process.
8. Shift + Del
Right-click on the files or folders you want to delete, and then press Shift+Del, it will delete the files directly without sending them to the recycle bin.
These are eight really simple time-saving keyboard shortcuts that might actually save you some day from ever thinking of what you could have done to cherish every moment in your life. Time is something precious, more so if you approach a ripe old age or own a business. Now, for your next goal: putting your saved time to good use!