Hints & Tips

Shortcut Keys

These keys can be used as shortcuts to some of the common windows functions. In the following examples press and hold the 'Windows' key (The one with the windows flag on it between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the left of your keyboard) and the shortcut letter. From now on the windows key will be referred to as 'Win'.

All the following shortcuts will work regardless of which window has focus.

Win + D	Shows the desktop when in an application. Switches back to the last active application windows if pressed again.
Win + M	Minimizes all open windows. This is effectively the same as Win+D in that it takes you to the desktop. However, pressing this combination again will have no effect.
Win + F	Opens the 'Find all Files' dialog. Equivalent to clicking 'Start -> Find -> Files or Folders'.
Win + E	Starts a new instance of windows explorer, taking 'My Computer' as it's root directory.
Win + R	Equivalent to selecting 'run' from the start menu.
Win + CTRL + F	Opens the 'Find : Computer' dialog box. Equivalent to clicking 'Start -> Find -> Computer '.
Win + Pause	Opens the system properties control panel applet.
Win + F1	Displays the Windows Help contents.

In addition the following shortcuts are available in Internet Explorer

Win + Space bar	This is functionally equivalent to pressing the page down key.
Win + SHIFT +Sacebar	The same as pressing the page up key.

The following shortcuts apply whilst in a document window of an application

CTRL + F10	Maximizes the current document window assuming the maximize button is not greyed out.
CTRL + F9	Will minimize the current document (or child) window.
CTRL + F8	Carry out a resize command on the current document.
CTRL + F7	Carry out a move command on the current document.
CTRL +F6	Switches to the next document window.
CTRL + SHIFT + F6	Switch to the previous document window.
CTRL + F5	Restores a document.to its normal state. That's neither maximized nor minimized. The window must be currently active.
CTRL + W	Closes the current document.

Other Shortcuts

ALT + Space bar	Opens the system menu for the currently focused window. This will also open a system menu for the desktop.
ALT + ESC	Switches between the first two open applications in the task bar. I.E. Pressing once whilst in a third application switches to the second. Pressing again switches to first. Pressing again switches back to second. Pressing again switches to first again etc. etc.
ALT + Enter	Calls up the properties tab for the currently highlighted file in windows explorer, or on the desktop. Note that if a file is not highlighted, nothing happens. This is equivalent to right-clicking and selecting properties

Other Useful Information

Registry Help File
FileSize 198Kb

Full of tips & tricks using the Windows registry. Please note that editing the registry directly can seriously damage your computer. Use at your own risk.

This file originates from RegEdit.Com