What's the next action

Shortcut Sunday #1: Windows XP

13 08 06 - 15:38 - Bookmark this post

I felt it was time for a new serie here on What's The Next Action. Since one of the great timesavers in my life is the use of keyboard-shortcuts I thought to myself: Why not share my joy with the rest of the GTD community?

So here we are with the first installment of Shortcut Sunday. Every sunday for the coming weeks I will take one of my programs and let you in on some of the shortcuts I use, how you can find them and sometimes, how you can tweak them. Because that is what makes a great program fabulous: Tweakable shortcuts. More on that in coming episodes. Well, let's kick off with the first list of shortcuts. And why start with a program when we can start with the OS that runs all of them: Windows XP. Sorry Mac and Linux fans, since I don't use a Mac or *nix-based machine for a longer period of time I am not known with the shortcuts in those OS's.

Windows XP has a lot of hidden shortcuts you can use to avoid your mouse. Because even since the mouse is the best tool since sliced bread on a computer (hmmm...) sometimes reaching for the mouse and using it can really slow you down in your daily operations. That's why I think it's good to know some of the basic shortcuts in Windows XP you can use any time, any place, anywhere. Now before I go on with the list, let me remind you that there is a fine line between ease of use and compulsive shortcut use. I find the border with this thought: If you need to write down your shortcuts and hang them on your monitor or at your wall: Stop!

I think a shortcut is of good use when you don't have to think about them, you just use them. Because if you have to think about what shortcut to use, check your list, find the right key and then do the job, you're better of using a mouse in most of the cases. But then again, opinions may vary, so please let me know in the comments how you feel about them.

Windows XP shortcuts, here we go! Since Windows has a lot of shortcuts you can use in other programs, I will not name all of them. You can find a URL at the end of this article with all the shortcuts in Win XP

To me, the Windows-key (Win) is a true hidden gem. It unlocks a couple of features in XP really quickly. The ones I use a lot are:

• Win: Display or hide the Start menu
• Win+D: Minimize all windows and show your desktop
• Win+E: Open Windows Explorer
• Win+F: Search for a file or a folder
• Win+F1: Display Windows Help
• Win+ L: Lock the keyboard
• Win+R: Open the Run dialog box

Some other shortcuts I use a lot you might find useful:

• Alt-Tab: Switch between applications
• Shift-Del: Delete a file immediately without sending it to the recycle bin (you'll still be asked for confirmation)
  
• Ctrl-Esc: show the startmenu
• Ctrl-Shift-Esc: Open the taskmanager to quickly kill a frozen application

Make sure you check out Microsoft's own list of keyboard shortcuts you never knew even existed!

That's it, the first Shortcut Sunday. Let me know what you think of it. Next Sunday, we'll dig into another program!

shift-del deletes without sending to the recycle bin, but it still prompts for confirmation.
Patrick - 13 08 06 - 18:50

You’re right Patrick! I fixed the error. Thanks.
Frank Meeuwsen - 13 08 06 - 18:56

Good tips Frank! Looking forward to more from you.
I’d like to add something else on that shift-del. You can right-click a file, then hold the shift key and press delete from the right-click menu. It does the same thing. May seem a redundant way of deleting, but came useful when I had removed all my icons from my desktop and was using a taskbar on the corner of the screen. In that case, I couldn’t select the file and only able to click it.
Hyperreality - 14 08 06 - 10:06