I'll admit my keyboard shortcut knowledge for GUI manipulation has never been very strong. I've been thinking a lot about efficiency recently to get more done and have more free time. Saving a few minutes per hour could be the difference between having work life balance and not, or having that creative time at work where you can really innovate and create something special.
The below are a number of keyboard shortcuts for Windows 10 and Chrome/Firefox running on Windows. I haven't included the most well known shortcuts (Ctrl+C/V/X), those that use keys that are not typically on a laptop keyboard, or anything to do with Microsoft Internet Explorer/Edge (for reasons that are self evident). All of the articles I used to collect these shortcuts are below in the "References" section - it definitely seemed like you had to go to several different sources to collect all of the gems.
I've highlighted some of the shortcuts I didn't know about before this research that I think are especially useful. I'll be doing the same exercise for OSX shortly and will make an equivalent post. Ping me on Twitter if you have other favorites!
| Windows Explorer |
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| Shift+delete | Delete bypassing recycle bin |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | New folder |
| Ctrl+Shift+E | Show subfolders within a folder |
| Alt+Enter | Open properties for selection |
| Alt+Arrow | Select folder the is before after, or child/parent with up and down |
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| Open Common Menus |
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| Windows + X | Open Poweruser menu (!Open PowerShell as Admin, Event Viewer, Task Manager, Explorer, etc!) |
| Windows + S | Opens search |
| Windows + Tab | Opens task viewer which helps with switching programs (select with arrow keys) |
| Windows + I | Opens Windows settings |
| Windows + E | Open Windows Explorer |
| Windows + R | Run dialog box |
| Windows + P | Change presentation mode for display |
| Shift+f10 | Display shortcut menu for selection |
| Alt+Printscreen | Capture current window to clipboard |
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| Virtual Desktops |
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| Windows + Ctrl + right or left arrow | Show Virtual Desktop to right or left |
| Windows + Ctrl + D | New virtual desktop |
| Windows + Ctrl + F4 | Close virtual desktop |
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| Window Management |
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| Windows + Alt + # | This Opens items on your task bar by number of items pinned. |
| Windows + Shift + # | This Opens a NEW window for the item on your task bar |
| Windows + M | Minimize all windows |
| Windows + left or right arrow | Dock current window on either side of the screen |
| Windows + down arrow | Minimize window or dock to lower corner of screen |
| Windows + up arrow | Maximize window or dock to upper corner of screen |
| Windows + , | Peek at desktop (kind of cool if you just want to check, release the Windows key to go back) |
| Alt+Esc | Cycle through windows in the order they were Opened (change focus) |
| Ctrl + N | New window |
| Ctrl + T | New tab |
| Ctrl + R | Refresh |
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| Text Files |
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| Ctrl + Right or Left arrow | Move cursor to the beginning of word |
| Ctrl + Shift with arrow key | Select a block of Text |
| Shift + arrow key | Select individual characters |
| Ctrl + Backspace | Delete previous word |
| Ctrl + Delete | Delete next word |
| Ctrl + Up or Down | Move to beginning or end of paragraph |
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| F-Keys |
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| F2 | Rename item |
| F3 | Search equivalent to ctrl+f in most programs |
| F6 | Cycle through screen elements in a Window or desktop |
| F11 | Toggle full screen on active window |
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| Browser Shortcuts (Work on both FFox and Chrome) |
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| Ctrl+Shift+Tab | View and select Open tabs with arrow keys |
| Ctrl+ number | Switch to the Open tab correlating to the number you choose |
| Ctrl+9 | Go to the LAST tab, even if it's more than 9. |
| Ctrl+Shift+T | Open last tab you CLOSED (useful!) |
| Alt+D OR Ctrl+L | Select the address bar (never use the mouse) |
| Ctrl+W | Close tab |
| Ctrl+J | View downloads |
| Ctrl+Shift+Delete | Delete browsing history/cache (or at least Open window) |
| Ctrl+P | Print webpage to PDF |
| Ctrl+Enter | Automatically put www. and .com on either side of a string and go to the site (not super useful IMO) |
| Ctrl+Click | Open link in new tab |
| Alt + Arrow key | Back or forward navigation |
| Ctrl+O | Open Files |
| Ctrl+K | Google search in the URL bar |
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| Chrome Specific |
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| Ctrl+Shift+N | New incognito window |
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| FireFox Specific |
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| Ctrl+Shift+P | New private window |
References:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/04/windows-keyboard-shortcuts-productivity.html
https://notebooks.com/2015/08/21/over-100-windows-10-keyboard-shortcuts-you-should-know/
https://www.online-tech-tips.com/internet-explorer-tips/how-to-switch-between-tabs-in-ie7-using-shortcut-key/
https://memeburn.com/2016/06/google-chrome-keyboard-shortcuts/
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-chrome-shortcuts-pdf/
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4cqi8c/most_used_trick_shortcut/
https://www.howtogeek.com/115664/42-text-editing-keyboard-shortcuts-that-work-almost-everywhere/
