21 Lesser Known Windows Keyboard Shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts helps you increase your typing speed, saves handsome amount of time and also relieve hands from that pain caused by using mouse repetitively. CTRL+C and CTRL+V are the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts but there are many others to increase productivity.
We have compiled 21 lesser known Windows Keyboard Shortcuts categorized into their area of use that are incredibly helpful in increasing productivity as they make common daily tasks a lot easier.
Global Windows Shortcuts
Win+1, 2, 3, 4,5 etc. will open each program in your task bar. It is helpful in a way that it keeps most recently used programs at the beginning of your task bar so you can open them one right after another. This also works in Windows Vista for the quick launch icons.
Win+Alt+1, 2, 3,4 etc. will open the jump list for each program in the task bar. You can then use your arrows to select which jump list option you want to open.
Win+Home minimizes all programs except current the window.Win+M minimizes all open windows.
Win+B selects the system tray which is not always useful but can come in very handy if your mouse stops working.
Win+Up/Down maximizes and restores down the current window so long as that window has the option to be maximized. It is exactly the same as clicking on the middle button on your windows.Alt+Esc is similar to Alt+Tab but switches windows in the order they were opened and does not have the fancy window preview overlay.
Ctrl+Esc opens Start menu, useful if your keyboard does not have a Windows key.
Win+Pause/Break will open your system properties window. This can be helpful if you need to see the name of a computer or simple system statistics. You don’t have to right click My Computer or look in Control Panel.
Ctrl+Shift+Esc provides quick access to Windows Task Manager when you want to force quit specific slow responding program.
Alt+Space will open current window’s System menu (System menu contains options to move, re-size, minimize, maximize, or close the window). This shortcut can also be helpful with windows that don’t close with the Alt+F4 shortcut such as the command window.
Windows Explorer Shortcuts
Alt+Up will navigate up one folder level since the up arrow on the menu bar was removed in Windows Vista.
Shift+F10 opens the “right click” menu for a file/folder. This can be very handy for speed especially if you know which option you want to select. Look for an underlined letter in each option to know which letter you can press for faster access.
Shift+Del deletes a file without sending it to the recycle bin.Ctrl+Shift+N creates a new folder in your current directory.
Alt+Enter opens the file properties so you can view file size, sharing settings, and creation date.
F2 renames a file or folder. Just select any file or folder with a single click and press F2 to rename selected object.F3 will open Windows Search to search for files or folders. This shortcut also works in Firefox which lets you search the opened web page. In some programs it will also open the search dialog to search within that program.
F6 cycles objects in the current window. In explorer this will cycle between the location bar, options bar, left pane, and right pane. It also works with varying success in other programs.
F10 toggles the file menu in explorer.
Miscellaneous Shortcuts
Windows Key+L is quite useful and big time saver. Use Windows Key+L to lock your screen in case you need to be away from your system for a short while.
Read more: http://www.gizmocrazed.com/2010/12/21-lesser-known-windows-keyboard-shortcuts/#ixzz18tYsoNb0
Media Center 7 Sleep Timer is an awesome Media Center application (also works as add-in) to shutdown/hibernate your Windows 7 machine after a selected time interval.
Once you installed Sleep Timer, you can access it either from the Start menu or Extras Library in Media Center. The current version of Sleep Timer comes with five options: Shutdown in 60 minutes, Shutdown in 30 minutes, Custom timer, Shutdown at time, Monitor off, and Cancel timer.
The best thing about Sleep Timer is that you can customize almost everything from time settings and to the interface. You can change the default Shutdown in 30 minutes and 60 minutes options by editing the MC7 Sleep Timer Settings.cfg in the install folder.
You can also use the Readme file available in the install folder to know more about customizing the Sleep Timer.
Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.
Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.
If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:
And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide
Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.
2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
DISKPART and hit enter.
LIST DISK and hit enter.
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:
(Where “H” is your USB drive letter)
7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.
You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).
Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.
Many users are asking how to remove evaluation copy (Or testing purpose only) watermark that appears on the bottom right of Windows 7 desktop. Generally, we need to edit system file to make it happen. But thankfully, we have a simple, clean and working patch that does the job perfectly.
Before getting into the innards of the guide, it’s better to backup your system files since you are going edit user32.dll.mui system file using a small patch. Follow the steps given below to remove watermark from the Windows 7 desktop.
Procedure:
2. Right-click on Removewatermark (.exe) file and select Run as administrator. Make sure that you have chosen RemovewatermarkX86.exe file, if you are using 32-bit Windows. Likewise choose RemovewatermarkX64.exe for 64-bit Windows.
3. Next, a command prompt will be opened asking your permission to continue. Press/type “Y” to continue patching process.
4. Within few seconds, a successful message will be shown. Close Command Prompt window & reboot your system.
5. Enjoy!
If the watermark appears even after rebooting the machine, then follow the procedure below.
1. Type CMD in Start menu search field and hit enter Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open Command Prompt with admin rights. Alternatively, go to Start > All programs > Accessories. Right-click on Command Prompt entry, and select Run as administrator.
2. In the Command Prompt, type in mcbuilder.exe and hit enter. It may take a minute to finish the process. Now, close the Command Prompt window and reboot Windows 7.
3. You should see no watermark on your desktop now.
Note that this patch should work fine on all builds of Windows 7 including build 7057.
