Windows 8: Keyboard shortcuts and mouse tips and tricks

Microsoft is focusing Windows 8 Metro style to be great for touch screen devices, but the keyboard and mouse are also part of a great experience.

Here I’ve put together a few useful tips and tricks to help to do more in Windows 8 in the traditional desktop computer and laptops without touch support.

Don’t forget to leave comments if you have other tips or tricks to update this article.

• Unlock the lock-screen: Double-click with the mouse or press any keyboard key, instead of dragging the welcome screen image to the top.
• Open up the Charms-bar (shutdown, settings, share, and others) by hitting the lower-left corner of the screen with the mouse — clicking required or use Windows Key  + C.
• Peek your desktop by using  + Y
• Use  + I to activate the current opened application setting
• Use + P to extend the screen to external monitor/TV
• Always use  to go back to the Start Screen.
• Use  + F  to open file search
• Use  + P  shows multiple-monitor options. This is also useful to connect external monitors
• Use  + X  brings the Power user contextual menu (Command Prompt, Run, Device Manager, Power options and many more.)
• Use  + W to open Search Settings pane
• Use  + H to open Search App pane
• Use  + Q  to open Search Apps
• Use  + Space-bar to switch the input language and keyboard layout
• Use  + D to show the desktop
• Use  + L to lock Windows
• Use  + O to lock the screen rotation
• Use  + V to view all active Toast notifications
• Use  + U to open Ease of Access Center
• Use  + B to select the first item in the notification area and then use the directional arrows to cycle through the items press Enter to open the selected item
• Use  + Crtl + B to get access to the application that is showing a message in the notification area.
• Use  + Shift + M to restore all minimized windows
• Use  + M to minimize all active windows
• Use  + Shift + B to view all Toast in reverse order
• Use  + PrnScn to create and automatically take screenshots
• Use  + Enter to launch the narrator
• Use  + Z to display the App Bar in a Metro style app
• Use  + Home to minimize all but the current window
• Use  + Up Arrow to minimize or restore current window
• Use  + Down Arrow to minimize or restore current window
• Use  + Left Arrow to re-size window and move it to the left side (snap)
• Use  + Right Arrow to re-size window and move it to the right side (snap)
• Use   + Shift + Up Arrow to extend the current window form the top to the bottom of the display
• Use   + Shift + Left/Right Arrow to move the current window to secondary monitor
• Use  + F1 to open Windows Help and Support
• Use   + 1 – 10 to open programs pinned in the Taskbar in the position indicated by the #
• Use   + Shift + 1 – 10 to open a new instance of the program pinned in the Taskbar in the position indicated by the #
• Use  + Ctrl + 1 – 10 to get access to the last active instance of a program in the Taskbar in the position indicated by the #
• Use  + Home to minimize all windows but the current one
• Use  + Alt + 1 – 10 to open a new instance of the program pinned in the Taskbar in the position indicated by the #
• Use  + . (period)  to snap the current Metro style app to right or left side of the screen.
• Use  + . (period)+Shift  to snap the current Metro style app to the left or right side of the screen.
• Use  + J  to switch focus between snapped apps.
• Just type any keyword to start a search for anything, app, setting, file, etc.
• Use  + Tab to cycle through the open apps
• To display everything you can do inside an application, just right-click to bring up the App-bar.
• Most applications don’t need to be closed down — Windows 8 will suspend them if they are not being displayed. To completely close an application down, you could use the new re-designed Task Manager (using the live tile or with the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keyboard shortcut) to do a force quit.
• Move the mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen to view a small thumbnail of the most recently used application.
• Use the Page Up and Page Down keyboard keys to switch between tiles groups on the Start Screen.
• To Pin or Unpin tiles or remove applications, right-click on tiles on the Start Screen
• You can right-click a tile and change the size to smaller (half-tile) or larger (full-tile) –. This might not be supported on every app tile.