Microsoft.com has published an article titled “Keyboard shortcuts for Windows” that lists all of the shortcuts available in their operating system (not including those defined by third party applications). Keyboard shortcuts are a great tool that can save you a significant amount of time, so in the name of efficiency, here’s a list of our favorites.
- Bold: CTRL+B
- Bypass the autorun feature of a CD-ROM: Hold SHIFT as you insert the CD.
- Close the current window: ALT+F4.
- Copy: CTRL+C
- Cut: CTRL+X
- Delete an item without sending it to the recycle bin: SHIFT+DEL
- Display properties: ALT+double click
- Italic: CTRL+I
- Paste: CTRL+V
- Select all: CTRL+A
- Quick text selection:
- Select forward, word-by-word: CTRL+SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW
- Select backwards, word-by-word: CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW
- Select down, line-by-line: CTRL+SHIFT+DOWN ARROW
- Select up, line-by-line: CTRL+SHIFT+UP ARROW
- Start menu: CTRL+ESC (or the Windows key)
- Switch between multiple open windows in the same program: ALT+F6
- Switch between open programs: ALT+TAB
- System menu of main window: ALT+SPACE
- Underline: CTRL+U
- Undo: CTRL+Z
