I thought I’d share some of the useful keyboard shortcuts available for working in Windows 7. By no means do I use them all myself but there’s a handful that I do remember and use daily.

General Windows Shortcuts

• Win+Left Arrow and Win+Right Arrow dock the window to the left and right side of the screen – note if you have a dual monitor setup then you can simply push either key a second time to move the window to the other monitor.
• Win+Home: Minimises all windows to the taskbar except the active one.
• Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
• Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
• Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it’s maximized
• Win+M minimises all windows
• Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor (If you’ve got dual monitors, adding Shift to the mix (e.g., Win+Shift+Right arrow) will move the window to the adjacent monitor.)
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
• Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
• Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that application
• Alt+Win+# accesses the Jump List of program number ‘#’ on the taskbar

Taskbar Shortcuts

The new taskbar is one of the best improvements in Windows 7 and, yes, there’s even keyboard shortcuts to use for efficiently

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar is that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons

In addition, you can interact with the taskbar using your mouse and a modifier key:

• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.

…and just a few more keys

• Ctrl+Shift+N: Creates a new folder in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+Up: Goes up a folder level in Windows Explorer.
• Alt+P: Toggles the preview pane in Windows Explorer. Great for skimming through through photos without opening them.
• Shift+Right-Click on a file: Adds Copy as Path, which copies the path of a file to the clipboard.
• Win+P: Brings up the presentation settings for your display which is useful for connecting a projector or multiple monitors.
• Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out.
• Win+G: Cycle between the Windows Gadgets on your screen.