They do make your life easier. Here is a list of some of the more commonly used universal hot keys, but it’s by no means the entire list. If you have more hot keys, or if you know of a site we can point readers to, let us know. This is one page you’ll want to bookmark for reference.

Pressing the "Print Screen" key will place the image of your screen into clipboard. Then you can paste it into any program which can work with graphics - PaintBrush, PhotoShop, WinWord, etc.

Pressing "Alt + Print Screen" will place into clipboard an image of active window.

If you'll keep the SHIFT button pressed while dragging a file to the Recycle Bin, then the file will be deleted without placing into it...

You can roll-back almost any action you've done in Windows (e.g. deleting or moving a file) by pressing Ctrl-Z combination.

When rebooting your computer (by selecting appropriate commands from Start menu) you can hold the Shift key. In this case only Windows will reboot, not the computer itself.

If you hold the Ctrl button pressed while Windows loading, then programs from the AutoRun group will not run automatically...

When you work with Notepad pressing F5 will insert the current date and time right next to your cursor...

In explorer combination of keys Shift - F10 works just like right-click...

If you have AutoPlay CD turned on then you can avoid it's automatical starting by holding the Shift key pressed while you're closing the CD tray...

If you click on a system panel (to free up the focus) and then press F3 then the search utility will start...

The F2 button will help you to quickly rename the folder or file in explorer...

Button F5 will refresh the explorer's window...

In order to quickly minimize all open windows you can click on a system bar (to remove focus from the top windows, same effect can be achieved by pressing Ctrl-Esc) and pressing Alt-M

If after "hanging" of some application Windows doesn't respond to Ctrl-Alt-Del and doesn't allow you to stop the offending program, try to press Ctrl-Esc. Sometimes Windows opens the Start menu and allows to choose Shutdown...

Everyone knows that the button with Windows logo (WB) opens the main menu. But not everyone knows that:

• WB+"E" opens Explorer;
• WB+"F" opens Find file dialog;
• WB+"M" minimizes all windows;
• WB+Shift+"M" maximizes them back;
• WB+"R" calls Run menu;
• WB+"Break" opens System window;
• WB+"Tab" changes foreground task;

WB+D shows desktop (much faster than WB+M)

If you double-click on a file while holding the SHIFT key pressed, the program will start in minimized mode.

For remembering Window's hot-keys (and, probably, other things) it could be useful to make a BMP picture with text and place it as a wallpaper...

Found by occasion: if you press Ctrl-G in explorer, then the GoTo dialog will be presented. There are commands from Start-Run... dialog in this menu, but they don't work...

In order to quickly open a disk, you can create it's shorkat on the desktop, select it's properties and assign it a hotkey. It's much faster then an average explorer...

To send a message from ICQ you may use an Ctrl - Enter combination instead of pressing Send. Same works in Adobe Photoshop for inserting text.

If you hold the Shift button while clicking on a link in Internet Explorer, then the link will be opened in a new Window...

If working in FAR manager you place a cursor ton the root of the folder (..), press Ctrl-Enter and then Shift-Enter, then this folder will open in Explorer... And if you press Shift-Enter on any file, then it'll be opened with the program associated in Windows.

For switching between tasks in Windows you may use not only taskbar, but also hot keys Alt-Tab. By pressing Shift-Alt-Tab you can move backward through the task list.

Quick settings for MS Word menues: if you press Ctrl + Alt + Grey plus, then you can easily set a hot-key combination for a menu item. And with Ctrl + Alt + (plus or minus sign) you can edit menu itselve (e.g. remove the item Save from the File menu, etc.)

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