Windows 7 Shortcut Keys

One of the first things you should do if you want to streamline your workflow and make your computer operation lightning fast is to learn the shortcut keys for Windows 7. Instead of hunting around your menu system, expending unnecessary clicks, you can perform a particuluar task with just a few keystrokes. You’d be surprised by just how smooth and flowing your workflow can become if you transfer the workload to your keyboard.

Or, from Microsoft themselves, on Windows 7 shortcuts:

Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of two or more keys that, when pressed, can be used to perform a task that would typically require a mouse or other pointing device. Keyboard shortcuts can make it easier to interact with your computer, saving you time and effort as you work with Windows and other programs.

You’ll find that a lot of keyboard shortcuts available in WIndows 7 also work in other programs too.

The best way to learn the keyboard shortcuts is to look at reference material that displays them all, and then mark the ones that you often use and are likely to use in the next few days. You can write these out to make a smaller list that’s easier to read. Then every time you perform an action that has a shortcut, refer to it from your list to remind you of what the shortcut is until you can remember unaided.

As well as using this structure approach to learning the shortcuts, you can also use and learn them “on the fly”. If a letter is underlined in a menu, that usually means that pressing the Alt key in combination with the underlined key will have the same effect as clicking that menu item.

There are lots of keyboard shortcuts available for you to use in Windows 7, but there follows a simplified list of the ones you are most likely to use from day to day. Here is the definitive list of Windows 7 shortcuts, in case you have trouble sleeping. The shortcuts that perform actions on windows perform them on the active window.