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.
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