Windows 10 aims to be much more keyboard friendly upon release, and any power-user will tell you, keyboard shortcuts make your life much easier. Microsoft has compiled a list of the shortcuts in the Windows 10 Technical Preview, so that we ourselves do not need to mash keys and experiment.
- Snapping window: WIN + LEFT or RIGHT (can be used with UP or DOWN to get into quadrants)
- Switch to recent window: ALT + TAB (unchanged) – Hold shows new Task view window view, let go and switches to app.
- Task view: WIN + TAB – New Task view opens up and stays open.
- Create new virtual desktop: WIN + CTRL + D
- Close current virtual desktop: WIN + CTRL + F4
- Switch virtual desktop: WIN + CTRL + LEFT or RIGHT
Most of these are pretty familiar. Snapping Windows was already a feature of Windows 8, but the up and down arrows are nice, as they will snap the window into a corner. While its very useful, I found myself annoyed with it because I had been trained to use those keys to ‘unsnap’ a window (here’s a relevant comic).
ALT + TAB takes you to the ‘Task view window’ which shows all your open apps, and a place to manage your open desktops. Speaking of desktops, the shortcuts to add and change virtual desktops is my favorite — and I had no idea they existed until now. A warning, make sure you make a new virtual desktop before you try switching to it with the shortcuts.
I don’t know why these weren’t in a short help center in the technical preview itself (e.g. Ubuntu offers you a easy way to review the short cuts), but we are thankful that we have them now. As a bonus, a blogger has done Microsoft’s job for them and compiled a list of the Command Prompt shortcuts.
CTRL + V will paste text, CTRL + C / CTRL + INS will copy text to clipboard, CTRL + A will either select all the text after the prompt or select the entire buffer, CTRL + F opens a dialog you can use to find text, and there’s a lot more. You can check out the full list on Scott Hanselman’s blog (here).
Further reading: Microsoft, Windows 10
