In the world of Software-Engineering, I use lots of keyboard shortcuts to navigate around the OS, in my code, etc. Surprisingly, these shortcuts are not widely-known to those that are not generally in a technical background, and even then, there are some exceptions.
Below is a list of keyboard shortcuts that can be useful especially when a mouse goes dead or the cursor appears to go non-responsive.
Legend
<key1> + <key2>
Press key1, then key2 so that both keys are down together.
<key1>, <key2>
Press key1, let go, then press key2.
<key1>, <key2> + <key3>
Press key1, let go of key1, then press key2, then key3 so that key2 and key3 are down together.
Operations
Windows Operating System
- Alt + Tab: Switches between application that are running in the taskbar.
- Alt + F4: Does two things –
- Closes the currently-active window.
- If all windows are closed, brings up the option to shutdown/restart the machine.
- Start + E: Starts Windows Explorer.
- Start + D -OR- Start + M: Minimizes all open windows and brings the user back to the desktop.
- Start + F: Perform a find function for files in the system.
- Start + R: Brings up the Run command dialog.
- Ctrl + Alt + Del: Brings Task Manager to the forefront.
- F1: Windows help system.
- Tab: Navigates between controls in the active window.
Dialog Boxes
- Tab: Moves the focus selector (dotted line border) from one button to another.
- Space: When the focus selector is over a button, this selects that button.
- Enter: Selects the bold-bordered button, if any.
- Escape: Selects the cancel option or closes the dialog.
Office
- Ctrl + X -OR- Shift + Delete: Cuts the selected text to the clipboard.
- Ctrl + C: Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
- Ctrl + V -OR- Shift + Insert: Pastes the text from the clipboard to the cursor position.
Internet Explorer
- F5: Refresh the current page.
- F11: Toggle full-screen mode.
- Backspace: Navigate to the previous page.
- Ctrl + F: Find text on the current page.
Visual Studio
- Alt + F2: Toggle a bookmark
- F2: Jump to the next bookmark
- F5: Run debugger.
- F7: Compile codebase.
- F9: Toggle a breakpoint on the currently-selected line.
- F10: During a debug session, steps the execution to the next line.
- F11: During a debug session, steps the execution into the currently-selected function.
- Ctrl + B: Display a list of breakpoints.
- Ctrl + K, C: Comment out the currently-selected line.
- Ctrl + K, U: Uncomment the currently selected line.