My gift to Windows 11 users — here are 10 keyboard shortcuts I can’t live without
I know, I know – keyboard shortcuts are hard to remember, and most of them are so specialized that they’re not even worth the effort. while trying to waste memory.
But some are incredibly useful, and I’ve put together this list of shortcuts I use every day for work, browsing, and gaming.
You may already know a few of them, but I’m willing to bet you’ll learn at least one new tip in this article that will save you time and Windows headaches.
|
Shortcut |
What it does |
|---|---|
|
Windows+. |
Open the Emojis board and more |
|
Windows + Shift + S |
Opens the Snippet tool for screenshots and recordings |
|
Windows + Alt + Arrows |
Aligns the active window to part of the screen |
|
Windows + Shift + Arrows |
Moves the active window between multiple views |
|
Alt+Tab |
Cycles through active windows |
|
Windows + Alt + G |
Records a 30-second clip of gameplay |
|
Ctrl + arrow keys |
Jump cursor through words in text |
|
Ctrl+F |
Opens the Search function in browsers |
|
Ctrl+R |
Refreshes the current browser page |
|
Ctrl+Shift+T |
Open recently closed tabs |
1. Windows+.
Windows+. is an incredibly practical little time saver that few users know about.
If you’ve ever searched for “skull emoji” on Google, tried to find an ASCII face like “( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)” or realized you needed the link you copied to your clipboard an hour ago, this shortcut, which opens the “Emojis and More” table for you.
It is also invaluable for those who need to use special symbols such as Em dashes (—), arrows (→), and various currencies ($ or £).
Windows + V will take you directly to your clipboard history, where you can see the past text you copied with Ctrl+Cand even recent screenshots you took. Clipboard history is disabled by default, but Windows + V will always take you there to activate it.
2. Windows + Shift + S
If I had a penny for every time I used Windows + Shift + SI could buy Microsoft and get rid of Copilot.
Windows + Shift + S is much better than using PrtScn for screenshots, because you can choose to capture either a rectangular area of your choice, just the active window, your entire screen (taskbar and all), or even a free form.
You can also use the toolbar at the top of Windows + Shift + S to switch to screen recording, a color picker that returns Hex, RGB, or HSL values, or text capture that lets you quickly copy words from stubborn images or PDFs.
Plus, once you take a screenshot, you can paste it directly into chats or image editing software with Ctrl+V.
Screenshots taken this way will be saved in the “Screenshots” folder by default (not Downloads!)
3. Windows + Alt + Arrows
If you ever need to divide your screen into halves or quadrants – so you can read an article on the left side of your screen and take notes on the right half, for example – you can use Windows + Alt + Arrows for quick cycling between them.
4. Windows + Shift + Arrows
This one is aimed at the multi-screen users in the public. If you have equipped your setup with two or more of the best monitors, Windows + Shift + Arrows is a lifesaver.
You can quickly project a full-screen video from your left monitor to your right monitor without having to exit full-screen, drag the video to the other monitor, and then return to full-screen.
It’s also a great tool for productivity, allowing you to quickly move spreadsheets or documents to your second monitor.
And for gamers, if a game starts on the wrong monitor, you can move it to the correct one (although this can sometimes disrupt the game’s display resolution).
Additionally, this comes in handy when Task Manager opens behind an unresponsive app and you can’t access it otherwise.
5. Alt+Tab
Most of you who own a skin in the Windows game will be very familiar with it. Alt+Tab. It’s a real time saver that allows you to quickly navigate through open windows without having to click.
But it is SO It’s helpful that I had to include it in this list in case anyone isn’t already using it – if this shortcut disappeared, I might genuinely consider switching to Linux.
You can also use Windows + tab to see all your windows open on multiple desktops, and it’s better than Alt+Tab in some cases (e.g. when you want to look through your open windows without constantly holding Alt).
6. Windows + Alt + G
If you want to capture your gameplay highlights, share funny moments with friends, or do a replay to confirm your suspicions about a cheating enemy, Windows + Alt + G is the way to go.
However, you’ll need to enable it before you can use it, so make sure to open Xbox Game Bar with Windows + G (you don’t need to own an Xbox), click the gear icon in the top navigation bar to go to Settings, then click Widgets and enable “Record in the background while playing a game”.
Once activated, Windows + Alt + G will create a clip of the last 30 seconds of gameplay and save it to your Captures folder (in Videos).
You can also choose whether it records only game audio or also desktop audio (which will capture mic inputs from Discord, for example). You can also use Windows + Alt + R to start a screen recording in progress.
7. Ctrl + Arrows
Ctrl + Arrows is ideal for quickly navigating through text. It places your cursor at the beginning or end of a word and can be used in combination with Shift (Ctrl + Shift + Arrows) to highlight entire words or lines of text at a time.
This is perfect for grabbing certain sections of text to copy and paste or delete without using your mouse or Ctrl+Awhich highlights all text on a page or in a text entry field.
If you want to highlight text letter by letter or line by line, use Shift + Arrow keys.
8. Ctrl+F
I have saved my friends countless hours with this one. If you’re looking for a name, a date, or even just a certain letter in a document or web page, Ctrl+F will do the research for you.
After using Ctrl+F To display the search box, simply type what you are looking for and use the arrow keys to the right of the search bar to jump directly to the text you want.
It also tells you how many times a certain word, number, or phrase appears on the page, which is useful if you’re writing an article so you can see when it’s time to insert a synonym. I just used Ctrl+F to see that this is the first time I have used the word “paper” in this article (it has just increased to two).
9. Ctrl+R
Ctrl+R refreshes the browser tab you’re currently on, which is great for getting new results on limited-time sales events, live blog pages, and YouTube recommendations, among others.
10. Ctrl + Shift + T
Ctrl+Shift+T will open recently closed tabs on browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera.
This is a huge time saver if you close a tab only to find you need to view it again, or if you accidentally close the entire browser and need to recover your tabs.
It reopens tabs in the order they were closed, so if you need to open multiple tabs again, just use Ctrl+Shift+T several times.
Do you have your own favorite Windows 11 shortcut? Let me know in the comments below!
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