20 Keyboard Shortcuts You’re A Moron for Not Using

Yes, I know, the title is just a joke, don't worry, I don't think you're really stupid. But the fact is, there are a lot of

keyboard

shortcuts

in Windows that you probably don't know about, but really should, and some of them are so useful that you could beat yourself up for not knowing them before. And although this video focuses on Windows, many of these

shortcuts

also work on Mac and Linux, simply by replacing Ctrl with the Command key and Alt with the Option key. Before we get started, a quick reminder to check out my Instagram account where I post the funniest tech memes you've ever come across and cool stuff about tech in general, and you can follow me on Instagram just @ThioJoe.

So, let's first start with shortcuts that are extremely useful, but are also very common, so HOPEFULLY you already know them all. But if not, don't worry, it's all good, but definitely write them down, because no self-respecting Windows user should be left without knowing them. And if you already know all this, be patient and stay, we will get to much more. First we have the classic copy and paste. I mean you BETTER know this one. To copy a file, text, literally anything in any program, it's Ctrl + C, and then to paste it again, it's Ctrl + V. But even you, an expert, may not know about the more advanced options, like the new History feature from the Clipboard, which can be used by pressing Win+V, and you can also paste previously copied things with this.

This feature has to be enabled in settings, so if you didn't know about this one, as a side note, check out my other video that talks about Windows features to enable, so I'll put it as a popup and in the description as well. But anyway, another option is to press Ctrl + Shift + V, which pastes the text just as plain, unformatted text. Which is great if you copied something with a weird formatting, big font, text color, whatever, and you want to get rid of it. Another shortcut you BEST know is Ctrl + S, which simply saves any document you have open in virtually every program, it's pretty universal.

And there's also Ctrl + F, which is the universal search/search command, and it works in Windows Explorer, web browsers to search for certain text on web pages, and pretty much all other programs. Another couple of shortcuts that basically require knowledge at this point are Ctrl + Z to undo and Ctrl + Y to redo something you just undid, or redo something you just did multiple times, even if you didn't necessarily undo it. Again, these are self-explanatory and universal. You should also know Alt + F4, which is used to close the current active window. Interestingly, this one is often used as a joke, where people tell you to press Alt + F4 to activate some amazing feature, but in reality it just closes the program you're

using

.

A lot of times people type this in gaming chats and see how many people they can disconnect from the server, so don't fall for it. Alright, the final shortcuts in the "you really should know these by now" category is how to select multiple files at once. In Windows Explorer or any other program that needs to select things, you can Shift+click one item, then Shift+click another, and it will just select those two items and everything else. On the other hand, doing Ctrl + Click will allow you to select multiple elements individually, without selecting anything in between.

You can even combine the two by

using

Shift Click to select a group, then Ctrl clicking on something else and then Shift clicking again on another folder to make a second separate group selection. Okay, next let's go over a couple of function key shortcuts. You may already know F5, which is the refresh key. This is primarily for web browsers, but it also works in other places like Windows Explorer and simply refreshes the page. However, a more advanced option is the so-called "super refresh", which is Ctrl + F5, and in browsers, this not only refreshes the page, but also redownloads the page's cached files.

You can try this yourself on this "cache refresh" test website I found, where simply refreshing doesn't change anything, but pressing Ctrl + F5 makes it work. So if a web page is acting up and even refreshing is not working, try pressing Ctrl + F5 and that might help. The other function key you should know is F2, which in Windows Explorer renames files and folders. Just hit it, type whatever you want and hit Enter, and it will rename that thing. Alright, now we're getting to shortcuts that not everyone knows about but should still know. And the first is the shortcut to open Task Manager directly, which is Ctrl + Shift + Esc.

You probably already know Ctrl + Alt + Delete, which is another way to do it, but it requires an extra step and shows a full screen with other options, while Ctrl + Shift + Esc simply displays it immediately. Next we have the common task selector, which is simply Alt + Tab, which again most people are probably familiar with. But you may not know about the Win + Tab alternative shortcut, which is very similar to Alt + Tab, but provides some additional features. For example, if you use multiple virtual desktops, Win + Tab will also show them. It also shows the most recent timeline feature, so you can scroll through and see recently used files and stuff like that.

An incredibly useful shortcut is to lock your computer, which is Win + L. You can use this any time you need to get up from your computer and don't want people messing with it, and it will ask you to enter your password, or use your fingerprint or whatever to log in again. It is especially useful for laptops. , but it's also good for desktop computers, like you're in an office environment. Obviously, if you don't have a login password for Windows, this won't help, but it's just common sense. Another good shortcut is Ctrl + A, which is the "Select All" command.

Whether you're on a web page, a word processor, or any other program, this just selects everything, not just text but also images and so on. There are a couple of limited situations where you can behave differently; For example, if you're typing in a text box in a browser, it will typically just select everything in the text box, so to select everything outside of that, you'll have to click outside of that first. Speaking of selecting things, if you use a laptop without a mouse frequently, this one will definitely come in handy, which is using the Shift + Arrow keys to select text.

This is good if you use a trackpad which can be really annoying to select text accurately, especially a lot of it. And one thing to keep in mind is that if you first use the mouse or trackpad to select a block of text, you can then use Shift + Arrows to modify the selection, depending on where you stopped selecting with the mouse. So if you run out of trackpad, you can select more with this one. Alternatively, you can always use Shift + Click as we talked about before, which will select the text between the two points you select.

Well, below we have the shortcut to snap Windows to different parts of the screen, using the Win + Arrow keys. With a window active, pressing Win + Left or Right will snap it to the left or right half of the screen, and then pressing Win + Up or Down will snap it to the respective corner. You can also press Win + up or down arrows to minimize and maximize the window. So they are really useful if you do many tasks at the same time. One shortcut I even wish I knew about sooner is the Win + D command, which hides all open windows to show the desktop.

You can then press it again to restore them. This is good if you store files and shortcuts on your desktop that you access frequently. Then by using this you will not have to minimize and restore programs every time. I like it a lot. Moving on, here's a good one that has to do with the quick launch bar on the taskbar. Any program you place here can be launched using

keyboard

shortcuts, specifically using the Win key + any number from that program's position in the quick launch bar. So, for example, Win + 1 starts the first program, and so on.

Very useful. Alright, now we have some shortcuts that are specifically just for web browsers, but basically they all support these same shortcuts, so we can still review them, they're universal enough. One that I use all the time and that you NEED to know is Ctrl + Shift + T, which restores closed tabs. There are countless times when I close a tab by accident or wasn't thinking and want to get it back, and this shortcut does just that. Another is the F11 key, which toggles full screen mode in browsers. Most of the time I activate this accidentally, so it might be more useful to know how to disable it in that case, but it could also be good if you're screen sharing or something and don't want anything extra on the screen.

Well, we're not done yet, because while those are 20 shortcuts you should definitely know and memorize, there are plenty that are still good to know that we can go over, even if they're not used very often. So let's go over some additional Windows key shortcuts to make this video longer than ten minutes, shall we? You know what the YouTube algorithm is like. Here is one that is not very well known, but is really cool, and it is the Win + Shift + S command to take screenshots. This automatically opens the Snip & Sketch app built into Windows and then allows you to make a selection from the screen to copy to the clipboard or save to a file.

So if you're still one of those newbies who use the Print Screen key and have to crop the screenshot in Microsoft Paint, it's time to upgrade! Another good shortcut is Win + P, which allows you to switch Windows to projection mode, if you need to present something from your computer. Then you have the options for how you want the second screen to behave, like mirrored, or just second screen, etc. If you are using a Windows tablet, you should definitely know the Win + O command, which locks the screen. orientation of the screen, so that it does not start rotating if you do not want it to.

Or if you just want to play a prank on your friends, you can use the fun Ctrl + Alt + arrow commands to rotate the screen and confuse the hell out of them. Just don't be mean and make sure you tell them how to restore it quickly. Alright, below are some shortcuts that simply open various menus in Windows. Like the Win + E shortcut that opens a new Windows Explorer window, either the "This PC" location or the quick access menu, depending on your settings. Again, be sure to watch my other video on setting up Windows to change them if you want to know about things like that.

Another is Win + I, which opens the settings menu, so I guess if you love that settings menu so much that you need a shortcut to literally save seconds, there you go. And there's also the Win + R shortcut that opens the run box, although nowadays you can usually type what you put in this box in the start menu, and that will work too. Now, finally, I've saved the best for last, just for the elite viewers who watched the video this far. And the secret and definitive shortcut that you SHOULD KNOW is…. Win + Semicolon, which opens the emoji panel.

Yes, really amazing, I know, you don't need to thank me. But if you want to brag to all the other commoners who didn't watch this far, be sure to leave a comment below saying "I'm an elite computer expert who watched until the end," and go ahead and add your favorite. emoji too using this truly epic shortcut you just learned. Obviously mine is the thinking emoji, which if you've watched my channel for any amount of time, should be painfully obvious. So yeah, by now you should be a real expert on computer shortcuts, let me know in the comments if I missed any important ones and make sure you check them out too, because someone might have mentioned one that's good that I didn't mention.

If you want to keep watching, be sure to check out my other videos where I go through Windows settings to change them. I actually made two of them so I'll put them here, you can just click on them or just look at the description too. Thank you very much for watching and see you in the next video.