Windows 8 shortcut keys

Shortcut Description
Windows Key + D Show Desktop
Windows Key + C Open Charms Menu
Windows Key + F Charms Menu – Search
Windows Key + H Charms Menu – Share
Windows Key + K Charms Menu – Devices
Windows Key + I Charms Menu – Settings
Windows Key + Q Search For Installed Apps
Windows Key + W Search Settings
Windows Key + Tab Cycle through open Modern UI Apps
Windows Key + Shift + Tab Cycle through open Modern UI Apps in reverse order
Windows Key + . Snaps app to the right (split screen multitasking)
Windows Key + Shift + . Snaps app to the left (split screen multitasking)
Windows Key + , Temporarily view desktop
Alt + F4 Quit Modern UI Apps
Windows Key + E Launch Windows Explorer Window
Windows Key + L Lock PC and go to lock screen
Windows Key + T Cycle through icons on taskbar (press Enter to launch app)
Windows Key + X Show Advanced Windows Settings Menu
Windows Key + E Launch Windows Explorer Window
Windows Key + Page Down Moves Start screen and apps to secondary monitor on the right
Windows Key + M Minimize all Windows
Windows Key + Shift + M Restore all minimized Windows
Windows Key + R Open Run dialog box
Windows Key + Up Arrow Maximize current window
Windows Key + Down Arrow Minimize current window
Windows Key + Left Arrow Maximize current window to left side of the screen
Windows Key + Right Arrow Maximize current window to right side of the screen
Ctrl + Shift + Escape Open Task Manager
Windows Key + Print Screen Takes a Print Screen and saves it to your Pictures folder
Windows Key + Page Up Moves Start screen and apps to secondary monitor on the left
Windows Key + Pause Break Display System Properties
Shift + Delete Permanently delete files without sending it to Recycle Bin
Windows Key + F1 Open Windows Help and Support
Windows Key + V Cycle through notifications
Windows Key + Shift + V Cycle through notifications in reverse order
Windows Key + 0 to 9 Launch/show app pinned to taskbar at indicated number
Windows Key + Shift + 0 to 9 Launch new instance of app pinned to taskbar at indicated number
Alt + Enter Display Properties of selected item in File Explorer
Alt + Up Arrow View upper level folder of current folder in File Explorer
Alt + Right Arrow View next folder in File Explorer
Alt + Left Arrow View previous folder in File Explorer
Windows Key + P Choose secondary display modes
Windows Key + U Open Ease of Access Center
Alt + Print Screen Print Screen focused Window only
Windows Key + Spacebar Switch input language and keyboard layout
Windows Key + Shift + Spacebar Switch to previous input language and keyboard layout
Windows Key + Enter Open Narrator
Windows Key + + Zoom in using Magnifier
Windows Key + - Zoom out using Magnifier
Windows Key + Escape Exit Magnifier

 

Moved into Windows forum and Stickied as a good reference for everyone on Windows 8

 

Thanks Spetznia - that's quite a list .

I find Windows Key + X to be so useful.

 

Does this work for indows 8.1 as well? I recently started using this OS, I'll give those shortcuts a try! Thanks, Spetznia A truly useful post!

 

Thanks I needed that. I was looking all over to see how to do shortcuts.

 

Nice. I was just wondering what the shortcut for the run key for Windows 8 was. @ Above, yes these do work with Windows 8.1

 

Amazing, thanks for providing such an informative shortcut keys for windows 8.

 

Hi, thanks for the exhaustive list! However, I have a question. A lot of these shortcuts were for Windows 7 as well, and even for Windows Vista or Windows XP. Which of these are specifically for Windows 8? They seem to be universal!

 

Dang, never actually knew there were a bunch of these commands. I've always used Windows key + R to run programs like cmd.

 

I haven't learn shortcut keys for my window, and this is a great list to have on hand! I will refer to this list to learn slowly. I am so accustom to using right click for everything that I know how to do

 

The shortcut keys are easily the number 1 way to drastically improve your overall performance and speed on a windows box. Being able to combine these when doing very monotonous tasks is a huge help.

Thanks for the comprehensive list.

 

I'm amazed at how many shortcut keys Windows has in their system. Now I can wow my friends and family with my amazing computer skillz. Do all of these apply to Windows 7 and 10 as well?

 

a quick keyword table, stripped down and very popular.
I then confirmed only some basic keystrokes now I can use it more and learn more.
thank you very much

 

This is so useful! Thank you! I am sure I will forget most of these so might as well bookmark it. Thing is Windows seems to be getting more complicated with each update and I find ot harder to enjoy. Hopefully these shortcuts will help though.

 

This is just a nice comprehensive list of Windows 8 shortcut keys! I appreciate it, this is very helpful.

 

I started frustrated with windows 10 a buggy version, when I turned 7, the window is limited.
while Microsoft claims is a win win 10 of its last

 

That's an interesting and detailed list and all, but I'm kind of considering to just jump ahead to Windows 10 if I ever decide to upgrade my Windows 7, and skip W8 entirely. No offense, but I think the layouts are terrible, the functions are new and I have to relearn them, and to be honest, if there's a W10 available already, I really don't see why I should go to W8 and then upgrade again to W10 eventually.

 

Thanks for providing this extensive list. It'll be useful.

What I don't like about the Windows key is that sometimes I accidentally press it while trying to press the Alt key or the Fn key (I'm using a Lenovo Laptop), because it's right between them, and this causes the Start screen to be shown. So I've actually added some code to an Autohotkey script that I'm using, and this makes the Windows key only work when it's pressed in combination with another key. Pressing the Windows key alone doesn't make the Start screen appear.