25 Cool Windows 7 Keyboard Tricks That Will Impress Your Friends

Anyone working professionally with a computer has their hands on the keyboard most of the time. Reaching for the mouse can be an annoying disturbance and personally I often turn over my mouse in such situations. An easy solution is to simply keep the hands on the keyboard and complete as many tasks as possible with keyboard shortcuts only.

Apart from making you work more efficiently and faster, you can also impress your friends or colleagues by being able to work without a mouse. This article describes some cool Windows 7 keyboard tricks to get you started. In the end you might never want to take your hands off the keyboard again.

For your convenience, more keyboard shortcut resources are attached at the bottom.

Note that some of these shortcuts will only work if Windows Aero is enabled. If Aero effects are disabled on your computer, it might not be powerful enough to support resource intensive graphical features. The visual effects may also have been disabled to increase overall performance. If you wish to enable Aero nevertheless, have a look at my recent article explaining How To Enable and Troubleshoot Aero Effects in Windows 7.

Aero Shortcuts

*[Windows] + [Spacebar] (Aero Peek)
Make all open windows transparent to view gadgets and icons on desktop.

*[Windows] + [D] (Aero Peek)
Show or hide the desktop.

*[Windows] + [Home] (Aero Shake)
Minimize all but selected window. Reverse by clicking the key combination again.

*[Windows] + left arrow OR [Windows] + right arrow (Aero Snap)
Dock selected window to the left or right half of your screen.

*[Windows] + up arrow OR [Windows] + down arrow (Aero Snap)
Maximized and restores the selected window.

*[Windows] + [SHIFT] + up arrow OR [Windows] + [SHIFT] + down arrow (Aero Snap)
Maximizes and restores selected window in vertical dimension only.

*[Windows] + [Tab] (Aero Flip)
Launch 3D representation of open windows and click [Tab] key again to flip through them.

Windows & Taskbar

[Alt] + [Ctrl] + [Tag] + left/right/up/down arrow
Flip window.

[Alt] + [Tab]
Cycle through open windows.

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