Windows 8 Bible

Creating Custom Shortcut Keys

Windows 8 offers many shortcut keys that you can use as an alternative to the mouse. They’re summarized in Appendix C at the back of this book. Most programs also offer shortcut keys. Those you can discover by looking at pull-down menus or by searching that program’s Help using the keywords shortcut keys.

You can create your own custom shortcut keys for launching favorite programs or opening folders. By default, these custom keys will be a Ctrl+Alt+key combination to avoid conflicts with built-in shortcut keys. Also, they’ll work only when you’re on the desktop. That’s because keystrokes apply only to the active window. So if any program window is open on the desktop, your keystrokes apply only to that window.

Tip

You can minimize all open windows to get to the desktop without losing your place in open program windows. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar or the clock and choose Show The Desktop, or click the Show Desktop button at the far right edge of the taskbar. You can also press +M to show the desktop.

Before you create a custom shortcut key, make sure it’s not already assigned to something else. Get to the desktop and press the Ctrl+Alt+key combination you intend to use. If nothing opens, you know the shortcut is available. If something does open, you need to come up with a different shortcut key, or remove the shortcut key from the item to which it’s currently assigned.

You can assign a shortcut key to any item that offers a Shortcut ...