General keyboard-only commands

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  • F1: Starts Windows Help




  • F10: Activates menu bar options




  • SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object




  • CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)




  • CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)




  • CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager




  • ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box




  • ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)




  • SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature




  • ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)




  • ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)




  • CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program




  • ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu




  • ALT+F4: Closes the current window




  • CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window




  • ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)





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