By Manny Fernandez

September 22, 2026

Windows 11 Keyboard Shortcuts: The Practitioner’s Cheat Sheet

Windows 11 has well over a hundred keyboard shortcuts, but most people only ever learn five or six of them by accident. That is a lot of mouse mileage you do not need to put in.

This is the full reference: general desktop and system controls, window management and Snap Layouts, virtual desktops, File Explorer, the taskbar, text editing, screenshots and screen recording, Copilot and search, accessibility, and Command Prompt. Keys are spelled out in full (Win, Ctrl, Alt, Shift) instead of using symbol glyphs, since those symbols do not render consistently across every keyboard, font, and browser.

No fluff. Just the keys that work.

General Desktop & System

Shortcut What It Does
Win Open or close the Start menu
Win + A Open Quick Settings (Wi-Fi, volume, brightness, Bluetooth)
Win + I Open Settings
Win + L Lock the PC
Win + D Show or hide the desktop
Win + , (comma) Temporarily peek at the desktop while held
Win + Pause Open Settings > System > About
Ctrl + Alt + Delete Open the security screen (lock, switch user, sign out, Task Manager)
Ctrl + Shift + Esc Open Task Manager directly
Alt + F4 Close the active window, or show the shutdown dialog if none is open
Alt + Tab Switch between open windows
Ctrl + Alt + Tab Show thumbnails of open apps and pick one with the arrow keys
Alt + Esc Cycle through windows in the order they were opened
Esc Cancel the current task or dismiss a dialog
F2 Rename the selected item
F5 or Ctrl + R Refresh the active window
Win + Period or Win + Semicolon Open the emoji, symbol, and GIF panel

Window Management & Snap Layouts

Shortcut What It Does
Win + Left arrow Snap the active window to the left half of the screen
Win + Right arrow Snap the active window to the right half of the screen
Win + Alt + Up arrow Snap the active window to the top half of the screen
Win + Alt + Down arrow Snap the active window to the bottom half of the screen
Win + Up arrow Maximize the active window
Win + Down arrow Minimize the active window, or restore it if maximized
Win + Shift + Up arrow Stretch the window to the top and bottom of the screen
Win + Shift + Down arrow Restore a snapped or maximized window
Win + Home Minimize every window except the active one
Win + Shift + M Restore windows that were minimized with Win + M
Win + M Minimize all windows
Win + Z Open Snap Layouts for the active window
Win + Shift + Left arrow Move the active window to the monitor on the left
Win + Shift + Right arrow Move the active window to the monitor on the right

Virtual Desktops & Task View

Shortcut What It Does
Win + Tab Open Task View
Win + Ctrl + D Create a new virtual desktop
Win + Ctrl + Right arrow Switch to the virtual desktop on the right
Win + Ctrl + Left arrow Switch to the virtual desktop on the left
Win + Ctrl + F4 Close the current virtual desktop

File Explorer

Shortcut What It Does
Win + E Open File Explorer
Ctrl + N Open a new File Explorer window
Ctrl + T Open a new tab
Ctrl + W Close the active tab, or the window if it is the only tab
Ctrl + Tab / Ctrl + Shift + Tab Move to the next or previous tab
Ctrl + Shift + N Create a new folder
Alt + Enter Show properties for the selected item
Alt + Left arrow / Backspace Go back to the previous folder
Alt + Right arrow Go forward
Alt + Up arrow Move up one folder level
Alt + D or Ctrl + L Select the address bar
Ctrl + E or Ctrl + F Select the search box
F2 Rename the selected item
Ctrl + D or Delete Send the selected item to the Recycle Bin
Shift + Delete Permanently delete the item, bypassing the Recycle Bin
Ctrl + Shift + E Expand the full folder tree in the navigation pane
Ctrl + Shift + Number (1-9) Switch the view style, e.g. 2 for large icons, 6 for details
Alt + P Show or hide the preview pane
Alt + Shift + P Show or hide the details pane
Ctrl + Number (1-9) Jump to that tab number

Taskbar

Shortcut What It Does
Win + T Cycle through open apps on the taskbar without switching to them
Win + Number (1-9) Launch, or switch to, the app pinned in that taskbar slot
Win + Shift + Number (1-9) Launch a new instance of the app in that taskbar slot
Win + Ctrl + Number (1-9) Switch to the last active window of the app in that slot
Win + Ctrl + Shift + Number (1-9) Open a new, elevated instance of the app in that slot
Shift + click a taskbar icon Open a new instance of that app
Ctrl + Shift + click a taskbar icon Open the app as an administrator
Shift + right-click a taskbar icon Show the window menu for that app
Win + B Move focus to the notification area (system tray)

Text Editing & Navigation

Shortcut What It Does
Ctrl + C / Ctrl + X / Ctrl + V Copy, cut, and paste
Ctrl + Z / Ctrl + Y Undo and redo
Ctrl + A Select everything
Ctrl + Left arrow / Right arrow Jump the cursor a word at a time
Ctrl + Up arrow / Down arrow Jump the cursor a paragraph at a time
Shift + arrow keys Extend the selection one character or line at a time
Ctrl + Shift + arrow keys Extend the selection a word or paragraph at a time
Home / End Jump to the start or end of the line
Ctrl + Home / Ctrl + End Jump to the start or end of the document
Ctrl + Backspace / Ctrl + Delete Delete a whole word at a time
Ctrl + F Find text
Ctrl + H Find and replace text
Ctrl + Shift + V Paste as plain text, in apps that support it

Screenshots & Screen Recording

Shortcut What It Does
Win + Shift + S Open the Snipping Tool overlay to capture a region as an image
Win + Shift + R Open the Snipping Tool overlay to record a region as a video clip
Win + Print Screen Save a full-screen screenshot straight to Pictures > Screenshots
Print Screen Capture the screen or open the snipping overlay, depending on your setting, and copy the result to the clipboard
Alt + Print Screen Copy just the active window to the clipboard

Copilot, Search & Voice Typing

Shortcut What It Does
Copilot key, or Win + C Open Copilot, or Windows Search if Copilot is unavailable or disabled
Win + S or Win + Q Open Windows Search
Win + H Start voice typing
Win + Alt + H Move focus to the voice typing bar once it is open

Settings & Accessibility

Shortcut What It Does
Win + I Open Settings
Win + U Jump straight to Settings > Accessibility
Win + Plus (+) Zoom in with Magnifier
Win + Minus (-) Zoom out with Magnifier
Win + Esc Close Magnifier
Win + Ctrl + Enter Open Narrator
Win + Ctrl + C Toggle color filters, if enabled in Settings

Command Prompt & Terminal

Shortcut What It Does
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert Copy the selected text
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert Paste
Ctrl + M Enter Mark mode for keyboard-based text selection
Ctrl + Up arrow / Down arrow Scroll one line up or down through the output history
Ctrl + Home (Mark mode) Jump to the beginning of the buffer
Ctrl + End (Mark mode) Jump to the end of the buffer

Keys are spelled out (Win, Ctrl, Alt, Shift) instead of symbol glyphs, since those symbols do not render consistently across every keyboard, font, and browser.

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