The Joel on Software Discussion Group (CLOSED)

Did you know about Alt-Esc? It sends a window to the background. So if you have 15 windows carefully arranged, and you need to do something quickly on the one that's maximized on the bottom of the stack, you can click it, do your thing, press Alt-Esc, and all your windows are right back the way they had been.

Of course, power users just set raise-on-focus=no and focus-follows-pointer=yes.

Cool. Programming for 9 years now, didn't know that. Learn something new every day.

...and related to that, Ctrl-Esc brings the task bar to the front and opens the start menu, even if the desktop and taskbar are hidden by a full-screen app.

Neither alt-esc nor ctrl-esc work for me.  Oh well.

Thanks - used Windows since 1991, didn't know about that, and I just adore keyboard shortcuts.

Did you know that the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+L in Visual Studio .NET 2003 for viewing the Solutions Explorer never works?

While we're talking about really useful power user Windows commands that not everyone knows about, here are some that I use:

Windows-Key D displays the desktop
Windows-Key R lets you run an app
Windows-Key L lets you lock the desktop

You probably know that holding down Alt and pressing tab lets you switch apps.  But less people know that you can hold down the Shift key to rotate the other way.

I like to find folders using the command line so I press Windows-R, type cmd, change my directory, and then type "start ." to see that folder in an explorer window.

If you like the commandline and you have a Win95/98/ME/2000/NT, you should set a registry key to add tab completion.  (Do a Google search for it...)

I find it really useful to make a copy of notepad.exe and name it n.exe. (And it can also be helpful to use a free program called metapad and name that n.exe since it also shows line numbers.)

A correction.

In XP Home Edition (which is what I am using right now) you can't really lock the desktop, so Windows-L logs you out.

I think I remember that Windows-L does lock your desktop if you have the professional version.  If not, you can lock by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del and then clicking Lock.

Windows-E opens Explorer.

Philo

Ctrl-G in Notepad lets you jump to a line number... handy when debugging Javascript errors - View Source, Ctrl G to the line number the error reports on

Win-Tab brings you to the taskbar and you can select a new window with the keyboard!

Just hit left and right and then enter to select the window.

>Ctrl-G in Notepad lets you jump to a line number... handy >when debugging Javascript errors - View Source, Ctrl G to >the line number the error reports on

That doesn't seem to work for me (notepad for WinXP Home).  That's part of why I use metapad.

Incidentally Ctrl-G seems to be pretty standard in lots of Windows apps such Visual Studio and MS Word.

> Win-Tab brings you to the taskbar and you can select a new >window with the keyboard!

Cool...I didn't know that one. :)  The functionally seems pretty similar to Alt-Tab except you don't have to hold a key down (which makes it easier to explain to people and simpler to use for people with some handicaps.)

Also, it is a little nicer than Alt-Tab in that you choose apps based on where they are located in the taskbar.

But you forgot the most useful of them all:

Windows + E brings up the windows file explorer w/all drives shown!

Holding down the modifier keys and dragging files across folders shows tiny icons to see what the result will be. An arrow creates a shortcut, a '+' signs makes a copy, no indicator moves the file. Also dragging files with the right mouse button shows a pop-up menu that lets you choose your action.

My favorite is keyboard short-cuts for any shortcut on the desktop and all shortcuts in the Start Menu. Right-Click-->Properties-->Short-cut Key-->$alphabet. Launch with 'Ctrl-Alt-$alphabet'.

Oh! And these http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q126449

ALso very handy:
This reg-hack lets you open a command prompt from Explorer -
http://ww.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000pro/tips/opcom.mspx

You have to have word-wrap turned off in order to use Ctrl-G in Notepad.

Oh yeah.. Win + D not only minimizes all windows, but hitting Win+D again restores only the windows that were not minimized before you hit it the first time.

Waay more useful than just Win+M which just minimizes indiscriminately...

CTRL-SHIFT-ESC brings up the taskmanager.

Thank's all for valuable shortcuts.
I've already mentioned WinKey on this forum once, but here it goes again for shortcut lovers:

http://www.download.com/3000-2344-913626.html?tag=lst-0-1
http://www.webtree.ca/newlife/winkey_info.htm

Using WinKey I assign the following shortcuts, for example:
Win+Up  = Maximize Windows
Win+Down = Minimize Window
Win+Left = Restore Window
Win+N    = Notepad
Win+F2  = Total Commander
Win+X    = Firefox
.....

One of my favourites:

Ctrl-Enter in the IE address line prefixes whatever is on the address line with "www." and suffixes it with ".com".

In Excel, the arrow keys move the selection from a cell to another according to the direction of the arrow. If the Scroll lock is on, the whole spreadsheet moves in the direction of the arrow.

one more along the lines of Mark's latest post...

In Firefox with the domain name already typed out (except no the top level domain)

CTRL+ENTER adds http://(domain).com
SHIFT+ENTER adds http://(domain).net
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER adds http://(domain).org

Sadly, no .edu :(