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Essential Windows shortcuts you should never forget

Without a doubt, the graphical user interface (GUI) along with the mouse is the best way to interact with your computer. But some routine work like copy-paste, minimize, maximize etc can be executed faster with the help of keyboard shortcuts. If you do a lot of typing, then switching between your keyboard and mouse can greatly slow down your work. Once you start using shortcuts you can immediately see the effect it has on your operating speed and your geekiness. Windows has hundreds of keyboard shortcuts. If you do a Google search you will be overwhelmed with the amount of results you will get. Of course, you can't remember all these. Nobody does, or shall I say, very few does. But you can certainly remember a few dozen, at least you should try for it can greatly improve your speed of using your computer. Here are some basic keyboard shortcuts that you should definitely commit to memory.

General Windows shortcuts 

Ctrl+A - Select all
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+X - Cut
Ctrl+V - Paste
Ctrl+Z - Undo
Delete - Delete
Shift+Delete - Delete the selected item permanently by bypassing Recycle Bin. Use with caution. Ctrl+Z can't help you here

Ctrl+S - Save the current page
F2 key- Rename the selected item
Shift with any of the arrow keys - Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document
F3 key- Search for a file or a folder
Alt+F4 - Close the active item, or quit the active program. Also works with Windows shutdown
Alt+Tab - Switch between the open items
Alt+Esc - Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened
Backspace - View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer

Ctrl+Alt+Delete - Open task manager
Ctrl+Esc - Display the Start menu.
Windows Key - Display or hide the Start menu
Windows Key+D - Display the desktop
Windows Key+M - Minimize all of the windows
Windows Key+Shift+M - Restore the minimized windows
Windows Key+E- Open My Computer
END - Display the bottom of the active window
HOME - Display the top of the active window

Dialog box shortcuts

Tab - Move forward through options.
Ctrl+Tab - Move forward through tabs.
Enter - Carry out the command for the active option or button.
Spacebar - Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box

General word processing shortcuts

Ctrl+B - Bold
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+I - Italics
Ctrl+O - Open an item
Ctrl+U - Underline
Ctrl+P - Print the current page or active frame

Browser shortcuts

Ctrl+D - Bookmark the current page
Ctrl+Enter - Adds the http://www. (url) .com
Esc - Stop downloading a page
F11 - Toggle full-screen view
F5 - Refresh the current page

Some more shortcuts can be found here
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