Neat new Windows trick I learned

"Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs" (yowen) 10/11/2018 at 16:14 • Filed to: None

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It amazes me that after all these years using Windows I still learn new shortcuts and new ways of doing things. Today in the taskbar (start bar) I accidentally clicked my middle mouse button on a notepad document I had open. It opened a new blank instance of notepad!

Then I tried it on chrome: new window, then file explorer: new file explorer instance, it goes on. So handy this will be! The most exciting one for me is file explorer. I’m sure there is a myriad of other ways to do this, but I sure do like this one! Especially since it works with a variety of programs.

This is not something I’ve seen published before in lists of shortcuts for Windows, I like to browse through those from time to time to see if I’m missing any exceedingly handy-dandy tricks.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:20

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Oooh... thanks!

Tristan > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:20

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Just tried it. You’ve changed my life!

Nibby > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:21

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alt + f4 is also a nice one

BeaterGT > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:22

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WindowsKey+E to open file explorer changed my life.

Svend > Nibby 10/11/2018 at 16:25

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You dick. I just tried that one. Lol. 

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > Nibby 10/11/2018 at 16:26

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It looks like you’re trying to close a window. Would you want some help with that?

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:27

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F12 in MS-Office to Save-As. Saves time going to the menu.

Ash78, voting early and often > Nibby 10/11/2018 at 16:28

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OW MY FINGERS. If I wanted to do that, I’d go back to playing Dave Matthews songs on the guitar.

CobraJoe > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:34

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Middle click also works to open a link in a new tab in Chrome and Firefox.

And windows key + D shows the desktop, and windows key +L locks the computer (very useful at work)

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:34

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Middle click a link in chrome.

Also, try windows key + d to minimize all windows or windows key + tab + tab again to cycle through all open windows

functionoverfashion > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:42

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I accidentally discovered that the extra button on my mouse brings up a tile view of all the windows I have open. I mean, I’ve seen that before, like Win+Tab... kinda. BUT THEN. I scrolled down and it showed me a history of various documents, etc. I’ve had open going back like a month or more. Now that is quite handy, and I’ve already used it. 

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/11/2018 at 16:45

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Alt+Tab works a lot better than Windows+Tab+Tab for cycling through open windows. 

Urambo Tauro > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 10/11/2018 at 16:51

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DIE CLIPPY  DIE

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

facw > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:54

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Note that shift-click does the same thing. Middle clicking has never felt like a good option to me, even on 3 button mice, and clicking a spin-able wheel has always been that much worse.

Even more useful, ctrl-shift-click runs the program as Administrator. Similarly is you type on the start menu and then select with ctrl-shift-enter, it will run as administrator, so you can get an elevated command prompt by typing: Windows Key, cmd, ctrl-shift-enter. Obviously you can do the same sort of thing for PowerShell or whatever else you want.

The Windows key shortcuts are extremely useful but also completely undiscoverable: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12445/windows-keyboard-shortcuts

I mostly use Windows + R (Run), Windows + E (Explorer window), Windows + D (Shows the desktop), and the Windows + Arrow Key (Maximize, minimize, and moving things around)

Urambo Tauro > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 16:55

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I’m gonna have to start using this. There are a whole lot of tricks involving that third mouse button, and the only part that I don’t like is that my third mouse button is a scroll wheel, and my finger sometimes slips when I try to click that wheel . I’m getting better at it, but it still happens from time to time.

facw > CobraJoe 10/11/2018 at 16:56

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Somehow I’ve never gotten into using Windows + L. I always hit ctrl-alt-delete followed by enter (which is not really so much harder).

facw > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/11/2018 at 16:58

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In Windows 10, Win+Tab gives me a tiled view of window thumb nails, rather than the Vista style tab cycling.

facw > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 10/11/2018 at 17:00

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On the other hand, F4 for find in Outlook rather than ctrl-f :(

Legend has it this is because Bill Gates was an Outlook beta tester and his previous email client forwarded with ctrl-f, so they felt they needed to go against standard Windows convention.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > facw 10/11/2018 at 17:09

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Which was just a pretty looking version of Alt-Tab to begin with.

ttyymmnn > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 17:15

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Apple is famous for having really useful clicks that they never tell you about.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/11/2018 at 17:45

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Win+tab is prettier tho

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/11/2018 at 17:48

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This is very handy while looking at cars. You can just click with the middle and before long have 300 tabs open.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/15/2018 at 08:44

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Thanks, I knew all those shortcuts, this one had eluded me for some reason though, haha. It makes total sense given that it works for new tabs in chrome/firefox

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > facw 10/15/2018 at 08:46

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Hmm, I have no problem clicking the spin wheel on a decent mouse.

Did not know about ctrl+shift+click, thanks!

I like using Windows+L, it’s nice at the office whenever I go away from my desk, super quick way to log out.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > Urambo Tauro 10/15/2018 at 08:47

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yeah, I learned a while ago that being able to click that scroll wheel is quite valuable, haha, it became second nature for me.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > ttyymmnn 10/15/2018 at 08:48

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Haha and for having one mouse button

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 10/15/2018 at 08:48

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haha yeah, tell me about it

ttyymmnn > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/15/2018 at 10:30

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The one-button mouse never bothered me that much. The pu ck mouse kind of sucked though.