How to Best Utilize the Windows Key and Taskbar

Try these tricks and workarounds for your Windows Key and taskbar to boost you and your PC’s productivity.

Work Your Windows Key

Quickly view your system specs: Press Windows-Pause to bring up the System Info window. This keyboard shortcut can be especially handy if you’re troubleshooting a PC and need to pull up the system’s specs in a hurry.

Launch taskbar apps: Put your most commonly used appli­cations in the taskbar, and you’ll use your mouse a lot less. Pressing Windows plus any number key will launch the program in the corresponding taskbar slot (so Windows–1 will open Windows Explorer, Windows–2 will open the app positioned to the right of Explorer, and so on).

Ditch the Displays Control Panel: To switch display modes instantly when you plug in a projector or dock your laptop to an external display, press Windows-P.

Run apps from anywhere: You can launch applications and set parameters from your keyboard, without having to waste time digging through the Start menu to find the one you want to use. Press Windows–R to bring up the Run dialog box.

Taskbar Techniques

Restore your Quick Launch bar: Windows 7 got rid of the Quick Launch bar, but bringing Quick Launch back is fairly easy. Right-click the taskbar and uncheck Lock the taskbar; then right-click the taskbar again and choose New toolbar. Type %appdata%MicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch into the file path, and then click the arrow button on the right to navigate to that folder. Quick Launch will be back in action.

Clean up your system tray: Your system tray probably contains lots of icons that you rarely use. Instead of clicking the arrow to expand the system tray every time you need access to its contents, just drag the icons you use most often from the expanded tray to the minimized tray area on the taskbar. That way, you can click them immediately instead of having to expand the tray and root around for the icon you need.

Drag and drop to your taskbar apps: A taskbar icon’s behavior depends on which modifier keys you hold down as you click it. Hold down Shift while you click an app’s icon to open a new instance of the app. Hold down Ctrl–Shift while clicking the app’s icon to open the program as an administrator. Drag a file from your desktop (or from an open window) over an app’s icon on the taskbar to pin the icon to the app’s jump list, or hold down Ctrl to open the file with that program.