I’ve been meaning to put together a cheat sheet to Windows 8 shortcut keys for some time. As the OS has now been publicly available for just over a week now, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the more useful ones, I’ve used while working with Windows 8.

Win + X    Power user shortcut menu (Control Panel, Device Manager, Command Prompt etc)

Win + E    Windows Explorer on desktop

Win + R    Opens the Run dialogue box

Win + I    Settings sidebar (Control Panel, Personalization, Power, Network etc)

Win + F    Instant Search for files

Win + W    Instant Search for settings

Win + P    Shows multi monitor options

Win + L    Locks Windows

Win + C    Displays the Charms sidebar menu

Win + Q    Show all installed apps

Win + H    Opens the Share  sidebar

Win + K    Opens the Devices sidebar

Win + D    Toggles minimize all/restore desktop

Win + U    Launch Ease of Access Center

Alt + Tab    Switches between open applications

Alt + F4    Close active window / shutdown dialogue box

Win + Print Screen    Takes a screen shot and saves it to C:UsersusernamePicturesScreenshots

Ctrl + Shift + Esc    Opens Task Manager

A cheat sheet can be downloaded from here.