Elevate your PC experience by mastering these Windows 11 hotkeys.
Elevate your PC experience by mastering these Windows 11 hotkeys.
If you haven’t already made the leap from Windows 10 to Windows 11, there’s no time like the present. You can still get Windows 10 through some online vendors, though Microsoft no longer sells the older operating system. The company plans to end Windows 10 security updates on Oct. 14, 2025, and is currently offering Windows 11 as a free upgrade for all compatible devices.
Even if you’ve never used Windows 11 before, you can quickly boot up your computer and easily use it to surf the web, watch videos and play music. All you really need is your mouse to get to where you need, but if you want to be a Windows power user, and not just a Windows novice, you should know about all the keyboard shortcuts that Windows has to offer.
In this story we’ll cover the most important keyboard shortcuts for Windows 11, many of which carry over from Windows 10 and earlier versions of Microsoft’s operating system. That includes the basics, like copying highlighted items and undoing a previous action, as well as lesser-known shortcuts, like snapping an active window into place.
You don’t need to know all of them, but there are likely a handful here that you’ll want to employ in your Windows workflow to improve your overall productivity. And if you want to check out more on Windows 11, here are nine hidden Windows 11 features and how to make Windows 11 act more like Windows 10.Windows 11 shortcut basics
To start, here are the ones you’ll use most often.
Ctrl + A: Select all items in a window.
Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy selected or highlighted item (text, images and so on).
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste selected or highlighted item.
Ctrl + X: Cut selected or highlighted item.
Ctrl + Z: Undo previous action.
Ctrl + Y: Redo action.
Ctrl + N: When File Explorer is your current window, open a new File Explorer window with the same folder path as the current window.
Windows key + F1: Open « how to get help in windows » Bing search in default browser.
Alt + F4: Close the current app or window.
Alt + Tab: Switch between open apps or windows.
Shift + Delete: Delete selected item permanently (skip the Recycle Bin).
Start menu and taskbar
You can use these keyboard shortcuts to open, close and otherwise control the Start menu and the taskbar.
Windows key or Ctrl + Esc: Open Start menu.
Windows key + X: Open the secret Start menu.
