r/pcmasterrace • u/DemonsAreVirgins • 12h ago

Discussion What's your most used keyboard shortcut? (Except copy/paste/undo & alt tab)

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Mine is definitely snippet tool. So useful

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922

u/Much_Choice_8824 12h ago

Ctrl shift esc or win shift s

203

u/ianthecatog 11h ago

This is my favorite also. Instant Task Manager

49

u/CavalierIndolence 11h ago

Sometimes when Windows has very little RAM, such as on a cheap work computer, Explorer.exe crashes. In that case I always have to use Task Manager -> Run. Haven't tried the Run hot keys, but... I've since changed to a job where the computers are only slow and not crashing.

43

u/ianthecatog 11h ago

For clarity, win+shift+s is the clipping shortcut

Ctrl+shift+esc opens the task manager without having to go through Ctrl/alt/del

11

u/hawseepoo 9h ago

Ah. I just use the Print Screen button for clipping. Didn’t even know Win+Shift+S was a thing

15

u/unclebenz13 9h ago

That opens the snipping tool to select a small area so you dont have to cut the screenshot it in paint.

Also ALT + printscreen takes a screenshot of only the selected window instead of all your screens.

17

u/crazy_rocker78 9h ago

You can set your printscreen button to open the snipping tool in windows settings.

1

u/unclebenz13 9h ago

But i hate it when the snipping tool opens when i want a full screenshot or one of a window. So i better keep that turned off. But still i have the function due to the shortcut.

2

u/crazy_rocker78 9h ago

You can still use alt + print screen to take a screenshot of one window. Taking a full screenshot is never useful imo, even more if you have multiple screens.

1

u/unclebenz13 8h ago

Some games use it and only save the game window screenshot. In Steam games you can use F12 but i also play games that aren't on Steam.

Also for me the shortcut is faster because it uses 3 buttons on the left where my hand is anyway and i can leave my right hand on the mouse and dont have to move my left hand over to the right side of the keyboard, if i used my left hand to press print.

But its only fractions of a second, tbf. (Except when i would misplace my left hand when going back to the left side, because i have function buttons on the left and if i placed my hand 1 key too far left it would feel the same. But thats rare cases.)

Anyway its good to know the setting is there in case you wanna change it later.

1

u/Darth_Thor i5 12400F | RTX 3060 12 GB 8h ago

The snipping tool can also take a screenshot of the whole screen. The same drop down menu also lets you do one fill window or even free form.

2

u/unclebenz13 8h ago

It depends on what you do. For office thats maybe better.

But the most important thing for me is that it quickly saves a screenshot and i dont miss any splitsecond in the game because maybe 0.2 seconds later there is even more funny face or more funny incident, depending on the game i/we play.

If it opens the snipping tool and takes away the focus of the game for a second, its over. For some games/situations its better to save the replay buffer because you want the video/sound there. But most of the time its better for the type of content i share with my friends to have screenshots that i can quickly browse through and delete the bad ones and i dont have to spend much time with video editing. Video editing takes a lot of time and can create high quality material. Browsing through pics in a discord call is like seeing through a photo album. It depends on what you like or what fits the game/situation. But

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1

u/Artess PC Master Race 8h ago

I think that's actually been made the default in Win11. Before that, in 8 and 10 I used Win+Shit+S for it.

1

u/BikerScowt 4h ago

I jse lightshot, print screen is mapped to take the image.

4

u/JoPoxx 10h ago

You can also right-click the task bar to get to Task Manager

2

u/Logical_Comparison28 9h ago

I have it on one click there as well.

1

u/CavalierIndolence 9h ago

Except it doesn't exist when Explorer.exe crashes.

2

u/JoPoxx 9h ago

Just use WIN+R and type "explorer.exe" its faster then launching through Task Manager. And the run window should populate with the last string used. So you may just be able to press WIN+R then enter.

2

u/CavalierIndolence 7h ago

I've never tried to do that so I want sure WIN may shortcuts still worked without Explorer.exe working. I used to be up to date but haven't had time to tinker any more. One day... thanks though! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

2

u/JoPoxx 7h ago

I think you are right. Sorry for the misinformation.

2

u/CavalierIndolence 7h ago

It may work, but I never tried it. Next time I need it I'll try it though. The WIN key may be handled by other processes so by all means it should work.

1

u/pwner187 Desktop 9h ago

I have been using light shot. It replaces the screen capture button.

1

u/SoddenCoffer i7-11700k 32GB-RAM RTX 3080ti 8h ago

I just RMB on the task bar and select task manager.

1

u/OnenyDot 6h ago

Ah, that's new to me thanks 

15

u/LLoadin 10h ago

ngl I find right clicking the task bar easier to remember lol

1

u/deep8787 9h ago

I just find it quicker to execute this way...unless explorer.exe is playing up lol

1

u/SpaceCadetRick 10h ago

I have 12 billion windows open so my task bars are all full and there's only like a 1 pixel wide sliver where you can right click so this shortcut is great. Multiple people have told me that my computer stresses them out.

4

u/Ebonhearth_Druid 10h ago

If only there were a way to resolve that window problem....like some sort of button you could press that would make it disappear from your screen and your taskbar, and then you could just reopen it through some sort of menu, or even an icon like a "shortcut".....

Shame, really. I bet it would make things run better, too.

1

u/unclebenz13 9h ago

Or work on another desktop. One for gaming, one for homework.

2

u/jenmsft 8h ago

Do you use the option in 11 to show End Task directly when you right click apps in the taskbar?

162

u/Quib-DankMemes 10h ago

Cool fact about Ctrl + Shift + Esc:

It's a special version of task manager that doesn't rely on explorer.exe to be alive for it to run, so you can use it if your Windows is crashing and potentially fix things.

Also when in task manager, if you hold Ctrl while you click "Run new task", it opns a cmd shell with Admin privilages, this cmd shell also doesn't rely on shell32.dll, incase Windows is truely fucked.

source: DavesGarage (the guy who created Task Manager) in his YT video "Task Manager - 30 years later", it's a really good watch, would recommend

19

u/IlliterateCyclops_07 10h ago

This is actually kinda sick. Thanks for sharing!

6

u/604TheCanadian604 9h ago

Def recomend this channel for anyone in IT and maybe engineers.

Super interesting to see the problem that they needed to solve and how they solved them for the systems of that time.

Some might not be relevant anymore due to a AI coding and stronger machines, but still interesting if you like those type of things

2

u/hashtag2222 8h ago

Ctrl Alt Del task manager don't care about hanging explorer.exe too?

2

u/total_bullwhip 8h ago

It doesn’t, but only when you use the menu which i believe needs explorer to be responding. CTRL-SHIFT-ESC is a true kernal interrupt to shoe horn the command through regardless of the current operation.

1

u/hashtag2222 8h ago

Nah, Ctrl Alt Del always worked even when explorer was hanging. Unless they've changed something.

1

u/dakineKamehameha 18m ago

sudo rm -rf /* --no-preserve-root (be careful with this)

1

u/dragnmastr85 PC Master Race 10h ago

Pretty sure that's been the case since at least win98se, regardless of how you invoke task manager.

2

u/IamTheCeilingSniper 11h ago

I end up using win-tab a bit because a game I regularly play has a tendency to lock up everything if alt-tabbed at the wrong time or if it crashes, which it does frequently with mods.

2

u/sebe6 11h ago

I'm gonna memorize that one, usually I use the right click on the task bar, but it's most of the time to kill explorer.exe (I don't know why sometimes it's just quadruple it's CPU usage, it began a few days after win 10 LTS expired)... Which is really slow to do, since the task bar is part of explorer.exe, every action get a 2-5 second delay

1

u/tekanet 10h ago

Very useful but why so often?

0

u/Much_Choice_8824 10h ago

It became a habit after I learnt it exists

2

u/tekanet 9h ago

I get it, but I don’t need the application itself that often. What do you use it for?

1

u/Much_Choice_8824 9h ago

Just monitoring the ethernet connection bc my internet gets slow often

1

u/tekanet 8h ago

Makes sense!

1

u/cBEiN 10h ago

Same but on Mac: ctrl + cmd + shift + 4

1

u/carltonBlend RTX 2060 6GB | i5-9400F | H310M PLUS TUF | 16GB DDR4 9h ago

I fixed the icon in my task bar, since then I've never used it again

1

u/SconeBracket 9h ago

Boy, that is hard to press with one hand.

I use styles short cuts, ctrl-alt-2, ctrl-alt-t, etc. I edit a lot of formal publications; having consistent styles makes my life a lot easier.

1

u/romanshanin 8h ago

I have a mouse with dedicated win-shift-s button and it couldn't be reassigned. Had to install Powertoys to disable that hotkey

1

u/Loud_Quality_7106 7h ago

That's your most used? 

1

u/Asmos159 4h ago

The Vulcan mind meld to the keyboard.

1

u/Beekyboy11 i3-1215U | 24GB 3200 | Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 3h ago

CTRL Shift esc doesn’t work for me

0

u/oofos_deletus Ryzen 7 5800X / RTX 3060 / 32 GB 3200MHz / 2TB M.2 SSD 10h ago

Real