BlueWolf's Howl

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July 02, 2004

Winkey

Have you ever used the Winkey? You know...the key between Ctrl and Alt with the little windows logo...

For quite a long time I never bothered with it. The only purpose I had for it was to pop up the Start Menu when the mouse goes south. But, it's so much more than that. It can save you plenty of clicks. Not that anyone is counting...but, if you get used to it, you can look like a magician in front of those mere mortals that have not trained themselves to use it.

Some of the more useful combinations are:

Winkey + Break : Displays System Properties
Winkey + D : Displays Desktop
Winkey + E : Opens Explorer window showing My Computer
Winkey + F : Opens search results window (Find)
Winkey + M : Issues a Minimize all command
Winkey + R : Displays Run dialog box
Winkey + L : Locks the computer

I'm finding that I'm more inclined to use the Winkey since switching to XP Pro. I hate having to remember to use the Start button to get to My Computer and then click, click to the System Properties. And when you go to someone else's desktop, it can take forever to find My Computer - especially if the desktop is cluttered and they've changed the icon to look like a Klingon bird-of-prey. This cuts through all their clutter and gets to the heart of the matter. Click - poof - there's the window you need.

And while I'm on the topic of Windows minutia... Yes, there really IS a "thunking" process. It's when a 32-bit operating system gears down to run a 16-bit program. Really. No kidding.

So if you ever hear me say that I was thunking about your idea...
*snicker*

Posted by BlueWolf on July 2, 2004 02:50 AM