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Windows supports hundreds of different keyboard shortcuts. Some of them basic, like pressing the Windows-key to open the Start menu. Others more advanced, like pressing Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager.

Not all shortcuts are equally useful. While usefulness depends somewhat on how you use Windows, some shortcuts are certainly more useful than others.

The following shortcuts are the ones that I use most often. They save me a lot of time on my day to day work.

The timesavers

Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V

The shortcut pair copies and pastes your selections. This works in Explorer with files and folders, but also for text and anything else that you may select.

• Ctrl-C — Copies the selection to the Clipboard.
• Ctrl-V — Pastes the Clipboard entry into the active application.

Windows-I

The shortcut opens the Settings on Windows 10 or 11 machines directly.

Windows-X

The “secret” menu opens when you use the shortcut. It displays a number of links to admin tools such as the Device Manager, Network settings, and more.

Windows-[left or right]-arrow

The shortcut snaps the active window to the left or the right side of the screen. Useful to display two apps or windows side-by-side in a matter of seconds.

Ctrl-S

To quickly save content. Most programs that support save operations support this. You can use it in an image or text editor to quickly save content, and in many other apps as well.

Ctrl-P

To print a document, image, or other content quickly. The shortcut opens the print dialog right away.

The superfluous shortcuts

The next two shortcuts are not really that useful, as you can use quicker actions for the same effect.

Ctrl-Esc

The keyboard shortcut opens the Start menu on Windows. There is not really a need for this shortcut, as you can also press the Windows-key, which is faster.

Windows-S

This particular shortcut opens the search interface. It is not really needed either, as you can also search when you open the Start menu. So, pressing Windows and starting to type the search term should be sufficient for most users and most cases.

Now You: do you have shortcuts that you use regularly? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.

Microsoft introduced a new File Explorer context menu in Windows 11. This streamlined menu replaced the classic menu by default, but users can still open it from the new context menu or by holding down the Shift-key before they right-click.

Windows 11 has been around for a few years now, and some Windows 11 users may have noticed that the new context menu has grown in size since then. This is understandable to a degree. Third-party app developers learned how to add entries to the new menu so that links to their apps were shown directly to users.

Good to know:

Fixing OneDrive’s “Creating shareable link…” error loop that never ends

Microsoft did add a fair share of items to the context menu as well. You may notice a OneDrive folder, a Share with Skype option, an Edit with Notepad option for any file type and more there now.

Chance is, you may not need all of them. This guide explains how to remove the OneDrive entry.

Tip: you can remove the apps, if you do not use them, to get rid of the context menu items. If you do use them, you may follow the guide to remove them while leaving the apps untouched.

Remove OneDrive from Windows 11’s context menu

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key
3. Select Yes to continue.
4. Paste HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked into the Path at the top and press the Enter-key.
5. Right-click on Blocked.
6. Select New > String value.
7. Name it {1FA0E654-C9F2-4A1F-9800-B9A75D744B00}.
8. Double-click on the value.
9. Set its name to OneDrive.

The change takes effect on the next restart. You may also log off and then on again, or restart the explorer.exe process.

The OneDrive listing should no longer be visible in the context menu afterwards. Note that this does not impact any other OneDrive functionality on the device. Also note that this applies only to the user account under which the change was made.

Now You: how do you handle context menu entries that you do not need? Do you remove them to streamline the context menu or keep and ignore them? Feel free to leave a comment down below.