{"id":41962,"date":"2013-05-27T12:53:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T10:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=41962"},"modified":"2025-07-02T01:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:25:18","slug":"how-to-create-keyboard-shortcuts-to-open-windows-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-create-keyboard-shortcuts-to-open-windows-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Create keyboard shortcuts to open Windows apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to speed up common Windows tasks<\/strong>. Although it can be a bit difficult to remember every shortcut at first, it will become easier with time. Windows 8 has its own list of unique shortcuts<\/a>, and you can always use an app<\/a> that lets you create and edit keyboard shortcuts. Although it\u2019s a little hidden in Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8),\u00a0 you can also create your own keyboard shortcuts to open apps.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Go to the shortcut<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

First you will need to locate the app\u2019s shortcut. This will likely be on the desktop, but might be within the Start Menu<\/strong>. Otherwise you may to do a search or create a new shortcut.<\/p>\n

When you find the shortcut, right-click and select \u201cProperties\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Shortcut tab<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"shortcut
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Once in the Properties men, click on the \u201cShortcut\u201d<\/strong> tab and place your cursor in the \u201cShortcut key\u201d<\/strong> field.<\/p>\n

Enter a CTRL + ALT shortcut<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"enter
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Now you can set a keyboard shortcut that uses CTRL + ALT + [key of your choice]. Simply press the number or letter you want to use for the shortcut. In our example you just need to press \u201cM\u201d<\/strong>, and the shortcut will become CTRL + ALT + M<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From now on, each time you press CTRL + ALT + M the corresponding app will open. You should try this quick trick with any app you use often, such as your web browser<\/a> or favorite game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you know of more Windows tricks like this? Tell us below!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to speed up common Windows tasks. Although it can be a bit difficult to remember every shortcut at first, it will become easier with time. Windows 8 has its own list of unique shortcuts, and you can always use an app that lets you create and edit keyboard shortcuts. … Continue reading “Create keyboard shortcuts to open Windows apps”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2038,"featured_media":41965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-41962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332873,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41962\/revisions\/332873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41962"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=41962"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=41962"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=41962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}