Windows 7

Productivity Tip: Assign Keyboard Shortcut to open a program (in windows 7)

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Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to save few precious seconds. In this blog-post – I’ll show you how to assign a keyboard shortcut to open a program.

Keyboard Shortcut to open a program is efficient way when you compare it to:

1) Searching for icons on the desktop:

not organized and messy desktop xp

Image Source: http://www.redplanner.co.uk/2011/10/23/how-content-digitisation-is-changing-consumer-self-expression/

2) Or opening the program via start menu:

finding a prgoram via start menu

Am I Right, here?

Alternatively, you can also consider “pinning” program shortcuts to taskbar. you can see that I have pinned few program shortcuts.

Now, let’s assign a keyboard shortcut to a program. And what program(s) to choose and not to choose is entirely up-to your need. for me, 4-5 shortcuts works best.

 

Here’s a step by step:

For the purpose of step by step, I am going to assign shortcut key to “snipping tool”

 

1) Choose the program

2) Go to program properties (you can do this by right clicking on program icon and selecting properties)

3) Switch to Shortcut Tab

4) Assign Keyboard shortcut in the Shortcut key

I chose ctrl + alt + s for snipping tool because “snipping tool” starts with S and that way it’s easier for me to remember the shortcut.

Note: you cannot assign something like ctrl + alt +del because those are default keyboard shortcuts for windows. For a complete list search “keyboard shortcut for windows”

snipping tool program shortcut key properties

5) click OK

And Test your shortcut.

 

And that’s about it!

Everyone time you save a second or two – you know who to Thank, don’t you 😉

 

Did you knew: You can change the Location of “Desktop” folder

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Did you knew that we can change the location the “Desktop” folder. Yes! The default location where files/folders are stored is “c:users<xyz>desktop” and you can change this.

But why do you want to do this?

1.FUN!

2. It’s a good practice to separate USER data and SYSTEM data. So if you have a D (Or E?) drive in your computer, you can change the location of the Desktop from C to D (or E).

So how do you do that?

1. Go to c:users<xyz>desktop

2. Right Click on the Desktop Folder and select “Properties”

dekstop folder properties 3. In the properties dialog box. Select “Location” and after entering the NEW LOCATION – click on MOVE. 

location property of the desktop folder

Click on Apply. You’re done!

I tested it on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and it works. It does not seem to work with Windows XP. If you know of any windows OS’s where it works – let us know in the comments!

I thought of writing this as a blog-post after this tip that I submitted was well-received. Any-who that’s about it for this post, I hope it was helpful!