Go Directly To The Task Manager Using Your Keyboard

6 responses to “Go Directly To The Task Manager Using Your Keyboard”

1. 

   Sam

   June 21, 2011

   I thought Ctrl + Shift + Esc would have been common knowledge amougnst LifeHacker readers…?

   Anyway, does anyone know why Microsoft decided Ctrl + Alt + Delete would better serve being remapped to take you to the system options screen from Windows XP onwards?

   I’ve always used Task Manager far more frequently than sytem options, and find Ctrl + Alt + Delete a more comfortable series of keypresses – ie. using 2 fingers on one hand, 1 on the other, on opposite ends of the keyboard; as opposed to having to stretch 3 fingers on one hand between various keys, or having to bring my right hand to the wrong side of the keyboard.

   In my oppinion, Microsoft mapped the shortcuts to the wrong programs.

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   1. 

      Graeme

      June 21, 2011

      If you’ve got a full sized keyboard then you can use the Ctrl and Shift on the right hand side of the keyboard. I must admit that I default to the left hand keys and tend to forget about the right hand alternatives too.

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      1. 

         Steve

         June 21, 2011

         And if you take off the rest of the left-hand keys, you can turn that edge of your keyboard into a ‘mash in case of emergency’ button.

         my example: http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/6629/mashbar.jpg

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   2. 

      ThePengwin

      June 21, 2011

      Its actually not different. XP was built as the successor to Windows NT and 2000, as well as the 9x series. NT based operating systems always used the control-alt-delete shortcut to access the system/user management options that you see in XP Vista and 7 these days.

      If anything, it was the 9x windows that were not the normal behavior seen in windows machines.

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2. 

   Caitlin

   June 21, 2011

   Extremely useful tip. The options screen has frustrated me ever since I got Windows 7. I mostly use Ctrl-Alt-Del to try to get out of a horribly crashing program or as a last resort – what on earth do I want that daft screen for?

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3. 

   Zak

   June 21, 2011

   Another handy time saver that may or may not be well known, is to access the System Properties via the Win-Break keyboard shortcut.

   Handy if you work on different PCs and regularly need to check simple hardware details or computer names, and much easier than right-clicking on My Computer which is what I’ve seen most other people do.

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