In this tutorial I will show how you can use some keyboard shortcut combinations in Windows NT/2K/XP/Vista/7 to speed up your work only using a keyboard.

First and most used thing which every Windows users is doing, is to click on Start button. If you want to push the Start button and to open Start menu you just have to press Windows Logo key (1) on your keyboard like shown on the picture below. Usually standard Windows keyboard have two Windows Start buttons, one by each side of the Space key.

If you are using some old keyboard, without special keys for Windows, you can also use combination of Ctr + Esc to do the same thing.

Second and most used operation in Windows is to call Properties menu of selected item. Ford example, if you select some file in Windows Explorer and you want to open his Properties Menu (like right mouse click) you only have to press Windows Menu key (2) and Properties menu like shown in the picture below will appear.

When Properties menu appear you can move through the menu, by using Stroke keys from your keyboard and Enter for confirm the selection.

If your keyboard don't have special Windows keys, you can use combination of Shift + F10 to call Properties menu of the selected item.

Switching between opened applications is also an very often used operation in Windows. To do this you have to press Alt + Tab key combination and list with active Windows applications will appear. To select some of the list hold the Alt key and start pressing the Tab key until the desired applications is selected.

Other important Shrotcut keys:

F1 - call the help of active application
Tab - jump on the next active item in the application (button, link, list, address bar, next window, etc.)
Ctrl + Tab - jump on previous active menu in the application.
Ctrl + S - Obviously this call Save File dialog in the application
Ctrl + P - Obviously this call Print Page dialog in the application
Alt + F4 - Closes the active application.
Alt + Space - call the Position menu (minimize, maximize, move, resize, close, etc of application)

Also you have to note, that if you create a Shortcut Icon of some application you can assign a shortcut key combination for this application. Just open Properties dialog for this shortcut and press desired shortcut key combination on Shortcut key like shown on the picture below: