Winkey power key

A surprising number of users have no idea what the Winkey (the key with the Windows logo, next to the LEFT Ctrl key) is for, let alone the Application or Menu key (the one next to the RIGHT Ctrl key). They may hit them only by accident and simply ignore them, or panic and make sure they never touch them again! Even if shown that pressing the Winkey is the equivalent of a mouse click on the Start button, they are not impressed and continue to waste a few seconds here, a few seconds there, navigating with the mouse exclusively. Those seconds do add up, resulting in days or months wasted. Sigh...

We have already seen the power and simplicity of using the Winkey+Pause shortcut, but Winkey has many more uses assigned to it out of the box. When this key first appeared on keyboards with the advent of Windows 95, Microsoft assigned only a handful of functions to it. With every new  Windows version, new assignments were added. Unfortunately, with Vista and Windows 7, Winkey became overloaded and too complex to use even for keyboard fanatics. Worse, some assignments introduced in Vista were revoked in Windows 7, totally discrediting the UI design team in charge of keyboard issues.
Here are the essential Winkey combinations introduced in XP that have proven to be very useful. I rely on many of them daily. The list is much longer and may change as Windows evolves. Note that UPPERCASE letters below require pressing Shift in addtion to Winkey:

Winkey+F1 - Windows Help
Winkey+Pause - System Properties
Winkey+b - Select the first icon in the Taskbar Notification Area. Use arrows to select other icons, or TAB to jump to other elements on the Taskbar. This is extremely useful if no pointing device is available!
Winkey+e - Windows Explorer
Winkey+E - Network Connection
Winkey+f - Search for files, people, computers, Internet
Winkey+Ctrl+f - Search for computers
Winkey+l - Lock your session, or switch user
Winkey+r - Open the Run dialog (a must for power users)
Winkey+u - Utility Manager
Winkey+d - Show Desktop - please learn at least this one, please...
Winkey+m - Minimize all windows
Winkey+M - Restore all windows (after Winkey+d or Winkey+m)

Be sure you try them at least once and start using them. Also, please, promise me that you will at least start using Winkey+m (or Winkey+d) and Winkey+M if you often click on icons on your desktop. Why am I asking this of you? Because I see so many people not knowing how to bring their Desktop into full view other than minimizing (even closing!) or dragging around windows until the icon the need becomes visible. When they've launched the icon, they happily restore everything manually, never wondering if there is an, er, intelligent way of doing this.

And then came Vista and 7... and made a horrible mess! Some of the combinations introduced in Vista and 7 are doomed to be totally ignored, or hated when pressed inadvertedly.

For example, Winkey+[n] will bring to front the applications currently on the taskbar. Good for the first 10 applications, where Winkey+0 is 10. What if you have more? I can see why Winkey+1 or Winkey+2 is a time-saver, but not, say, Winkey+8. Locating the 8th item on the taskbar by counting is slower and more error-prone than just grabbing the mouse and clicking on the item.

For the first time, I find that switching to the mouse would make more sense for certain operations!

As for me, I will continue using Alt+TAB or Alt+Escape as the preferred way to bring an application to the front. Winkey+n should have been left for users to assign their own functions -- something I've done years ago using AutoHotkey and that I now have to abandon.

There are also plenty of combinations related to moving windows around the screen(s) and Winkey+DOWN/UP to Restore/Maximize the currrent window.

The assumption here is that users would want to spend all their time manipulating windows instead of doing useful work. Does one really maximize/restore windows frequently? I have never done it -- I just Alt+TAB to something else and leave all my windows as they are.

Computers and health

I don't believe even moderate keyboard or mouse use is good for our hands, wrists, and tendons. I think it goes even further: the shoulders, back, blood circulation, digestion -- the entire body suffers simply because we were not made to be seated for so long. I keep some boxes or other support for my feet under the table and, whenever I can, I put my feet up on the desk. I do this when I need to read a longish web page or document: feet on the desk, the hand near the arrows keys, font size zoomed to HUGE, so I can remove my glasses and read naturally.

Prolonged stress of any kind will hurt us, so reducing the amount of computer input device manipulation is always welcome.

Playing, learning, working, and socializing in the computer age is fun and fulfilling, however, sitting slouched at a computer all day will eventually cause damage to your body. Our entire body is almost totally inactive, except for the eyes and the hands that do all the work. So make sure you learn tricks that will save eye and hand movement! It may seem like nothing, but seconds wasted looking around the screen or clicking inefficiently may add up to hours every week, easily resulting in months over a lifetime...