Skip to main content

New Taskbar Keyboard Tricks

Posted February 2009 by Steve Sinchak

Opening up another copy of an application that is already open with the new taskbar can be tricky. Normally when you click on a taskbar item it just switches to the open windows.  The trick to opening a new copy of the application that is already open is to hold down Shift while you click on the icon.

To launch an application as Administrator hold down CTRL and Shift when you click on the icon.

Another useful keyboard trick will help you launch taskbar items without clicking. Instead of clicking on the first taskbar item just hold down the Windows key press number 1. For the second taskbar icon, Windows key + 2 and so on.

To switch through open taskbar items and view the thumbnails use the Windows key + T

Related Posts


Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 includes the Windows Defender SmartScreen service for years that prevents users from accidentally browsing to known malicious and fake phishing websites. While Microsoft Edge is a great browser and has many very strong security features, Microsoft understands that many people choose to use Google Chrome.  As such, Microsoft still cares about the security of the web browser...

Read More

It happens every few months.  My operating system drive runs out of space, and I must begin the hunt for things to delete or move to another drive. As a first step using a cleanup utility such as CCleaner is helpful, but it only finds the easy targets such as temporary files. Unfortunately, deleting these files does not typically...

Read More

Shopping for a hard to find item on Amazon.com that is always sold out? I was recently on the hunt for an external GPU enclosure that would show up in small quantities on Amazon.  After failing to snag one by randomly checking periodically, I figured there must be a better way. Microsoft Flow to the rescue!

Read More

If you own a Google Chromecast streaming device, you can easily share a browser tab in Chrome browser or even your entire desktop.  This can be very useful when presenting from your laptop or if you just want to watch something on a big screen that is only on your PC.  The only requirement is you must be on the same network as your Chromecast...

Read More