So you’re looking at your keyboard and you’re wondering to yourself, "Just what is that key between the Ctrl and Alt keys with the Windows Logo on it?" You may have even pressed it out of general curiosity and found that you can use it to toggle the Start Menu on and off, and thought to yourself, "Oh… so that’s what that does… cool!" Well it certainly is useful for that purpose, and it is easier then using the Ctrl+Esc combination which will also toggle the Start Menu on and off, but it can do so much more for you. The Windows Logo Key can be used for a variety of Windows Keyboard shortcuts. Let’s take a look at them. For this discussion we will call it the Logo Key.

One of the most used Logo Key combos is Logo+E. This combination opens a My Computer window with a Windows Explorer Side Bar.

Now let's say that you have your entire desktop covered because you have 6 or 7 windows opened up. There is just one more Application you want to get at but all the open windows are covering up your icons. This is where one of the next most useful Logo Key Combo comes in Handy. Logo+M will toggle all open windows minimized to the task bar. To reverse this process, combine Shift+Logo+M and all the widows you just minimized will be right back again. Now, you can do a simpler toggle to the same purpose by using Logo+D. This combination works as a direct toggle switch. So why would you use Logo+M and Shift+Logo+M instead. If you use the Logo+M combo, you can open another program window to your desktop and still toggle all minimize windows open again. If you open a new window after minimizing all windows on your desktop with the Logo+D command, the minimized windows will not toggle open.

Now that I have all of these windows on the desktop open. Where is the window I want? Logo+Tab will cycle through each of the windows' buttons on the Task Bar. Then pull the window you want to the front by pressing Enter.

Want to get to your Run Dialog Box? Use Logo+R. No need to root into you Start Menu with the mouse.
Want to search for a file? Logo+F opens the Windows search feature.
Want to find another Computer on your network? Ctrl+Logo+F opens the Find Computer feature.
Want your Systems Properties Box? Press Logo+Break and up she comes.
How about this? For some strange reason you want to get to Windows Help. Logo+F1 will get you to that wild goose chase.


Now the complicated one. Ctrl+Logo+Tab. This combination will cycle between the Start Menu, Quick Launch Toolbar, and System Tray. You have to pay very close attention to see this. Your mouse cursor will have to be on the desktop. If it is on an active window, this combination will not work. As you cycle through these items, if you look close, you will see a little dashed box appear in these areas. The first tap gives you the Start Menu. The second tap give you the Quick Launch Toolbar, you cycle through the Quick Launch Icons with your arrow keys. The third tap will cycle you to the System Tray, the little dashed box can be hard to pick out on the first Icon it attached to. Again, you cycle through these Icons using your arrow keys. The forth tap will kind of put you in neutral, and your ready to start a new cycle starting with a new first tap to the Start Menu. A little clunky, but if you ever have your mouse freeze up on you, it can be real handy.

There is a whole other series of Windows Logo Key Shortcuts available to you if you have the Microsoft Natural Keyboards companion IntelliType software installed. But that will be a subject for another time. If you would like to look at that as well as a whole bunch of other Keyboard Short Cut key combinations now, just click Keyboard Shortcuts.