Free Your Hands with Keyboard Shortcuts

Common Shortcuts

System Level (Windows 10)

Shortcut	Function
Win R	Run
Win E	File Explorer
Win Shift S	Screenshot
Win Tab	Open Task View
Win D	Show Desktop (hide all apps)
Win S	Open Search
Win Right	Split screen left/right
Win Up	Maximize current app
Win Down	Restore down
Alt F4	Close current app
Alt ESC	Minimize current app
Alt Tab	Switch apps clockwise
Alt Shift Tab	Switch apps counter-clockwise

Common Editing Operations

Shortcut	Function
Ctrl A	Select all
Ctrl X	Cut
Ctrl C	Copy
Ctrl V	Paste
Ctrl Z	Undo
Ctrl Y	Redo

Browser

Standard shortcuts for Chrome-like browsers can be found in Microsoft's official guide. Some commonly used ones are listed below:

Shortcut	Function
Ctrl F	Search current page content
Ctrl R	Refresh current page
Ctrl Shift R	Hard refresh (ignore cache)
Ctrl Shift I	Open Developer Tools
Ctrl T	New tab
Ctrl W	Close current tab
Ctrl Shift W	Close current window
Ctrl N	New window
Ctrl Shift N	New InPrivate window
Ctrl L	Edit current URL
Ctrl Tab	Switch tabs clockwise
Ctrl Shift Tab	Switch tabs counter-clockwise
Ctrl Shift K	Duplicate tab

Some browser shortcuts are shared with VS Code, such as closing tabs, switching tabs, and reopening recently closed tabs.

VS Code

Shortcut	Function
Ctrl	Jump across words
Ctrl ·	Open integrated terminal
Ctrl N	New file
Ctrl Shift N	New window
Ctrl P	Open file
Ctrl Shift P	Command Palette
Ctrl F	Search in file (Enter/Shift Enter to navigate)
Ctrl Shift F	Global search (auto-copies current selection)
Ctrl D	Find and select
Ctrl G	Go to line
Ctrl B	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl Shift E	Open sidebar Explorer
Ctrl Shift X	Open sidebar Extensions
Alt Up	Move current line up (Down likewise)
Alt Shift Up	Copy current line above (Down likewise)
Ctrl |	Split right
Ctrl Alt Right	Move current tab right

Git Bash

General operations:

Ctrl+Z in commands can send a task to the background;

jobs -l lists current tasks, combined with fg [jobnumber] and bg [jobnumber] for task scheduling.

Shortcut	Function
Ctrl + a	Move to beginning of line
Ctrl + e	Move to end of line
Ctrl + u	Delete from cursor to line start
Ctrl + k	Delete from cursor to line end
Ctrl + w	Delete from cursor to word start
Alt + d	Delete from cursor to word end
Alt + f	Move forward by word (right)
Alt + b	Move backward by word (left)
Alt + u	Uppercase from cursor to end
Alt + l	Lowercase from cursor to end

Vim

A powerful editor with three modes: command, insert, and visual.

Initial Setup

1. vim ~/.vimrc — enter the .vimrc configuration file
2. Add the following configuration in .vimrc:

set number # Show line numbers
set syntax=on # Enable syntax highlighting

Common Operations

Command Mode

Press Esc in any mode to enter command mode. This is Vim's default mode.

Navigation Shortcut	Function
w	Next word
b	Previous word
Shift + G	End of file
Shift ^	Beginning of line
Shift $	End of line
:[%1, %2]	From line %1 to %2

Action Shortcut	Function
u	Undo last action
.	Repeat last action
n	Move cursor
d	Cut
dd	Cut entire line
y	Copy
yy	Copy entire line
p	Paste
Shift + G	End of file
<<	Indent left

By combining position + count + action from above, you can perform various rapid text operations:

Combined Shortcut	Function
dw	Cut next word
db	Delete previous word
dgg	Cut from cursor to file start
d + Shift + G	Cut from cursor to file end
d + Shift ^	Cut to line start
d3d	Quick cut 3 lines
d121gg	Cut to line 121
:1,5d	Cut lines 1-5
:1,5 m/co 10	Move/copy lines 1-5 to line 10

Additionally, there are window-level shortcuts:

Window Shortcut	Function
w	Save
q	Quit, add ! to force
i / a / o	Enter insert mode at cursor / after cursor / new line
v	Enter visual mode
:reg	View system clipboard, usually combined with p for quick paste
!ls	Use ! to call bash commands, e.g., ls

Combined with window-level shortcuts, even more operations are possible:

Combined Shortcut	Function
"1p	Paste clipboard entry "1
:sp %filename	Open %filename above
:vs %filename	Open %filename to the right
Ctrl + w + arrow	Switch editor after split
:e %filename	Switch current window to %filename
!ls	Use ! to call bash commands, e.g., ls

vim usage could fill an entire chapter on its own. We won't expand on visual mode and insert mode here.