Tips & Tools 🧰

Setting up a keyboard shortcut for an installed application on Windows 10 PC can be very useful if you use that particular application very frequently. Shortcut gives you flexibility and saves a lot of time in opening the Start Menu looking for the application or typing the complete name just to open it.

Keyboard shortcuts for applications have a few additional benefits of their own;
1 - It does not require any additional application or software to work, it can be set up using tools that are already available in Windows 10.
2 - It does not disturb any other shortcuts that are already associated with utilities provided in Windows 10.

So, now you know how beneficial keyboard shortcuts can be, now follow these steps to learn, how you can set up these shortcuts yourself.

Step 1:
After you install the application that you want to create a keyboard shortcut for, look for the shortcut icon that may be created on your desktop or start menu, automatically. Once the shortcut is located, right-click on the shortcut icon, go to “Properties”.

In this popup window go to the “Shortcuts” tab.

Look for a field called “Shortcut Key”.

Step 2:
Here, you can do any 1 of 2 things,
#1, You can use Modifier Key (Shift/Ctrl/Alt) with a custom key (A-Z or any symbol available on the keyboard) to set up the shortcut.
#2, You can use any available Function Key (F-keys, from F1 to F12) to do the same.

If you decided to set up the shortcut using Modifiers, then this field requires a minimum of 2 or 3 Modifier Keys (Shift/Ctrl/Alt) with any other available custom key (A-Z or any symbol available on the keyboard) that may not cause any conflict with other predefined Windows 10 shortcuts.

If you decided to set up the shortcut using Function Keys, then select this field by clicking, and pressing any Function Key (F1 to F12) to set up the shortcut that may not cause any conflict with other predefined Windows 10 shortcuts.

For this example, I will be using “Ctrl + Shift + `” then click Apply & then Ok to save the recently created shortcut.

You may need to Sign out & Sign back in or in some cases, it may require a system restart if the shortcut doesn’t work in the beginning. This is how you can set up a keyboard shortcut for an installed application on Windows 10 PC.

Author: Aamir Rizvi
Learn more about me here.

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