While using Windows 10/8/7, you may need to cycle or flip through your taskbar thumbnails. When you move your mouse cursor over the taskbar icons, you see the thumbnail views. While most of us end up using our mouse cursor to do it, there is a way to do it using the keyboard. When you move your mouse cursor over the taskbar icons, you see the thumbnail views. While most of us end up using our mouse cursor to do it, there is a way to do it using the keyboard.
Windows 10 Start menu
the Start menu might cover the whole screen by default. If you are a huge fan of the Windows 8-style Start screen, you can enable it on any Windows 10 computer by opening Action Center and activating Tablet Mode.
The right side of the Start menu in Windows 10 contains pinned apps and programs. These are also called Tiles, and those that can display active content (Weather, Calendar, Mail, etc) are called Live Tiles. You can unpin, group and resize Tiles; and add new ones.
To rearrange pinned items, drag them with the mouse or your finger. The latter requires a touch-enabled screen
Most options are available by right-clicking or touching and holding. To quickly launch something with elevated Most options are available by right-clicking or touching and holding. To quickly launch something with elevated (administrative rights), hold down CTRL and SHIFT keys and click/tap the program or app
Windows 10 Creators Update (2017) adds the ability to group Tiles/pinned items for better space management. This is also called Start menu folders. Just click or tap a group/folder to open or close it.
To add an item to a Start menu group/folder, click and hold or touch and hold it and then drag it onto an existing group or another Tile so that the item below does not change its position. This is usually best achieved by dragging the tile onto another from underneath.
To remove an item from a Start menu group/folder, drag it outside of the folder to another position or right-click/touch and hold it and choose Unpin from Start.
On the left side of the Start menu, recently added and most-used apps appear. Depending on your settings, suggested apps might also appear from time to time. You can turn these sections on or off in the Settings app, Personalization, Start.
Items on the most used apps list can have their own Jump Lists – common actions, pinned and recently opened files. Pin/Unpin icon or a right-click manages the list of recent files.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update then lists all installed apps and programs.
The All apps section is grouped by name, and clicking or touching a large single letter opens a list that can be used for quickly jumping to installed apps and programs starting with the specific letter. For example, click the letter A and then the letter S to find Search, Settings, Store, etc.
In the original Windows 10, the topmost item on the left is your user account – clicking or touching it opens options for locking your device, signing out and switching between accounts.
First Windows 10 edition has links to File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer), Settings app, Power options and All apps on the bottom left.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update puts these items, plus your account options to a bar on the very left. You can expand their names by clicking the hamburger menu (the three horizontal bars) on the top left of the Start menu.
To show or hide common links, including Personal folder, Downloads Folder, etc on your Start menu, go to the Settings app, Personalization, Start and click the Choose which folders appear on Start link.
Since Windows Vista, you can search for installed apps and programs, settings, files, e-mails, etc just by opening the Start menu and starting typing. You can also use the keyboard shortcut WINDOWS KEY+S to open Cortana or keyboard search.
View taskbar thumbnails using keyboard
Here is a simple to achieve the same with the help of the keyboard.
Keep pressing the Windows+T key and you will see the focus shifting from the left most icon and moving towards the right side. In the image above, the focus is on the Firefox icon and I have pointed out to the white dot below the Firefox icon.
Alternatively, you could just press Windows+T once and leave.
Then use the arrow keys to move the focus.
Hope this makes working with Windows easier!
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