January, 2009

So after much experimenting and also talking to co-workers… I have gotten a nice little list of some of the more useful desktop keyboard shortcuts for Windows 7. I will post the list here just in case you might find it helpful. If you have found or know of other useful keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 please feel free to let me know and I will add them. These ones mainly deal with manipulating windows on the desktop in Windows 7:

Keyboard Shortcut	Description
Window Key + Right Arrow	Dock window to the right hand side of the screen and maximize vertically. Basically maximize a window so it takes up the right hand side of the screen. Once window is docked to the right, hitting this combo again(in a multiple monitor setup) will move it to the next monitor to the right(if there is one to the right). If Window is docked to the left side of the screen this shortcut will un-dock it and put it back to the original position. You can get the same effect by clicking the top title area of a window and dragging it to the right hand edge of your screen.
Window Key + Left Arrow	Same as above (Window + Right Arrow) but will dock to the left hand side of the screen or move the window to the next monitor to the left if one exists in a multiple monitor setup. You can get the same effect by clicking the top title area of a window and dragging it to the left hand edge of your screen.
Window Key + Up Arrow	Will Maximize the currently selected Window(Full Screen). You can get the same effect by clicking the top title area of a window and dragging it to the top(upper) edge of your screen or by double clicking the top title area of a non-maximized window.
Window Key + Down Arrow	Will restore a maximized window back to it’s default size. Will minimize a window that is not maximize. To minimize a maximized (Full Screen) window, simply hit this shortcut twice. You can get the same effect by double clicking the top title area of a maximized window.
Window Key + Shift + Up Arrow	On a non-maximized window will do a vertical maximize. Basically this will stretch the bottom and top of the window to hit the bottom and top of the screen while not changing the width of the window. This same effect can be done with the mouse by putting the mouse cursor on the top edge of a window so that the resize arrows appear, and then double clicking.
Window Key + E	While not a new shortcut, I mention it here as the functionality has changed a bit. In the current build of Win 7 Beta, this opens a window to the Libraries (Music, Videos, Documents, Pictures…) instead of going straight to the default My Computer window that Vista and XP used.

That is about all I can remember off the top of my head, if I think of or find any more I will update this post, also if you have found any new ones, please let me know via comments, and I will add them to this list as well. I will also do another post this week, that covers some of the changes to the way other bits within Windows 7 desktop function. Hopefully this is helpful for you.

Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Tips and Tricks,Keyboard Shortcuts

So one of the best little items I have seen recently is the release of the MS Web Platform Installer. This is a nice tool(Free Download) that makes setting up an ASP.NET (or other technologies) development environment fairly painless. You simply launch the installer, tell it what kind of web development you want to do and it will download and install all the tools needed for you.

For example if I choose that I want it to install the requirements for asp.net development, it will download and install the following:

Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.1 on Windows XP SP3
IIS 6.0 on Windows Server 2003 SP2
IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008
SQL Server 2008 Express
.NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1

There is also the Web Application Installer or Web AI. This is a free download that will allow for installation of additional web development tools and includes support for items such as php, .Net Nuke, Graffiti, WordPress, Drupal and others. The overall goal is to get you up and running as quickly as possible without the need to worry about setup and installation of required components.

You can get both the Web Platform and Web Application installers here:
http://www.microsoft.com/web/channel/products/downloads.aspx

One of the additional benefits is that the installer will check to make sure it is getting the newest version of each component, so you don't have to worry so much about figuring out what updates you need to download when the install runs.

Try it out, and let us know your thoughts!

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Windows 7 – Keyboard Shortcuts for the desktop

Microsoft Web Platform