I use keyboard shortcuts a lot and find them very useful when I have a lot of programs open and need to navigate around quickly. I have two programs I use often, while I am working and it would be useful if keyboard shortcuts can be assigned to the programs. I also have the same need for folders. How can I create keyboard shortcuts in Windows for these programs and folders?
Creating your own keyboard shortcuts to open any program or folder in Windows is possible but there are some limitations with the key combination you can use. All shortcuts will start with Ctrl + Alt then any alpha, number or some special characters you want to assign to the shortcut. Also, any keyboard shortcuts create, must reside on the desktop.
In the below examples, we'll create a keyboard shortcut to open Notepad and another to open a folder (applies to Windows XP and Vista).
1. Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.
2. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32 and scroll down until you find notepad.exe.
3. Right-click on notepad.exe, click Send To, and then click Desktop (create shortcut)
4. Minimize Windows Explorer, then on your desktop, right-click the new shortcut, and then click Properties.
5. In the Shortcut tab, click in the Shortcut key box (where it says None). Now press the letter on your keyboard that you want to use to open the folder. In this example I will use the letter N
6. Test the keyboard shortcut key to open Notepad by holding down Ctrl + Alt and pressing N (Ctrl + Alt + N)
To create a keyboard shortcut for any folder, follow the same steps above but in Step 2 navigate to the folder you want use and in Step 3 right click on it.
In addition to using letters for assigning the shortcut key combination, numbers, up, down, left, right arrows can also be used.
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