Working with Windows 10 in the best possible way is basic for most users. These try to be as productive as possible in the daily work with the team, for which the system presents us with multiple functionalities. Well, in this case we are going to talk about the useful shortcuts that we can create and use.
These are elements that we have the possibility of creating at any time and that are going to refer to many aspects of Windows . Therefore, as we will see later, these can refer to a program that we want to open, execute in a certain way, access specific functions, our own documents, etc. In this way, with a little imagination, we can save a good amount of time and save efforts on a day-to-day basis with Windows 10.
In addition, as we are going to teach you, these shortcuts are very easy to create and we can place them where we are most interested. Thus, in these same lines we are going to show you how you can create shortcuts to elements that will be very useful to you on a daily basis with the PC.
How to create a shortcut
But first of all, the first thing we are going to review is the generic way of creating one of these elements that we are talking about. Therefore, we are going to teach you, for example, how to create a shortcut on the system desktop . This is one of the most common places where we usually place these useful objects to access their content, quickly.
Therefore, at this point, in order to create a shortcut in Windows , once we are located on the desktop itself, click anywhere with the right mouse button to bring up the context menu. Once we see the same, we just have to click on the New / Shortcut option.
(New access)
This will give us a new window in which we must type the real location of the element that we are going to call from here. That is, the disk path of the program or the folder that we are going to open with the new icon, for example. Here we see a Browse button to be able to move through the disk drives in search of the content as such.
In the next window that appears, we only have to specify the name that we are going to give it. This should be representative enough so that we do not confuse it with others we have created and can locate it with a single glance.
To finish the process, just click on the Finish button and we will have a new shortcut. But as we say, these can call a multitude of elements, both their own and Windows. That is why we are going to review some of the most useful shortcuts that you can create with this system that we have taught you.
Shortcuts to shutdown, restart and logout in Windows
This is something we do at least once a day with our team. We refer to the common actions of shutting down or restarting the PC , as well as logging out of Windows, for example. The operating system itself presents us with several methods to carry all this out, but we are going to create and customize our own. And is that this is something that we can also do through the aforementioned shortcuts. Actually, what we are going to modify here with respect to the steps we have seen before, in the field of the first window.
Thus, depending on the type of call that we are going to make with this element, the entry that we make in the Enter the location of the element field will vary. So, let’s see what we must type to turn off, restart or close session in Windows 10:
- To shutdown Windows: shutdown -s -t 0.
- To restart Windows: shutdown -r -t 0.
- To log out: shutdown -l -t 0.
It is evident that the following window, the name that we will give to these accesses that we are going to create, should describe what they really do. Thus, when we are going to carry out any of these three actions, we just have to double-click on the corresponding icon that we have just created here.
Shortcuts to suspend or hibernate Windows 10
The same happens in the assumption that what we want is to suspend or hibernate Windows 10. Of course, in this case we must take into account that the functionality of hibernation is not always active on all computers . With this what we want to tell you is that the operation of the access that we are going to show you now, will depend on it. Thus, in the event that the hibernate function is activated, when using this element, the computer will hibernate.
However, in the event that this is deactivated, when you double click on the new icon, the equipment will be suspended. Therefore, in this case we will have to use the following command in the Enter the location of the element field:
To hibernate or suspend Windows: rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState 0.1.0.
Create shortcuts to Windows UWP applications
On the other hand, changing completely from third, it can also be the case that we want to create certain accesses to UWP applications . These are the ones that by default are already installed in the operating system itself, or those that we download from the official system store. They are usually located in the Start menu, but we can create these accesses on the desktop to execute them more quickly.
This can save us a good amount of time in certain circumstances. Therefore, to achieve this, the first thing we do is open a Windows execution window , something we achieve with the Win + R key combination. Here, in the box that opens, we will have to use the following command: Shell: appsfolder. This will give us access to the Applications Windows folder, where we find the icons we are looking for from the UWPs.
So now we no longer have to look for that program that interests us, and right-click on it.
At that time it will be Windows itself that asks us if we want to place the icon on the system desktop, which we accept.
Create shortcut to battery settings
Especially if we refer to laptops , doing a good battery management can be very important. That is why we can also create our own element of this type to access the configuration options faster. Therefore we are going to show you how we can create a direct access to the battery configuration quickly, all from the desktop itself.
Thus, the first thing we do is create a new shortcut as we saw earlier. Therefore in this case that concerns us, in the path section, we type the following:% windir% explorer.exe ms-settings: batterysaver. Then click on Next and we can write the name we want to give the direct access in question.
Shortcut to always open Chrome in incognito mode
It can also be the case that we want the Chrome browser to always open in incognito mode. Therefore, we can create our own shortcut to the program for it. So. The first thing that we have to do is locate ourselves in the Chrome shortcut that for example we have on the Windows desktop . We right-click and select Properties.
Then the window corresponding to the direct access appears as such, so we are located in the Direct Access tab. Here we already find a field called Destination that indicates the disk path of the program. Well, at this point, we have to go to the end of it to add a blank space and write -incognito.
To finish we can click OK to save the changes and each time we double-click on that icon, Chrome opens in incognito mode.
Shortcut to open Firefox in private window
We can do something similar with another of the important browsers of the moment, Mozilla Firefox . Therefore, here so that Firefox always opens by default in a private window, we also locate the shortcut that we normally use when opening the program. We also right- click and go to Properties.
So, in this specific case, also at the end of the path that is seen in the field called Destination, we add a blank space and write -private-window. Again we save all changes and this icon already opens the browser always in a private window.
Create a shortcut to Windows Update
The same that we have just seen for Internet browsers or for the configuration of the laptop battery in Windows, we can also do it for Windows Update . As you may already know, this is the section where updates to the operating system arrive, among other very important elements. Furthermore, this function presents us with some interesting configuration options for all of this, so we are going to use it a lot.
Therefore, to open this section faster, we are going to show you how to create a shortcut to it on the desktop. To do this we just have to follow the steps described above to create an access in the conventional way. However, in this case in the destination field we will write the following: explorer ms-settings: windowsupdate.
As you can imagine, this shortcut in the form of an icon that we have just created will open Windows Update directly by double-clicking on it. This saves us the previous steps of going to the Configuration application and looking for this specific functionality.