Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for CMD

Command prompts are a very easy way to manage, access, and troubleshoot various sections of your computer. The CMD commands are keyboard input based commands that were initially set up to facilitate mouseless navigation.

Here a few not so commonly known keyboard shortcuts for CMD commands that will totally transform the way you use your computer and computer keyboard!

Windows prompts to launch the command window

There are several ways to open the command window. Here are a few keyboard shortcuts featuring the same.:-

Windows and cmd

In the normal mode of your computer, press Windows or Windows+R and then type ‘cmd.’

Windows+X and C

A new command in Windows 10, press Windows+X and then type C to open the command window.

Win+X and A

If you wish to access the command window with administrative privileges, press Win+X and then press A.

Alt+Enter

For easy toggle between the full-screen mode and command window, you can press ALT+enter.

The administrative privileges help in accessing most CMD commands you are likely to use, and hence, it is advised to access the command window using the same.

Mouseless navigation with command prompts

As the initial computers had minimal navigation using mouses, Windows prompts were used to navigate the screen. Here are a few CMD commands to do the same:

Moving the insertion cursor on the line: Home/End key

Hovering your mouse again and again to reach the end of the line or the beginning of it can be

time-consuming. But, you can easily jump to the start point of a line using the Home key and also jump to the end of the line using the End key.

Move insertion cursor along with the word: Ctrl+left/right arrow

For a full hands-on keyboard use, while you type, you can use the Ctrl+left arrow or Ctrl+right arrow. This allows you to jump to the beginning of the end of the word.

Moving your cursor using your keyboard alone can be quite less time-consuming as constantly switching between your mouse and back!

Selecting texts using the keyboard

There can be times when your mouse batteries are running down, and you are not able to select your screen text or use your mouse efficiently. The text selecting CMD commands of Windows can help you solve this issue.

Select all text in a line: Ctrl+A

To select all the text in a line, merely press Ctrl+A. Pressing Ctrl+A again can select all the text in a command buffer.

Select text by expanding one word further: Shift+Ctrl+Left Arrow/Right Arrow

If you wish to expand your selected text by one word beyond, you can use the Shift+Ctrl+Left Arrow/Right Arrow command.

Select text by expanding a line beyond or before: Shift+Arrow Up/Arrow Down

You can select the text of a line before or after your selected line by pressing the Shift+Arrow Up/Arrow Down.

Select text by expanding to the beginning or end of the line: Shift+Home/End

To expand your current text selection to the beginning or end of the line, you can use the Shift+Home/End command.

Commands like F3, F7, and F8 can repeat the previous command, show a history of used commands, and access similar commands in the command history.

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