Four Keyboard Shortcuts New to Windows 11

We’ve been talking a lot about Windows 11 this month: Microsoft’s plan to end support for Windows 10 means that upgrading to the company’s newest OS is the easiest decision for most PC users.

If you do make the switch from Windows 10 to Windows 11, you’re going to notice a number of changes that weren’t present in your previous operating system. Many of these changes are going to be surface level and hard to miss. However, some are more subtle, such as these four keyboard shortcuts not present in Windows 10.

Windows Key-W: Open the Widgets panel

Windows Key + W opens up the Widgets panel in Windows 11. This menu, new to Windows 11, is a customization collection of widgets, so you can quickly glance at information that’s important to you. That includes things like weather, news, and sports, as well as personal widgets like Calendar and Photos.

Windows Key-A: Access Quick Settings 

This shortcut pulls up Quick Settings, the menu that appears when you click the network, sound, and battery icon in the bottom right.

Windows Key-Z: Access Snap Layouts 

Pressing Windows Key and Z brings up Snap Layouts. This feature presents a series of different layout options for the current window. You could use the shortcut to quickly snap the window to the left half of the screen, then do the same for two other windows to place them in the top right quadrant and bottom right quadrant, respectively.

Windows Key-K: Cast media

With this shortcut, you can quickly choose another display source to cast media to. If you’re playing a video on your PC, you can press Windows Key + C to cast to, say, a TV, projector, or other display.