Open any folder on your Windows PC using a keyboard shortcut

Start by using Windows Explorer to find the folder you want to be able to open with a keyboard shortcut. When it’s on the screen, right-click the folder and choose Send to and then ‘Desktop (create shortcut)’. This will drop a shortcut to that folder on to the Windows Desktop. When double-clicked, this will open the contents of the folder. Fair enough. But what happens if you are working on something full screen and want to open that folder? That’s where the keyboard shortcut comes in.

Right-click on the newly created Desktop shortcut and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. When the dialogue box opens, ensure the Shortcut tab is selected. In the options below click the ‘Shortcut key’ box. (Ordinarily folders don’t include this tab in their Properties dialogue box, which is why we have to create a shortcut first.) Click after where it says ‘None’ in the Shortcut key box and press the shortcut combination you would like to use. We have chosen a square closing bracket ‘]’, because we know this key isn’t used for anything else. Windows automatically adds a Control (Ctrl) and an Alt in front of the chosen key (in our case a ‘]’). This is to ensure you can’t activate the command accidentally. It also means the full shortcut combination is Control, Alt and ].

Click OK to close the dialogue box. Next, open a program such as Internet Explorer and hold down Control, Alt and ]. Your chosen folder will now appear on top of every other window without you having to go to the Desktop shortcut or digging down to the actual folder.