Windows continues to amaze me. Last month I first discovered that you could pause the Windows Task Manager by holding down the CTRL key, and today I came across a special keyboard shortcut that lets you launch LinkedIn, Word, and a bunch of other Office apps.
If you’re on Windows, try holding down CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + L. Then watch in amazement as LinkedIn opens in your default browser. Windows watcher Paul Thurrott posted this bizarre keyboard shortcut to X (Twitter), noting that it is an operating system keyboard shortcut.
So why does Windows have this anyway? It’s all part of the Office key that Microsoft introduced on some of its own keyboards a few years ago. The Office key replaced the usual right Windows key and offered the option to press and hold the key in combination with another to quickly open Office apps. Here’s the full list:
- LinkedIn – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+L
- Word – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+W
- Excel – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+X
- PowerPoint – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + P
- Outlook – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+O
- Microsoft Teams – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+T
- A disc – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+D
- A note – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + N
- Yammer – CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+WIN+Y
If you don’t have these Office apps installed, the Office.com shortcuts will open in your browser. It seems like a complicated shortcut, but all the keys are grouped in the corner of your keyboard, so in reality it feels like pressing the buttons in a game to activate these Office shortcuts.
Although Thurrott says this is an operating system keyboard shortcut that “can’t be disabled,” there is actually a method to disable these Office keyboard shortcuts in the Windows registry. If, like me, you had no idea these keyboard shortcuts existed for those with an Office key, then they’re probably not worth disabling, but if you like to poke around in the registry, Microsoft has posted the method here.
I’m sure I’ll discover another hidden part of Windows in the coming weeks or months, so stay tuned for the next episode of Today I Learned… this weird Windows thing.