All of Windows from the keyboard

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The twelve worth memorizing

If you keep only one screen of this page, make it this one. The thirteen sections below explain where each of these comes from.

1. Win+`the terminal, from anywhere
2. abrirorultimoa file by its name, or the most recent one
3. Win+1 to 9each program by its number
4. Alt+Tabswitch windows
5. Win+arrowsposition the window
6. Alt+Dtype the path in File Explorer and in dialog boxes
7. Ctrl+Shift+Ccopy the path of the selected file
8. Shift+F10the context menu without a right-click
9. Alt+letterany menu in any program
10. Ctrl+Rsearch what you already typed
11. Alt+.repeat the last path
12. Ctrl+Shift+Mcopy from the terminal screen

01

The idea

The mouse is for pointing at things you cannot name, and that is exactly its limit: every time you use it, you are searching with your eyes for something whose name you already knew. Typing the name is faster than finding it, and it also comes out the same every time, so it can be saved, shortened and reused.

Three rules hold up everything else. Every path is a command: if you know where a file is, typing its path with ii in front opens it. Every program is a word: the Windows key and the first letters of its name are enough. Every window is a number: whatever is pinned to the taskbar opens, or comes to the front, with the Windows key and its position.

The terminal is the center of all this, so it pays to keep it a single keystroke away. Windows Terminal has a Quake mode in which Win+` drops it down over any program and the same shortcut makes it disappear; from there you type the command, press Enter, and you are back to what you were doing.

02

Open anything from the terminal

ii "D:\claud\reja-graduable\01-3dm\reja graduable 16-20 cm.3dm"

That line opens the file of an adjustable grille (reja graduable, in Spanish) in Rhino, and this page grew from it. ii is the alias for Invoke-Item, which asks Windows for the same thing as a double-click: open the item with the program associated with its extension. It works for files, which open in their program, and for folders, which open in File Explorer; it does not work for web addresses, which go with start.

Quotes and the Tab key

A path with spaces needs quotes, and single quotes are the safe ones because PowerShell interprets nothing inside them. The easy way is not to type them at all: type ii D:\claud\reja and press Tab; PowerShell completes the name and adds the quotes itself when they are needed, as you can see below. Tab moves forward through the matches, Shift+Tab moves back, and Ctrl+Space lays them all out in a menu you move through with the arrow keys.

PS D:\> ii D:\claud\reja                 (Tab)
PS D:\> ii D:\claud\reja-graduable\      (Tab, Tab)
PS D:\> ii 'D:\claud\reja-graduable\01-3dm\reja graduable 16-20 cm.3dm'

Moving between folders

03

Inside the command line

The line you type on is handled by PSReadLine, and these are the shortcuts it ships with in Windows PowerShell 5.1 in Windows edit mode, taken from the machine itself with Get-PSReadLineKeyHandler. The three that pay off the most are searching the history by any fragment, repeating the last argument of the previous command and deleting by whole words; all three are in the tables.

Editing the line

The history

Help inside the line

04

A profile that types for you

The profile is a PowerShell file that runs every time you open the terminal, and it is where a long name becomes a single word. Its path is in $PROFILE: in Windows PowerShell 5.1 it is Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 and in PowerShell 7, Documents\PowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1. Creating it and opening it takes two lines:

if (-not (Test-Path $PROFILE)) { New-Item -ItemType File -Path $PROFILE -Force | Out-Null }
notepad $PROFILE

If opening the terminal shows a warning that running scripts is disabled, the execution policy is to blame, and you fix it once with Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser RemoteSigned. And one detail of Windows PowerShell 5.1: it reads the profile as ANSI text when the file has no byte order mark, so either you keep it to plain ASCII with no accented letters, like the one below, or you save it as UTF-8 with BOM.

This is the workshop's profile. Copy all of it with the button, paste it into your profile, change the folder in $Global:Taller to yours and reload it with . $PROFILE or by opening a new tab. The comments inside the profile and the messages it prints are in Spanish, and so are its names: Taller means workshop, abrir means open, ultimo means latest and ir means go.

# Perfil de Windows PowerShell: abrir cosas por su nombre, sin raton.
# Este archivo no usa tildes a proposito: Windows PowerShell 5.1 lee el perfil
# como ANSI si no tiene BOM, y las tildes saldrian mal en pantalla.

# La carpeta donde viven tus proyectos. Cambiala por la tuya.
$Global:Taller = 'D:\claud'

# Carpetas que nunca vale la pena rastrear.
$Global:TallerExcluir = '\\(node_modules|\.git|\.next|_backups)\\'

# abrir: abre un archivo o carpeta por su ruta o por fragmentos de su nombre.
#   abrir                      -> abre la carpeta actual en el Explorador
#   abrir .\01-3dm\pieza.3dm   -> igual que ii, con la ruta
#   abrir reja 16-20           -> busca en el taller un nombre que contenga
#                                 las dos palabras y lo abre; si hay varios,
#                                 los numera y pregunta cual
function abrir {
    [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
    param([Parameter(ValueFromRemainingArguments = $true)][string[]]$Palabras)

    if (-not $Palabras) {
        if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess((Get-Location).Path, 'Abrir en el Explorador')) {
            Invoke-Item .
        }
        return
    }
    $ruta = $Palabras -join ' '
    if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $ruta) {
        if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($ruta, 'Abrir')) { Invoke-Item -LiteralPath $ruta }
        return
    }
    $hallados = @(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $Global:Taller -Recurse -Depth 4 -File `
            -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
        Where-Object {
            $nombre = $_.Name
            $_.FullName -notmatch $Global:TallerExcluir -and
            @($Palabras | Where-Object { $nombre -notlike "*$_*" }).Count -eq 0
        } |
        Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending)

    if ($hallados.Count -eq 0) {
        Write-Host "Nada en $Global:Taller se llama como '$ruta'."
        return
    }
    if ($hallados.Count -eq 1) {
        $unico = $hallados[0].FullName
        Write-Host $unico
        if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($unico, 'Abrir')) { Invoke-Item -LiteralPath $unico }
        return
    }
    $tope = [Math]::Min($hallados.Count, 15)
    $corte = $Global:Taller.Length + 1
    for ($i = 0; $i -lt $tope; $i++) {
        Write-Host ("{0,3}  {1}" -f ($i + 1), $hallados[$i].FullName.Substring($corte))
    }
    if ($hallados.Count -gt $tope) {
        Write-Host ("     ... y {0} mas; afina las palabras." -f ($hallados.Count - $tope))
    }
    if (-not $PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess("$($hallados.Count) coincidencias", 'Elegir y abrir')) {
        return
    }
    $eleccion = Read-Host 'Cual (numero, Enter para ninguno)'
    if ($eleccion -match '^\d+$' -and [int]$eleccion -ge 1 -and [int]$eleccion -le $tope) {
        Invoke-Item -LiteralPath $hallados[[int]$eleccion - 1].FullName
    }
}

# ultimo: abre el archivo mas reciente de una extension dentro del taller.
#   ultimo          -> el .3dm tocado mas recientemente
#   ultimo stl      -> el .stl mas reciente
#   ultimo 3dm D:\otra\carpeta
function ultimo {
    [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
    param([string]$Extension = '3dm', [string]$Donde = $Global:Taller)

    $archivo = Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $Donde -Recurse -Depth 4 -File `
            -Filter "*.$Extension" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
        Where-Object { $_.FullName -notmatch $Global:TallerExcluir } |
        Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending |
        Select-Object -First 1
    if (-not $archivo) { Write-Host "No hay .$Extension en $Donde"; return }
    Write-Host $archivo.FullName
    if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($archivo.FullName, 'Abrir')) {
        Invoke-Item -LiteralPath $archivo.FullName
    }
}

# rh9: abre un .3dm en Rhino 9 WIP aunque el doble clic lo mande a Rhino 8.
function rh9 {
    [CmdletBinding(SupportsShouldProcess = $true)]
    param([Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$Ruta)

    $exe = 'C:\Program Files\Rhino 9 WIP\System\Rhino.exe'
    $completa = (Resolve-Path -LiteralPath $Ruta).Path
    if ($PSCmdlet.ShouldProcess($completa, 'Abrir en Rhino 9 WIP')) {
        Start-Process -FilePath $exe -ArgumentList ('"' + $completa + '"')
    }
}

# Un nombre corto por cada proyecto que abres todos los dias: el .3dm mas
# reciente de su carpeta, para que un renombre o una version nueva no lo rompa.
function reja { ultimo 3dm 'D:\claud\reja-graduable\01-3dm' @args }

# ir: entra a una carpeta del taller por fragmento de nombre y la lista.
#   ir reja   -> D:\claud\reja-graduable
function ir {
    param([Parameter(Mandatory = $true)][string]$Fragmento)
    $carpetas = @(Get-ChildItem -LiteralPath $Global:Taller -Directory -Recurse -Depth 2 `
            -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue |
        Where-Object {
            $_.FullName -notmatch $Global:TallerExcluir -and $_.Name -like "*$Fragmento*"
        })
    if ($carpetas.Count -eq 0) {
        Write-Host "Ninguna carpeta del taller se llama como '$Fragmento'."
        return
    }
    Set-Location -LiteralPath $carpetas[0].FullName
    Get-ChildItem
}

If the browser warns you about the .ps1 extension, keep the file: it is the same text shown above. And from the terminal itself, with no browser, these two lines download it and append it to the end of your profile:

iwr https://ivebeen3d.com/teclado/perfil.ps1 -UseBasicParsing -OutFile "$HOME\Downloads\perfil.ps1"
Get-Content "$HOME\Downloads\perfil.ps1" | Add-Content $PROFILE

05

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is the window PowerShell lives in, and it brings its own features: tabs, panes, search and Quake mode. These are its default shortcuts, plus the four customized in this workshop's settings: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste, as in any other program, and the ones for search and for duplicating the pane, which appear in the tables.

Window and tabs

Panes

Text and screen

06

Windows without a mouse

Outside the terminal, the Windows key is the one that does the most work. With the taskbar arranged on purpose, for example Terminal in position 1, Rhino in 2, the browser in 3 and File Explorer in 4, every program you use is two keys away, and the taskbar stops being a place you point at and becomes a numbered list.

Opening and switching programs

Arranging windows

System

07

File Explorer

File Explorer can be run entirely from the keyboard, and the key is the address bar: once it is selected you can type a path, or a program. Typing powershell or cmd and pressing Enter opens a console already in that folder, and wt -d . does the same with Windows Terminal.

08

The Open and Save dialogs

Rhino, Word and almost everything else use the same Windows dialog to open and save files, and that dialog accepts typed paths. In the File name box you can type the full path of the file and Enter opens it without browsing; a folder with its trailing backslash, like D:\claud\reja-graduable\01-3dm\, jumps there; and a filter like *.stl leaves only those files in view.

09

Inside any program

Every program built the way Windows intends responds to the same keys, even if it does not say so. Pressing Alt on its own shows the underlined letters of the menus or of the ribbon; Alt with that letter opens the menu, and inside it the letters, the arrow keys and Enter do the rest. F10 takes you to the menu bar when Alt does not.

10

The browser

The browser can be run entirely from the keyboard if Ctrl+L is your first reflex, and with Vimium, a free extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox, even links are clicked by letter: the f key draws a label over every visible link, and typing that label opens it.

With Vimium

11

When something demands a click

There is always a button without an underlined letter, or a dialog that appears without the focus. Before you reach for the mouse, try three things: Tab until the button shows the focus rectangle, and Space presses it; Shift+F10 brings up the context menu of whatever is selected; and Alt+Space opens the window menu when nothing seems to respond.

And when you truly need a pointer, Windows has one on the numeric keypad. Left Alt+Left Shift+Num Lock turns on Mouse Keys, with a prompt that you answer with Enter. From then on 8, 2, 4 and 6 move the pointer, 7, 9, 1 and 3 move it diagonally, 5 clicks, the plus sign double-clicks, the slash selects the left button, the minus sign the right one, 0 holds the button down for dragging and the period releases it. You set the speed in Settings > Accessibility > Mouse.

12

Tools that multiply the effect

All of the above works with what comes with Windows. What follows installs with winget from the terminal itself and turns the keyboard into something faster than the mouse, not just as capable.

winget install Microsoft.PowerShell
winget install Microsoft.PowerToys
winget install voidtools.Everything
winget install voidtools.Everything.Cli
winget install junegunn.fzf
winget install ajeetdsouza.zoxide
winget install FarManager.FarManager

PSFzf is a PowerShell module and installs separately; accept the NuGet provider and the repository if it asks about them:

Install-Module PSFzf -Scope CurrentUser

And these lines go at the end of the profile once everything is installed:

Import-Module PSFzf
Set-PsFzfOption -PSReadlineChordProvider 'Ctrl+t' `
    -PSReadlineChordReverseHistory 'Ctrl+r' `
    -PSReadlineChordSetLocation 'Alt+c'
Invoke-Expression (& { (zoxide init powershell | Out-String) })

13

Rhino from the terminal

The design itself is done with the mouse and this page leaves it alone; what the keyboard does take over is getting to the file. In this workshop .3dm is associated with Rhino 8, so ii, and Enter in File Explorer, open files there, while the profile's rh9 sends them to Rhino 9 WIP. With Rhino pinned to the taskbar, Win+2 brings it to the front and Win+Alt+2 opens its list of recent files. And its Open dialog is the Windows one, so Ctrl+O, the typed path and Enter work there too.