Useful Quick Launch Bar Hot Keys For Windows Vista

Windows Vista’s Quick Launch bar was an absolute stroke of genius when it was first introduced in one of the previous versions of the Windows operating systems. With the Quick Launch bar, you are able to assign and access shortcuts to your favourite programs in order to help optimize and speed up jobs around your computer. It won’t completely eliminate the amount of time it takes to perform a task but it certainly helps a heck of a lot.

Another bonus to adding shortcuts to your Quick Launch bar is that you can further speed up the time it takes to by taking advantage of Window Vista’s built-in Quick Launch hot keys which are automatically assigned to the first ten items in your Quick Launch bar. Allow me to better explain: I have included a screenshot below which displays the first four items on show in my very own Quick Launch bar:

My first four shortcuts happen to be: Show desktop, a link to my personal files folder, as well as a link to a notepad document which I keep some useful information on and a shortcut to launch Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 individually.

You can use a quick keyboard shortcut to access these programs; simply press your Windows key - the one that has the official Windows logo printed on it - and the corresponding number key. For example: if I wanted to launch Firefox, the fourth shortcut from the left in the Quick Launch bar, I would press my Windows key and the number 4 on my keyboard simultaneously. If I wanted to access Internet Explorer 7, the fifth item along, I would press the Windows key plus the number 5.

You can follow this pattern with each and every shortcut in your Quick Launch bar up until you reach number ten.