keyboard shortcuts

Microsoft has been nice enough to publish all the strange key combinations we [nerds] have all come to love. check out some of the more complete lists at kb/301583 . at the bottom, theres even some info going all the way back to win95. i know maybe 1/2 of whats in the list, and actively use maybe 1/4 of it. heres some i found interesting, and a few i use all the time.

ALT+double click - display properties - this is faster than rightclick properties for sure, which i use all the time

Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off) i absolutly Love this one. its very useful for walking up to someone that is blind and just saying 'hey, i'll take care of that for you' it also sabotages a perfectly useful computer if the operator is under 50. give it a try, you'll like it as both help for seniors, and a sabotage weapon. don't worry, you can repeat the sequence to revert the useless machine back to useful when the operator abandons it.

Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard) i think ctrl+alt+delete, select shutdown, etc.... will work, but thats just clumsy. ctrl+esc, and then select loggoff and do a bit of clicking around will get you there too.

Windows+R - i always used ctrl+esc, up arrow, up arrow, enter (um, can't remember the rest) and then with xp's new default start menu, my old sequence only works on half the machines. I use this mostly for fast access to CMD, winword, excel, notepad, pbrush as it takes way to long to navigate the stupid start menu (its fun to watch people navigate that monster) and if i do have shortcut icons that are on the desktop and not in a link bar, theres no hope of finding them on my desktop.

CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (Open Task Manager) - this ones stupid, its the same as CTRL+ALT+Delete

Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box) - sure beats rightclicking on my computer on the desktop if you hid your icons.

alt+PRINT SCREEN (capture current window) i use it daily for screenshots of the active window in conjuction with pbrush (or paint.net). for the non nerdy, this puts an image of your screen in the clipboard, and you can paste it into an application that supports images. holding the ALT just does the active window.