Software Development Productivity in Windows 7

   This won’t replace my AutoHotKey but it’s a step in the right direction from Microsoft Windows.

   I recently stumbled across some keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 that have increased my productivity as a software developer. If you’re a developer you probably favor the keyboard over the mouse when getting your work done. I’m constantly on the lookout for keyboard shortcuts and new automation tools to help liberate me from that pesky mouse and speed up my work process.

   Windows 7 has some nice new keyboard features I didn’t know about until recently. I actually stumbled upon them quite by accident and did a little exploring. When I put 2+2 together in my head I came up with a quick way to jump around to all of the applications I use frequently during the day.

   Here are some applications I use constantly and their corresponding shortcut key combinations. These keyboard combinations are built into Windows (since Vista) as described by Wikipedia.

   That’s right – starting with the first application running it’s the Windows Key + 1 [ 2, 3, … n ] to bring up the application (Win+0 is the 10th and final application shortcut in the chain).

   Now the first thing that’s nice is that I will get the running instance of the application if the application is already running or a new instance of the application if it is not (singleton approach). If I want to start a new instance of the application rather than pop up the instance already running all I need to do is Win+Shift+1 [2, 3, … n].

   If I have multiple instances already running repeatedly hitting Win+Ctrl+1, Win+Ctrl+1 will alternate between (in my case) my instances of Visual Studio 2010 that are running. Alternatively, simply pressing Win+1, Win+1 will alternate between the desktop preview windows for that application and releasing will bring up the application instance.

   As long as I keep these application pinned to my taskbar in the same position Win+1 will ALWAYS be Visual Studio 2010, Win+2 will ALWAYS be Microsoft Blend, etc.. That is a big deal coming from the Alt+Tab world.

“Now you may be thinking “so what” I use a keyboard mapping or macro program called AutoHotKey (or something similar) and already have this set up. Me too - 

but wait, there’s more!”

   If we press Win+Alt+1 [ 2, 3, … n] we get access to the application’s '”Jump List”. This is where these keyboard shortcuts really start to shine. Here’s what I get when I press Win+Alt+1 asking for Visual Studio 2010’s Jump List – and yep, I can use the good old arrow keeps to get to the solutions I’m currently working on

   I’m currently doing development in WPF so it is a HUGE time saver to switch between Visual Studio & Blend using Win+1 and Win+2 respectively. Alt+Tab is great but  sometimes you go to other application in between using your core tools and it’s always that few milliseconds spent recognizing where the application I need is in the Alt-Tab chain that drives me insane.

   By the way, if you use Alt+Tab quite a lot with many windows open, you can use the arrow keys to navigate the large tiled list. For instance the down arrow will take you down a row of applications after you’ve started the Alt+Tab maneuver, skipping a few Alt+Tab key iterations.