Windows 10 comes bundled with tens of apps, like Mail, Calendar, Edge, Photos, Skype, Groove Music, Calculator, and others. Most of these apps are pinned to the Start menu by default, and one can access with a click or two.
If you have had Windows 10 for a long time, you likely have found some of these default apps handy and might be using very often. While you can pin your favorite apps to the taskbar or create app shortcuts on the desktop for quick access, some of you might want to launch apps with keyboard shortcuts.
Like the classic desktop programs, default apps, as well as apps installed from the Store, can also be configured to run using keyboard shortcuts. You just need to create a shortcut of an app on the desktop and then assign a keyboard shortcut to the same to begin launching your favorite apps via keyboard shortcuts.
If, in case, you are not sure how to create desktop shortcuts to apps and set keyboard shortcuts to them, follow given below directions.
Launch apps using keyboard shortcuts in Windows 10
Step 1: The first step is to create a desktop shortcut for the app that you want to launch using the keyboard shortcut. To do so, search for the app in the Start/taskbar search, right-click on its entry and then click the Pin to Start option.
Step 2: Now, drag and drop the pinned app from the Start to the Desktop area. Before you begin dragging and dropping, make sure that you can see the desktop!
In this article, we are creating a keyboard shortcut to open the Mail app.
Step 3: Once the app shortcut is on desktop, right-click on it, and then click Properties.
Step 4: Under the Shortcut tab, select the field next to the Shortcut key.
Step 5: Press a key that you want to use to launch the app. As you can see in the above picture, Windows automatically prefixes Ctrl + Alt keys to the keyboard shortcut. For instance, if you press the M key, Windows will automatically make it Ctrl + Alt + M.
Once done, click the Apply button. You may now try the newly created keyboard shortcut.
Our how-to create custom keyboard shortcuts for programs guide might also interest you.
alireza says
was help full.
thank you.
John Doe says
Or you just pin it to the taskbar and press WIN+, e.g. WIN+1 for the first pinned app next to the start menu. What could be easier (and it works in nearly _every_ environment)…
Latifa Agharbi says
my app is minecraft and it requires a launcher and cant be pinned to taskbar or desktop
Geary says
So any keyboard shortcut apps you setup must remain cluttered on your desktop? In earlier versions of Windows this wasn’t necessary. What a feature!
Juanma Menendez says
Good tips!
Another good option could be a script I created that also can help you Opening, Minimizing or Restoring Windows Apps.
It has some good improvements like it also works with Chrome Apps and Webpages, so you will be able for example to open Gmail or YouTube with just one key.
Here you can find the script and the instructions (It is easy to configure)
github.com/JuanmaMenendez/AutoHotkey-script-Open-Show-Apps
I hope you find it helpful.
Juanma Menendez