Productivity Tip: Create Shortcuts for Folders

When I’m in windows, I use a feature that’s largely overlooked, that is to use keyboard shortcuts for folder shortcuts. I’m a bit of a productivity freak. Say I want to enjoy some music. Either I can navigate to c:\music\mp3 or I just press Ctrl+Shift+M.  I do this by making a shortcut to a folder and in the properties, there’s an option for a shortcut key. Set a shortcut key for all your common folders and that’s it you’re done.

Step-by-Step Explanation:

  1. Select the folder in Windows Explorer.
  2. Create a shortcut, and place it on the desktop. (You create a shortcut by opening the folder, pointing to New on the File menu, then clicking Shortcut. Drag the shortcut to your desktop.)
  3. Right–click the new shortcut, and then click Properties.
  4. In the Properties dialog box, click the Shortcut tab, and in the Shortcut key box, enter a Control key combination or a Control–Shift key combination, (that is, CTRL+ALT+M or CTRL+SHIFT+M when M is for music), and then click OK.

Accessing my documents, etc are a breeze now. Better yet, make a shortcuts folder on your desktop, and when you have to open a file through a dialog, open that folder and go to your most accessed directories quickly.

Guest Article by Anirudh S

This post was published by on March 9, 2007

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://jacjos.blogspot.com jacob

    Instead of creating a shortcuts folder in the desktop, another option which can be used is the quick launch in the task bar….but yes its always nice to keep minimum number of shortcuts in the quick launch for easy access.

  • http://www.dailyblogtips.com Daniel

    I will implement that, do you prefer those shortcuts than desktop icons?

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Jacob: Having lots of quick launches can also be messy, but good suggestion!

    Daniel: Yup! I do

  • http://www.bloggerlounge.net George C.

    Thanks! Good tip, I use ObjectDock in my desktop and it is also very useful plus, it looks nicer, Thanks, good work!

  • http://technixupdate.com abhishek bhatnagar

    gud tip…but i would like to suggest a cool free utility for doing this all…called hot key plus for windows.

    have a look over this article…by me on this utility.
    http://technixupdate.com/2007/03/01/speed-up-your-working-with-hot-key-plus/

  • http://apexad.net apex

    I love this feature! I actually use it for other things. One example is making Ctrl+Shift+4 (similar to Command+Shift+4 on a Mac) to bring up Snipping Tool in Windows Vitsa so that it acts like Mac OS X.

  • http://andrewkuo.net Andrew Kuo

    Nice info. I’m definitely going to use this!

  • destinyking

    If you create many shortcuts then its very hard to remember the shortcut for each and every folder.So I create a shortcut to the folder which I use frequently and rename the shortcut folder to something small and easy (likeI renamed the music folder shortcut to mp3s) and now cut and paste the shortcut folder after renaming it in c:\window.So as to open that folder goto Run and type the name of the shortcut folder name(in my case mp3s)and there you see the folder opened. This can be implemeneted to any program/software.

  • http://tech-buzz.net/2007/03/12/reader-tip-how-to-access-folders-from-the-run-dialog/ Reader Tip: How to Access Folders From the Run Dialog

    [...] week, we wrote an article on accessing files and folders quickly by assigning keyboard shortcuts, but creating too many shortcuts on the desktop made it look awfully ugly and excessive [...]

  • Rajini

    Thanks friend … u r tip really helps…

  • http://technojuice.blogspot.com/ TechnoJuice – Technology Blog

    How about this way ! It changed my way of accessing thing completely… its so easy now !

    http://technojuice.blogspot.com/2007/08/access-file-faster-and-clean-your-messy.html

  • Rahul

    hi, how to create a batch file (.bat) to open an ping command, by using run command.

  • http://tech-buzz.net/ Thilak

    Jacob: Having lots of quick launches can also be messy, but good suggestion!

    Daniel: Yup! I do