The Ultimate Keyboard Shortcut to Disaster: Why Ctrl+Alt+Delete is a Windows User’s Worst Nightmare

You know the principle of keyboard shortcuts: it's about saving time. Rather than desperately looking for the accented capital letter for the E, for example, you type the “alt” key followed by the number “144” and that’s it. There are many key combinations on Windows, to take a screenshot or add a non-breaking space.

Generally, shortcuts require typing a series of keys or pressing several simultaneously — in this genre, “Ctrl+Alt+Del” is perhaps the most well-known sequence. It provides access to Windows options (lock the PC, log off, change user or launch the task manager).

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The hellish shortcut on Windows to type on the keyboard

However, there is a family of keyboard shortcuts that is a little on the fringes: these combinations require pressing no less than 5 keys simultaneously to trigger the desired effect. To tell the truth, we were unaware of its existence until recently. It is through a tweet from videographer Mister MV that we discovered these oddities.

The sequence in question is: “Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+L”. What she does ? It opens a new tab in your default web browser and sends you directly to LinkedIn (L for LinkedIn). “ A shortcut to hell », Commented mischievously Mister MV, about this professional social network controlled by Microsoft.

Other Internet users had already heard of this “shortcut” — a necessarily dubious term when you have to press more or less half of the keys on your keyboard (okay, we're exaggerating). In September 2023, Rudeism had also discovered this infernal combination: “ I thought it was a joke when I was told it, but it's 100% real. »

Do not think that this “Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Win+L” is an isolated case. As we have said, it is a whole family of extension shortcuts who exist. The others, however, are linked to the Microsoft 365 office suite, which brings together most of the American software giant's productivity tools. Here is the list of commands:

• LinkedIn – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + L
• Word – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + W
• Excel – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN +
• Power point – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + P
• Outlook – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + O
• Microsoft Teams – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + T
• OneDrive – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + D
• OneNote – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + N
• Yammer – CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + WIN + Y