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Windows key+Break: Show System Properties
Chances are you’ve got this “Break” key on your keyboard in the upper center (it might be located with the “Pause” key) and you’ve never used it. It sure doesn’t do much. Well, if you press that Windows key plus the Break key, you get the System Properties control panel, which (among other things) tells you how much memory your computer has. With a couple of presses of the Ctrl+Tab key to change tabs in the dialog box, you can view your hardware devices and make sure they’re working, change your computer name, or a few other administrative tasks.
on May 14th, 2007 at 6:06 am
Excellent shortcut, thanks. I open that dialog countless times a day.
on May 18th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
On my standard keyboard, the Win key + Pause/Break works, but on my laptop, where the Pause and Break are separated, it’s Win key + Pause - just a heads up in case it doesn’t work for some folks.
on May 19th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Thanks. Just a note: I have one of those Microsoft media keyboards that includes and “F Lock” key. The F Lock has to be turned OFF for this key combo to work; with F Lock on, the combo operates the Scroll Lock function.
on May 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pm
A little easier trick would be to hold the ALT key and double click “My Computer” on your desktop.
on June 6th, 2007 at 1:18 am
How is using the mouse _and_ the keyboard easier than using just the keyboard?
You’d have to take your other hand off the keyboard to do that - no thanks.
on June 9th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
@Steven & Koloman
Thats a good trick and what if you don’t want to take your hand off your mouse? If you happen to already have the mouse in hand it would be better but otherwise the Alt+Break is probobaly better.
on June 11th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Steven, hey, if you want to use the mouse, you’re reading the wrong blog!
on June 13th, 2007 at 6:03 am
Hi all,
that’s Windows + Pause, not Windows + Break!!
Not all keyboards have pause/break on the same key…
Cheers.
on November 21st, 2007 at 8:16 am
that shortcut was working on my laptop, but suddenly…
I press Win + Pause, and nothing happens
I have a hp dv 6338, any idea?
on November 21st, 2007 at 8:43 am
I rebooted, and the combination works again…
what could be happened?
on June 19th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
um dont work for me pause with a break
on June 19th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Either Windows+Pause or Windows+Break should work. The official listing from Microsoft’s help pages is Windows+Break, but keyboards do vary.
Alex, sorry, no idea about what might have disabled it. Glad the reboot fixed it though. (Josh, try rebooting?)
on July 11th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
hp laptop keyboards’ ctrl, alt, and shift keys have a tendency to get invisibly “stuck”. the physical key is not stuck, so you can’t directly see or feel the problem.
this can be very confusing, since it will cause certain keystrokes or mouseclicks to either not work at all or to do something different. but if you know to expect it, the fix is easy.
just tap all the ctrl, alt, and shift keys to get the offending key “unstuck”.
i have an hp dv8000, and a couple times i couldn’t even log into windows because a shift key was stuck.
by the way, system properties shortcut is winkey+(fn)+pgup(pause) for me. (pause is fn+pgup on my laptop)