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WaterStreetFlag for United States of America

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Keyboard shortcut to display the Windows 8.1 desktop

Under Win 8.1, is there, or can I make a keyboard shortcut to display the desktop (somewhat like we had under Win XP)?

I'm annoyed by the two step process of hitting the Start key and then clicking on the desktop charm.  Personal preference :-))

Thanks
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John
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With Windows 8.1, right click on the taskbar and select properties.

In the window that come up, check the three top boxes in the second half (Start Screen) and the machine will start to the desktop. Mine works that way and it is much better.

... Thinkpads_User
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Jason Watkins
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SOLUTION
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McKnife
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Wait, where "are" you? Are you at the modern desktop right now (or using a modern app) and you simply want to change to the desktop? Then of course only firebar is correct.
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ASKER

thinkpads_user,

I don't find the "Second half (Start Screen)" you mentioned, so there are no boxes to check in the second half.

Because, under Taskbar properties, the top three boxes are:
Lock the taskbar (checked)
Auto-hide the taskbar (unchecked)
Use small taskbar buttons (checked)

The ones I checked are the ones I wanted.


Firebar,

Your solution worked immediately.  Just what I needed.



McKnife,

Your response confused me.  It's probably me. :-))


Thanks to all for the quick responses.
Thanks for the points! For Windows 8, the Windows key + R is another favorite of mine.
> Windows key + R is another favorite
Yeah, since windows NT... :)
Never did much with NT, except replace it with Windows 2000.
I closed too quickly.

McKnife's solution also works fine (now that I figured it out) -- clicking the hidden button on the extreme right of the Taskbar will alternately shift between the Desktop and the app that I was in.

That's even better for me when my Taskbar is showing (it's not in auto-hide and for some reason some apps like Chrome don't show me the Taskbar.

I just asked the Moderators to reopen and reassign the points:  300 to Firebar (Accepted Solution) and 200 to McKnife -- their respective first postings.
Thanks again -- see my immediately previous comment.

And, thanks SouthMod.  You've helped me many times over the years