It’s been around for years, you use it to put occasional capitals like those words that are at the start of a sentence, but other than that it’s unknown to the vast majority of users. What are the hidden functions of the Shift key? Are there any interesting ones that we can use in games? We tell you everything.
We will start with this last section, that of gaming, since it is perhaps more interesting although shorter. And it is that today there are still players who do not get used to using this key which has its magic and which also has its peculiarities.
The Shift key in gaming, what is it for?
The video game and peripheral industry has established certain precedents and almost rules over time regarding this key. By definition and today the Shift key is used for two main functions that come by default in any FPS game:
Both are self-exclusive, since where in some games the character moves by walking, pressing it implies running, there are also those who do the opposite. But this key also has other additional functions that also follow the rule that each game uses it for a different task.
In FPS titles and with a sniper scope, it serves to stabilize the pulse and eliminate movement in aiming. At MMOs It usually helps in the casting of abilities that are in attached bars and in strategy, it is usually assigned for different purposes: from group selection to target setting.
As they say, it’s hard to generalize, so you’ll have to try or look directly at the in-game menu to see where it’s assigned. Likewise, as soon as our keyboard has good software, we can change its function to another that we want and keep it that way for all games and not for one in particular.
Also remember that we have another Shift in our right hand, just below the input (QWERTY keyboards) where it is larger. The functions are the same, but they are placed there for those who play with the arrow keys instead of the typical keys WASD.
The perfect support for different combinations
Normally the Shift key by itself is already defined in its uses both in Windows, Mac or in games, but it has additional tasks that not everyone knows and that you may not know either more. It is by definition the most used key with the control of “key combinations”. These provide shortcuts or perform specific tasks depending on their combination, which we will see below:
- Ctrl + Shift + Esc -> This is the shortcut to open Task Manager in Windows.
- Shift + Insert -> Paste the content to the clipboard.
- Windows + Shift + S -> We make custom screenshot, Windows 10 and Windows 11 allow manual adjustment.
- Windows + Shift + right arrow -> A window that we have on the left side of the screen is moved to the right.
- Windows + Shift + Left Arrow -> We move a window from right to left.
- Windows + Shift + up arrow -> The window is enlarged to the full vertical height of the screen.
- Windows + Shift + Down Arrow -> Once it halves the window size, a second time minimizes it to the taskbar.
- Shift + click on a program in the taskbar -> We open another instance of the same program.
- Ctrl + Shift + click on a program in the taskbar -> This program will run as system administrator.
- Shift + F10 -> The context menu opens.
And so far the uses of the Shift key on the PC, where surely with time and the operating system it will receive more and more uses.
