There are now more than 1.75 billion PC gamers worldwide and numbers continue to increase year-on-year. People of all ages and interests can enjoy the entertainment and thrill that gaming on PC provides.
Whether you are a player of action and adventure titles or prefer to spend time online casinos playing slingo games, technological advancement has helped to make the PC gaming experience totally seamless and immersive.
For an even more enjoyable experience and to improve your efficiency, many PC users learn PC shortcuts to help with their gaming. They can sometimes take a little time to get a hang of, but once you do you will enjoy how speedily you can complete basic tasks.
Here are just a few of the best shortcuts you should know how to do as an avid PC gamer:
Moving a window from one monitor to another
Having multiple monitors is a must for some gamers, whether it is to have a bigger display of the game or to keep the game on one screen and have social media, YouTube or Discord open on the other.
If you are starting up a new PC game and it launches on the wrong monitor, there might not be an option in-game to switch to another monitor. This is where a shortcut can come in handy.
Use the Windows Key + Shift + either the Left or Right Arrow Key to move the window in the direction you need it to go to be on the other screen.
There are some occasions when this shortcut might not work correctly. For example, if your game is in full screen mode. In this instance you might want to try Alt Key + Enter Key to exit full screen and window the game before you move it across.
Toggle through windows quickly
You might already use this next shortcut regularly if you work in an office job, it is really handy for switching windows quickly. You might have a chat open in another window or a page with game tips to look at while you play.
All you need to do is hit the Alt Key + the Tab Key simultaneously to toggle through each of your open windows. This shortcut is often used with in-browser games, it saves time and prevents you needing to use the mouse to exit and re-enter your current main window.
Take a screenshot using Snipping Tool
There are many different reasons for wanting to take a screenshot of something while you are gaming. Perhaps you want to share an achievement with your friends or remember something for another time.
Many people use Print Screen to take a full screenshot, however there are some issues with this as it doesn’t allow you to select where the screenshot will be stored. It also doesn’t give you the option to select what it is you want to capture.
This is where the Snipping Tool option can be really useful, it is probably the best way you can capture a screenshot as a PC user. To enter Snipping Tool mode, all you need to do is select Windows Key + Shift Key + the letter ‘S’.
This will bring up the tool and the different options for capturing the shot you want. You can even set a delay timer if you need to.
Force quit the game
While the gaming experience has come a long way due to tech advancements in recent years, it is inevitable that from time to time you will experience issues. One rather irritating issue is when the game freezes and you aren’t even able to enter the menu options to save and quit your game in the usual way.
The force quit shortcut for any application, it doesn’t need to be a game, is Alt Key + F4 Key. However, if it is only the game that is frozen and not all windows there is an alternate option you may wish to try.
In this instance, try to use Alt Key + Tab Key to exit the window the game is in and open up your Resource Monitor. A shortcut for this is Windows Key + the letter ‘S’ to bring up the search.
You can then Right Click on your game tab and select the Analyze Wait Chain option, now you can try to end the lowest process in the game. You might be able to recover your game or to save it before quitting.
Reset your graphics card driver
Having issues with your game graphics? If the graphics are not displaying in the way you would usually expect them to, there could potentially be an issue with your graphics card driver.
Try hitting Ctrl Key + Windows Key + Shift Key + the letter ‘B’, the screen will go dark for a second before resuming.
