Easily open 2 instances of Windows Explorer

garysgold · 27 Jan 2009

I think I just discovered another shortcut. If I have Win Explorer open and hit Ctrl+N, I get a second instance of Explorer. This has been a PITA for me up until now.

Also works for IE and Firefox. Seems if the program with focus uses the Ctrl+N such as Mail it still does what it is supposed to for that program.

Gary

swarfega · 27 Jan 2009

Useful, although Winkey+E does the same for Windows Explorer.

lappydog · 27 Jan 2009

swarfega said:

Useful, although Winkey+E does the same for Windows Explorer.

Hmmm, winkey+E does not give me second instance of Explorer.
Ctrl+N works great, thanks for the tip garysgold

garysgold · 27 Jan 2009

You welcome lappydog.

I had forgotten about that shortcut until swarfega mentioned it, but it doesn't open the second instance for me either.

Gary

MikelMolto · 27 Jan 2009

Shift click on the Icon of the Software downstairs do the same.
Regards Mikel

limneos · 27 Jan 2009

I'm on an XP system right now, Windows+E opens new instances here..

garysgold · 28 Jan 2009

MikelMolto said:

Shift click on the Icon of the Software downstairs do the same.
Regards Mikel

That works for IE and others, but doesn't work for me on Windows Explorer. This would be helpful to open a second instance of a program that already has a Ctrl+N shortcut.

Gary

Chappy · 28 Jan 2009

Ctrl+N has been around for awhile, so I have NEW one that's exclusive to W7 for you.
Counting from the Start Orb, your Superbar icons count as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hit Win+1 to make a new instance of whatever your first icon is, Win+2 for the second and so on.
They say this is good for only the first 5 icons but mine wrks up to the 6th.

garysgold · 29 Jan 2009

Chappy said:

Counting from the Start Orb, your Superbar icons count as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Hit Win+1 to make a new instance of whatever your first icon is, Win+2 for the second and so on.
They say this is good for only the first 5 icons but mine wrks up to the 6th.

Hi Dave,

This worked on the quicklaunch bar in Vista up to 10. It's been made part of the taskbar in 7, but it still won't open a second instance of Windows Explorer. Never knew that Ctrl+N would open a new window in anything. I used it to open a new doc. in various programs.

Gary

garbanzo · 29 Jan 2009

CTRL-N works on the level of individual programs, it's not a windows shortcut. it opens new windows in file browsers, or new documents in everything from Paint and Notepad to Photoshop and Word. it's just one of those near-universal keyboard shortcuts that most programs have, like F1 for help, CTRL-F for search, CTRL-O for open...

for simple apps like Notepad you can even change these with ResHacker if you want. one of the first thigns i do after a fresh install is to reshack notepad so hitting ESC closes it. very handy!