Q: is this topic vs winUp, which deservs more tcost?
A: I could live without the hot keys, so let’s reduct out t-investment.

— My goals:

1. hot key with meaningful, memorable key combination .. 0.txt, tmp.txt
2. desktop folder of shortcuts to my hot folders/files .. most visible but could clutter
3. startMenu shortcuts to my hot folders/files

Most important file types are .. 1) *.txt 2) *.xls

— method 1 (non-admins): I created a desktop folder ‘1sys’ to avoid ‘sys’. Now I can use keyboard to hit WinKey -> 1sys. Physical file/folder on desktop is good but a shortcut named 1sys failed to work 🙁

q[ `dtopHot ] worked fine.

🙂 This technique lets me create memorable hot keys for many different files and folders.

1. — to set up
2. I move the file link like tmp.txt.lnk (or the physical file spreadsheet.xls) to a 1sys on the desktop
3. — to use
4. hit winKey
5. start typing the file name
6. pray that your file will show up

— method 2 (non-admins): hot key

Find the folder on desktop or C: or a remote folder, right click -> pray to get a “pinToStart” (above SendTo) that can create a clickable shortcut in start-menu but the only workable keyboard accelerator involves several keystrokes: Winkey->downArrow->downArrow

( The pinToQuickAccess is for a different purpose – quickAcess is a list of folders showing on top in MSWE. )

minor question: can I make winKey-E start from a custom directory?

— method 3 (admin users): create a prominent item in start menu

create a folder like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\myHotKeys. In it, create regular windows shortcut to your favorite file. Name the shortcut something like 0.txt. This method is tested on HP71 and A95

Then press winKey -> type 0 -> the shortcut would show up -> right click -> pinToStart to create a clickable shortcut in start-menu

Result: from now on, when I press winKey, I can see abc.txt showing up as a favorite file

1. — to set up
2. I created one or more regular desktop shortcut to say tmp.txt
3. Then I created a subdir like “txt” in exactly C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
4. then I move those shortcut files over
5. — To use:
6. (1 keystroke) hit windows key or click start button. In some systems, you would immediately see 0.txt 🙂
7. now type first few chars of the shortcut filename
   1. (1 keystroke) “0” key. Some Systems automatically suggest 0.txt
   2. (3 keystrokes) “tmp”, to get “tmp.txt”
8. (1 keystroke) Enter key to open the file in notepad++

Q: how to make the search more precise, by making the item names more unique?

Q: To rename the folder from myHotKeys to 0HotLinks?

• duplicate the folder
• rename the clone folder
• go back to original folder and rename the files therein and test. The files in the new folder should work. If you type the first chars of the file name -> file shows up -> Click the OpenFileLocation -> reveals the renamed folder.  Note the file is a *.lnk file.
• remove original folder.
• After a while (up to minutes), the 0Hotlinks folder would  show up in the start menu, above the names starting A, B etc, hopefully above all others. In that case, you can use keyboard navigation

====Other shortcuts using more than keyboard

• MSWE QuickAccess
• desktop folder of shortcuts