Windows – Keystroke to open a new window in Windows 7 Explorer

keyboard shortcutswindows 7windows-explorer

I'm a bit late to the Windows 7 party, and having just installed it yesterday, I'm already sorely missing an XP feature. In explorer, I used to be able to click the toolbar Up button with Ctrl held down to open a new explorer window. In Windows 7, I neither have an Up button nor a keystroke to change navigation to open a new window (aside from Ctrl+double click).

I'm not asking about the "open everything in a new window" option in Tools -> Folder Options. Most of the time I want to stay in the same window – but sometimes I don't.

I also know Alt+ will go up a level, but Ctrl+Alt+ doesn't do anything.

So, two questions:

  • Is there a convenient way to open the parent folder in a new window
  • Does someone have a link to a good reference on all Windows 7 keyboard short cuts?

Best Answer

For the second part of your question there is this article on MS's site.

Click show all and you have them all.


Unfortunately there is no shortcut to open a parent folder in a new window.

But there is a way...

You can do 1 of 2 things.

  1. Ctrl+N then Alt+Up

  2. use AutoHotkey to run this exact key command with a smaller and quicker command of your choosing

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