Bren:Alumni

I needed to take a screen shot of something today at work. The application I was trying to screenshot was only available installed on a remote server which I only had remote desktop access to. To make matters worse (or more interesting ;)), the server is only accessible through a VPN which I had installed within a Virtual PC.

SO, where am I going with this?

I used the longest keyboard shortcut today for all I can remember.

The keyboard shortcut to take a screen shot of the focused window is ALT PrintScreen. Within Virtual PC RIGHT-ALT is reserved for special functionality so I had to use LEFT-ALT. However, within a remote desktop session, the equivalent to ALT PrintScreen is CTRL ALT PLUS (”+”) on numeric keypad and PrintScreen. Like most laptops, mine didn’t come with a numeric keypad, and the PLUS (”+”) is really SHIFT EQUAL (”=”).

So if you’re still following along, the “shortcut” to take a screenshot of the focused window in a remote desktop session within a Virtual PC is….

CTRL LEFT-ALT SHIFT EQUAL (”=”) PrintScreen

It took a total of 5 fingers and 2 hands in order to complete this shortcut on my laptop. Aside from the number of keystrokes for this shortcut, maybe the amazing thing is it actually worked…

What’s the longest keyboard shortcut you’ve used or know of?