Keyboard Hot-keys

Media Center provides a number of keyboard shortcuts (hot-keys, accelerators) to facilitate operations. In addition to Media Center-specific shortcuts, standard Windows Alt key menu navigation/accelerator keys are available and readily discoverable by holding down the Alt key, and taking note of the underlined letter in the menus and sub-menus.

Several keyboard shortcuts depend on the context, and will be described multiple times in the tables below. For example, Enter may initiate playback of the selected items, or pause video. Page Up may move the selection to the top of the list of visible items, or reset image playback to the first item.

Most shortcuts are valid only when Media Center is the foreground application. Some, marked as (Global), function even when Media Center is running in the background.

Media Center also supports user-defined keyboard shortcuts.

PLAYBACK
Ctrl + P	Play / Pause
Ctrl + S	Stop
Ctrl + Shift + S	Stop after current file (toggle)
Ctrl + L	Previous Track / File
Ctrl + N	Next Track / File
Ctrl + M	Mute (toggle)
Ctrl + + (Num Pad) Ctrl + =	Volume Up 1%
Ctrl + -	Volume Down 1%
Ctrl + R	Reshuffle
Ctrl + Shift + R	Shuffle Remaining
Ctrl + Left Arrow	Rewind
Ctrl + Right Arrow	Fast-Forward
Ctrl + Shift + Left Arrow	Jump Back
Ctrl + Shift + Right Arrow	Jump Forward
Alt + M	Use alternate playback settings (toggle)
Ctrl + T	Cycle through zones
EDIT
Ctrl + A	Select All
Ctrl + Shift + A	Invert Selection
Ctrl + X	Cut
Ctrl + C Ctrl + Insert	Copy
Ctrl + V Shift + Insert	Paste
Ctrl + Shift + V	Paste Tags
Ctrl + Shift + F12	Paste Listening To Information (Global)
Ctrl + Y	Redo
Ctrl + Z	Undo
Delete	Delete
Shift + Delete	Delete files from the database and the current playlist.
F8	Add New Playlist
F9	Add New Smartlist
F10	Add New Playlist Group
F2	Rename / In-place editing
F4	Page Tagging (toggle)
Alt + Enter	Tag Action Window (toggle)
Shift + Ctrl + 0 Shift + Ctrl + NumPad0 Shift + Ctrl + Delete	Clear rating of currently playing file. (The third command replaces the first two as of MC21.0.71.)
Shift + Ctrl + 1…5 Shift + Ctrl + NumPad1…NumPad5	Rate currently playing file 1…5
PLAYBACK ENGINE
I (letter i) = + (num pad)	Zoom In Note older versions of MC might use CTRL+ +. So if you are using an older version of MC, and '+' does not work, try holding down CTRL key while pressing '+'
O (letter o) - (both num pad and main keyboard area)	Zoom Out Note older versions of MC might use CTRL+ -. So if you are using an older version of MC, and '-' does not work, try holding down CTRL key while pressing '-'
Up Arrow	Up
Down Arrow	Down
Left Arrow	Left While video/television is playing, Left Arrow makes the video jump backward a pre-configured number of seconds (default is 10 seconds)
Right Arrow	Right While video/television is playing, Right Arrow makes the video jump forward a pre-configured number of seconds (default is 30 seconds)
Enter	Multipurpose: Pauses video playback; toggles display mode for images; plays current items in file list group for audio
A	Set Default Aspect Ratio
Home	First Item
End	Last Item
Page Down Shift + Page Down	Next Item
Page Up Shift + Page Up	Previous Item
Space	Pause (toggle)
PLAYBACK ENGINE - IMAGES
P	Pan and Zoom (toggle)
E	Next Effects Mode
W	Previous Effects Mode
1 NumPad1	Zoom, Reset
2…9 NumPad2…NumPad9	Zoom, Factor 2…9
PLAYBACK ENGINE - DVD & BLU-RAY
Ctrl + Shift + L	Toggle Audio Stream
PLAYBACK ENGINE - TV
Ctrl + Shift + R	Record TV
Ctrl + Shift + Print Screen	Take Screen Snapshot
Ctrl + Shift + F	Change Standard
Ctrl + Shift + Tab	OSD Cycle Video Processor
Ctrl + Shift + Up	OSD Next Video Processor
Ctrl + Shift + Down	OSD Previous Video Processor
0…9 NumPad0…NumPad 9	Change Channel
VIEW & NAVIGATION
F11	Toggles Display View Fullscreen/Detached, or Theater View/Display View/Standard View
Shift + F11	Theater View
ESC	Return to Standard Mode from Full Screen or Theater View
Ctrl + 1 NumPad1	Standard View
Ctrl + 2 NumPad2	Mini View
Ctrl + 3 NumPad3	Display View
Ctrl + 4 NumPad4	Theater View
Ctrl + 5 NumPad5	Cover View
Ctrl + 6 NumPad6	Detach Display (toggle)
Alt + 1 Alt + NumPad1	Start (in tree)
Alt + 2 Alt + NumPad2	Playing Now
Alt + 3 Alt + NumPad3	Last Open Media Mode in Tree
Alt + 4 Alt + NumPad4	Images
Alt + 5 Alt + NumPad5	Video
Alt + 6 Alt + NumPad6	Podcasts
Alt + 7 Alt + NumPad7	Playlists
Alt + 8 Alt + NumPad8	Devices & Drives
Alt + 9 Alt + NumPad9	Scheduler & Plug-ins
Ctrl + E	Search using Text Mode
Ctrl + F	Set focus to Search box
Ctrl + Shift + F	Search using Search Wizard
Ctrl + Q	Quick Search in a list
F3	Find Next in Quick Search
Ctrl + Tab	Next View / Tab
Ctrl + Shift + Tab	Previous View / Tab
Ctrl + W	Close Active Tab or View
F5	Refresh
Alt + Left Backspace	Navigate Backward
Alt + Right Shift + Backspace	Navigate Forward
Ctrl + U	Toggle List Style (focus must be in bottom list pane)
Ctrl + Shift + U	Automatic List Style (focus must be in bottom list pane)
Ctrl + Shift + I	Details List Style (focus must be in bottom list pane)
Ctrl + Shift + O	View Thumbnails (focus must be in bottom list pane)
Ctrl + Shift + P	View Album Thumbnails (focus must be in bottom list pane)
Ctrl + G	Collapse All in Tree
Tab	Move Keyboard Focus forwards
Shift + Tab	Move Keyboard Focus backwards
List Navigation
Up Arrow	Move selection up
Down Arrow	Move selection down
Left Arrow	Move selection left
Right Arrow	Move selection right
Page Up	Move selection to top of visible list
Page Down	Move selection to bottom of visible list
Home	Move selection to first item in list
End	Move selection to last item in list
Enter	Multipurpose: Toggles file list in Category view; Starts playback of selected file list items
<keys>	Change selection using type-select
MENUS
Alt + F	Show File Menu
Alt + E	Show Edit Menu
Alt + V	Show View Menu
Alt + P	Show Player Menu
Alt + T	Show Tools Menu
Alt + H	Show Help Menu
TOOLS & MISCELLANEOUS
Ctrl + O	Options
F7	Tune TV
Alt + F4	Exit
F1	Help
Ctrl + J	Check for Updates
Ctrl + Shift + T	Test