Control Windows Media Center with Keyboard Shortcuts

For those people who use Windows Media Center, it can be a pain to have to navigate around the program using the mouse, especially if you’re watching a movie and you need to access a particular feature.

What many users don’t know or realize is that Windows Media Center has a whole lot of keyboard shortcuts that can be used to control various aspects of the program. SimpleHelp has compiled a pretty big list of keyboard shortcuts you might need. 42 to be precise.

If you are watching a video or DVD, you can use Ctrl+B and Ctrl+F respectively to go back and forward between various chapters. Ctrl+U switches between various subtitle languages. In the case of TV viewing, hit Ctrl+G to go to the guide and Ctrl+R to record a TV show. There are shortcuts for radio and pictures as well. Just a small note; these shortcuts have been provided for Vista. I’m not running Media Center on my PC but I don’t think the shortcuts for XP would differ all that much.

While you may not need to use all 42 shortcuts, it’s still worthwhile checking out the ones you will probably need. For me, keyboard shortcuts means I can concentrate on the task at hand a bit more easily. How about you? Are any of these shortcuts helpful for you? What shortcuts do you normally use for Media Center? Is there anything else you can add? Let me know in the comments.

List of Windows Media Center shortcuts related to playing DVDs and videos.

• Change DVD angle: arrow keys
• Change DVD audio: Ctrl-Shift-a
• Change Subtitles: Ctrl-u
• Display context menu: Ctlr-d
• DVD menu: Ctrl-Shift-m
• Fast Forward: Ctrl-Shift-f
• Mute Volume: F8
• Next Chapter: Ctrl-f
• Pause video: Ctrl-p
• Play video: Ctrl-Shift-p
• Previous chapter: Ctrl-b
• Rewind: Ctrl-Shift-b
• Stop video: Ctrl-Shift-s
• Toggle closed captioning: Ctrl-Shift-c
• Videos: Ctrl-e
• Volume down: F10
• Volume up: F9