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Keyboard shortcuts are a common aspect of most modern operating systems and associated software applications. Their use is pervasive enough that some users consider them an essential element of their routine interactions with a computer. Whether used as a matter of personal preference or for adaptive technology, the pervasiveness of common conventions enables the comparison of keyboard shortcuts across different systems. The following sections detail some of these comparisons in widely used operating systems.

Description

Keyboard shortcuts are typically an alternative means for invoking one or more commands that would otherwise be accessible only through a menu, a pointing device, different levels of a user interface, or via a command-line interface. Keyboard shortcuts generally expedite common operations by reducing input sequences to a few keystrokes, hence the term "shortcut".
Some keyboard shortcuts require the user to press a single key or a sequence of keys one after the other. Other keyboard shortcuts require pressing and holding several keys simultaneously. For simultaneous keyboard shortcuts, one usually first holds down the modifier key(s), then quickly presses and releases the regular (non-modifier) key, and finally releases the modifier key(s). This distinction is important, as trying to press all the keys simultaneously will frequently either miss some of the modifier keys, or cause unwanted auto-repeat. One exception is shortcuts involving the Esc key, which almost always requires pressing and releasing the Esc key before pressing the next key.
Mnemonics are distinguishable from keyboard shortcuts. One difference between them is that the keyboard shortcuts are not localized on multi-language software but the mnemonics are generally localized to reflect the symbols and letters used in the specific locale. In most GUIs, a program's keyboard shortcuts are discoverable by browsing the program's menus – the shortcut is indicated in the menu choice. There are keyboards, commonly called Specialty Keyboards that have the shortcuts for a particular application already marked on them. These keyboards can help the users learn the shortcuts and improve their speed of using the particular applications. In certain cases, those keyboards can be created by applying shortcut stickers on a regular keyboard, which usually gives quicker access to software program features not visible otherwise. Such keyboards are often used for editing video, audio, or graphics, as well as in software training courses.