Keyboard and mouse reference
Every gesture and shortcut on a board. Most of them are the ones you already use on the Windows desktop.
The design goal is that you should not have to learn DeskDrawer. Almost every gesture here is what the same gesture does on the real Windows desktop.
Mouse#
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Drag on empty board space or bare desktop | Rubber-band select — the band spans multiple boards; hold Ctrl to add to the selection |
| Drag selected icons | Move them between boards or reorder within one |
| Drag icons out to an Explorer window | Copies or moves the real files |
| Drag files in from Explorer | The files land on the desktop and join that board |
| Drag a file onto a folder on a board | Moves the file into that folder — see Drag into folder |
| Right-click an icon | The real Windows context menu |
| Right-click empty board space | The real Windows desktop menu |
| Right-click a board's name | The Board menu |
| Double-click a board's name | Rename it in place |
| Mouse wheel over a board | Scrolls the board |
| Hover a file | The standard Windows info tip — type, size, date, a shortcut's target, an image's dimensions |
| Double-click an icon | Open |
Keyboard#
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| Enter | Open the selection |
| F2 | Rename |
| Delete | Recycle, with Windows' confirmation for permanent deletes |
| Ctrl+A | Select all in the board |
| Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X | Copy / cut |
| Ctrl+V | Paste into the board under the pointer |
| Esc | Clear the selection |
| Alt+F4 | Windows' Shut Down Windows dialog, as on the real desktop |
Selection across boards#
A Marquee selection is not confined to one board. Start on empty space and drag: the band crosses board boundaries and selects everything it touches. The resulting mixed selection can be dragged, copied, cut or deleted as one unit, and keyboard shortcuts apply to it immediately — which was not true before 1.0.7.
What is deliberately missing#
There is no global hotkey to summon DeskDrawer, and no configurable key bindings. Both would mean installing a keyboard hook that runs for every keystroke on the machine, which is a large cost for a tool that is meant to be invisible. See Limitations.