- Assigning a global keyboard shortcut to launch Outlook 2010 opens it faster, but also lets you bring Outlook to the foreground when it is running, but not the active window.
- Right-click on the shortcut you always use to open Outlook, and choose "Properties". If it is pinned to the taskbar (Windows 7), unpin it and restore it at the end of this tutorial.
- Make sure that the "Shortcut" tab is selected.
- Is the "Target" field editable text? If not, create your own shortcut to Outlook from the
Program Files/Program Files (x86)folder. You need it editable to enforce "single instance". - Click in the Target field, hit End, insert a space, and type "/recycle" to add that switch.
- Click inside the "Shortcut key" text field, and press the keyboard shortcut of your choice.
Tip: pick a Ctrl+Alt shortcut to avoid conflicts. Ctrl+[?] / Ctrl+Shift+[?] shortcuts are often already mapped in applications; we've always used Ctrl+Alt+O for Outlook, without issue.
- If the shortcut doesn't appear in the box or another program opens, pick a different shortcut.
- Optionally customize a window state ("Run" dropdown) to force Outlook to start minimized, maximized, or with the same size and position as when you last closed it without crash.
- Click "OK" to apply: you can start using your new shortcut right away. And because we specified the "/recycle" switch, it will also bring Outlook to the front if it is running!
- In Windows 7, you can press the Windows logo key and a number for programs pinned to the taskbar: when Outlook is running, right-click on its button in the taskbar and choose "Pin this program to taskbar". Drag left or right to change its position, which controls the number to press, like "1" for the leftmost button (use the main keyboard numbers, not the numerical keypad).
Email AOL Mail Gmail Hotmail Yahoo Mail MS Office Excel 2010 OneNote 2010 Outlook 2010 Word 2010 OS & Devices Kindle Fire Windows 7 Web Dev C# and .NET JavaScript jQuery