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I'm using Windows 10 and today I accidentally hit the key combination: Ctrl+Shift+Win+B.

As a result, the screens went black for about a second and I heard a beep.

This is reproduceable; every time I hit the aforementioned key combination, the same behavior occurs.

Searching on the web I could find nothing about this except a reddit thread in which a user said he observed a similar behavior in Windows 8 by pressing Ctrl+Win+B (no Shift).

So, what is this key combination used for?

Cristian Lupascu
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  • [Interesting shortcut on Windows: Windows+Ctrl+Shift+B](https://matthijs.hoekstraonline.net/2016/11/08/interesting-shortcut-on-windows-windowsctrlshiftb/). It's also suggested by MS to recover from [the Chrome freezing bug](https://www.pcworld.com/article/3269789/windows/windows-10-april-2018-update-chrome-freeze.html) – phuclv May 05 '18 at 08:09
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    ["This keycombo actually saves out part of the dispdiag circular log and queues up the data to upload through telemetry indicating the customer had a black screen."](https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6l7cyk/kb4022716_win_ctrl_shift_b_windows_10/djua1pi) – Appleshell Jul 25 '19 at 14:53
  • Wow, I've never heard of this shortcut, and I thought I was aware of nearly all. Is there any list available of secret, potentially useful tricks (i.e. keyboard shortcuts) like these? – aviator Dec 31 '20 at 16:43

4 Answers4

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The Ctrl+Shift+Win+B key sequence will restart your graphics driver.

TechRon
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    I think that's it. After seeing your answer I found this: http://betanews.com/2016/11/14/how-to-restart-graphics-driver/ which confirms it. – Cristian Lupascu Nov 14 '16 at 12:54
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    If you have a Surface like I do, you probably also get to use this key combo every time you want to wake the machine from sleep... If you don't do this, the monitors refuse to come back on! – Brian Knoblauch Aug 28 '17 at 18:30
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    @GolfWolf ah - it says the key combo only works on Win 10. I confirm that on Win7 Pro it doesn't do anything. – bgmCoder May 04 '18 at 18:57
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    Can this be done with a console command too? – fritzmg Feb 14 '19 at 11:42
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    From a discussion with an AMD Radeon driver engineer, it does NOT restart the graphics driver. It does appear to discard the desktop surface buffer and re-create the allocation from DWM (on a healthy system the desktop goes black for a second). – Kevin Dec 05 '19 at 01:31
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    Kevin's comment is correct. This key combo causes the Desktop Window Manager to recreate its graphics context and surface. – Polynomial Sep 09 '21 at 22:56
  • Why is there a shortcut for this? What's its common purpose? – xr280xr Jul 14 '22 at 17:54
  • @xr280xr One situation I have found this shortcut useful: On my Lenovo laptop, I occasionally get a glitch where maximizing any application causes a black bar across the top 1/4 or so of the screen. This shortcut fixes it. (Discovered it here initially: https://thegeekpage.com/fix-maximized-window-blank-empty-space-on-top-of-screen-in-windows-10/ ) – Theodore Aug 02 '23 at 17:33
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Official from Microsoft: "Windows logo key + Ctrl + Shift + B = Wake PC from blank or black screen"

From a discussion with an AMD Radeon driver engineer, it does NOT restart the graphics driver. It does appear to discard the desktop surface buffer and re-create the allocation from DWM (on a healthy system the desktop goes black for a second).

Kevin
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    For what it's worth, Microsoft also recommends using it in this situation: when troubleshooting external monitor setup, when external monitor was working before but then suddenly stopped. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/troubleshoot-external-monitor-connections-in-windows-10-5b46f4a4-9634-06bb-7622-f960facdfd49 – RyanQuey Mar 31 '21 at 02:05
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About a year and a half after OP asked their question, "SurfaceDockGuy" posted in reply to a similar Reddit question in /r/sysadmin,

This keycombo actually saves out part of the dispdiag circular log and queues up the data to upload through telemetry indicating the customer had a black screen. That's what the "B" is for. Blackscreen.

The key combo was added to help diagnose instances where the machine is churning along but there is nothing on screen. Pressing it when you don't have a blackscreen just adds noise to the system. A driver reset is a possible side-effect but not the intent of this key.

Source: I worked on the team at MS.

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/6l7cyk/comment/djua1pi/

Chris Woods
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1

Have only found this one, please take a look:

Ctrl+Win+B -> Switch to the program that displayed a message in the notification area.

Leo Chapiro
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    Yes, I ran into that while searching. I even use Win+B occasionally (although not with the CTRL version). However, if I add shift on top of that I get the totally weird behavior I described in the question. – Cristian Lupascu Sep 23 '16 at 09:31
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    While not the best answer, spreading this handy tip is still useful. +1 – Rubellite Fae Aug 09 '19 at 02:24
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    Your answer has no relation to the original question which was "What does Ctrl+Win+ **SHIFT** +B do in Windows". – Thorsten Albrecht Mar 29 '23 at 13:14