Having your PC suddenly freeze in the middle of working is frustrating. Next time you need to fix a frozen computer and don’t want to restart, there’s a little-known shortcut that might help you recover from one common cause.
Let’s look at a handy keyboard shortcut you probably don’t know about, then discuss a few more quick tips for getting your frozen computer running again.
The Hidden Key Combo for Fixing Computer Freezes
Windows offers a little-known shortcut that will restart your video drivers. If you’re not familiar, video drivers are software that allows Windows to interface with the graphics hardware in your computer.
To reset your graphics drivers when your computer is frozen, press the following key combination: Win + Ctrl + Shift + B.
When you press these keys, your screen will go black for a moment, and you’ll hear a beep while the video driver resets. After a few seconds, your display will return. Since this only affects your graphics drivers, all your open apps remain exactly where you left them. You won’t lose any saved work.
This only works on Windows 8 and newer, so Windows 7 users can’t take advantage of it. However, it will work no matter what kind of video card you have. Nvidia, AMD, and even Intel integrated graphics will reset with this shortcut.
More Troubleshooting Tips for a Frozen Computer
Depending on the cause of the freeze, this shortcut may or may not fix your issue. If your graphics driver gets stuck, restarting it should let you continue on without having to restart your computer. But if this doesn’t work, your PC is probably frozen from something more than your video card.
As a next troubleshooting step, try pressing Alt + Tab to switch to another program. If it’s still stuck and you don’t see the menu switcher appear, try Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Manager and kill any unresponsive programs. You should also know how to force-close apps without using the Task Manager.
Should neither of these work, give Ctrl + Alt + Del a press. This is a special key combination that only the operating system can respond to, making it an important step when checking for a frozen PC.
If your computer is frozen and Ctrl + Alt + Del isn’t working after some time, you’ll need to hard shutdown your computer by holding its power button for several seconds. Should that fail to work, and you’re using a desktop, you can pull the power plug. While it’s best to avoid doing this unless you absolutely have to, sometimes it’s the only way to escape a full system freeze.
If you run into this problem regularly, check out our guide to Windows 10 freezes.
Fix a Frozen Computer Now
Knowing handy shortcuts like these will make it easier to fix problems as they arise. While this won’t correct all PC freezes, it should patch up anything related to your video drivers locking up. Anytime you don’t have to restart from these problems is a small win.
To diagnose deeper issues, you should learn about the most common reasons that Windows becomes unresponsive.
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