Windows 11 frozen? Try this secret keyboard shortcut

While -- thankfully -- not terribly common, it is certainly not unknown for Windows 11 to just hang. If you have found yourself with a frozen desktop, you may have thought there was no alternative but to restart your computer.

But no matter whether your system froze while you were in the middle of a gaming session, while you were given a presentation, or just surfing the web, there is something else you can try.

See also:

• Microsoft is adding a handy VPN indicator to the Windows 11 taskbar
• Microsoft lifts printer-related safeguard hold blocking some Windows 11 upgrades
• Microsoft releases emergency patches to fix Kerberos authentication issues on multiple versions of Windows

When something goes wrong with your computer, it is natural to want to blame Windows for causing the problem. This can be the case... but not necessarily. A common cause of a frozen or hung desktop is an issue with graphics card drivers.

A very quick thing you can try the next time your computer hangs unexpectedly is to simply restart your graphics card driver. How can you do this if your system is frozen? There's a keyboard shortcut for that.

Just press Win + Ctrl + Shift + B and a few seconds later you will -- hopefully -- be back in business.

After you use the keyboard shortcut, you will notice that your monitor goes black for an instant. If you have more than one display attached to your computer, they will each briefly go blank in turn.

Of course, this tip is not guaranteed to work in every situation, but it is definitely a keyboard shortcut worth learning so you can pull it out and give it a try.

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