After installing Fedora, or most linuxes, you may realise that the Windows key that you used during the unenlightened days doesnt work anymore. Even worse, you cannot seem to use it as part of you Keyboard shortcuts. Gives some weird irony when reading about Dead Keys.

Enabling the Windows Key is easy, Just go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard. [caption id=”attachment_186” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”The Keyboard Menu under Preferences”][/caption]

You will get the Keyboard Preferences window up. Choose the Layouts tab. [caption id=”attachment_187” align=”aligncenter” width=”284” caption=”The Keyboard type used”][/caption]

Then choose Layout Options. A new Keyboard Layout Options window comes out. [caption id=”attachment_188” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Keyboard Layout Options”][/caption]

Expand the Alt/Win Key Behavior menu, and choose Super is mapped to Win Keys Then close all the menus. You know have a functional Windows key. [caption id=”attachment_189” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”Choose the Super is mapped to Win Keys”][/caption]

You can now assign shortcuts using the Keyboard Shortcuts menu. In this screenshot, I assigned Windows key + R to opening a new terminal. [caption id=”attachment_190” align=”aligncenter” width=”300” caption=”A Sample Shortcut Using the Windows Key”][/caption] Pretty handy for me. I’m sure you will be able to think of other shortcuts that suite your fancy.