Simple or complex calculations are part of our daily life. As a popular operating system Windows provides the tool named Calculator in order to make our calculation in an easy and fast way. In this tutorial, we will learn how to open the Windows calculator in different ways like from the start menu, application search, command line, run menu, desktop shortcut, taskbar, keyboard shortcut. This tutorial can be also used other versions of Windows like Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server in most cases.
What Is Calculator?
Windows operating systems provide different useful applications for daily use. The calculator is one of there as its name suggests it is used for different types of calculations.
Even it may seem very simple which is designed for arithmatics calculations the Windows Calculator can provides different types of calculation for different areas like Scientific, Programmer, Date, Currency, Volume, Length, Weight and Mass, Temperature, Energy, Area, Speed, Time and Power.
Open Calculator From Program Files
As a popular Windows tools calculator is provided via the Program File. We will just open the program files from the start menu like below and locate the calculator from the C letter like below.
Open Calculator From Start Menu
We can open the calculator from the start menu without trying to locate from program files. We will just type “calculator” to the start menu search box like below and the calculator will be listed like below. We can open the calculator by clicking to the match list or clicking to the open button like below.
Open Calculator From Command Line, MS-DOS or PowerShell
The calculator can be also opened from the command line or MS-DOS or PowerShell. We need to provide the calculator executable name which is calc.exe but we can also use the calc command as a shortcut.
Open Calculator From Run
Windows Run provides similar function to the command line. We can open the calculator from the Run Box by typing the executable name calc.exe or calc like below. The run box can be opened with the WIN+R keyboard shortcut.
Open Calculator From Desktop Shortcut
In order to open calculator from a desktop shortcut we need to create the calculator shortcut. First we will right click to the desktop and use New -> Shortcut like below.
In the following screen we will provide the exact location of the calculator application. The calc.exe is located under the
%WinDir%\System32\calc.exe
The last step is setting a name for the shortcut which will be Calculator in this example.
Now the shortcut is created on the desktop. We can open the calculator from this shortcut just by double click on to it.
Open Calculator From Taskbar
The calculator can be also opened from the taskbar easily. But in order to open a calculator from the taskbar, the taskbar should contain the taskbar icon of the calculator which can be added easily. First, open the calculator by using other methods described previously. Then right-click the calculator icon on the taskbar and click to the Pin to taskbar like below.
Now the calculator shortcut for taskbar is created and we can click to calcualtor taskbar shortcut to open the calculator.
Open Calculator with Keyboard Shortcut
Another practical way to open the calculator is using a keyboard shortcut. In order to use keyboard shortcut we should create and set a keyboard shortcut for the calculator.
We will see the following screen where we will click to the Shortcut key and press the shortcut key which is F3 in this example. The last step is clicking to the Apply and OK .
Now we can open the calculator by just pressing the F3 key from the keyboard.