What Is The Refresh Button On The Keyboard [new] Jun 2026

Sometimes, a standard refresh isn't enough. If a website looks broken (images aren't loading, the layout is weird) or you are trying to see a change you made that isn't appearing, you might need a .

| Key(s) | Function | Typical Environment | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Full page refresh (reloads current document/file list). | Windows (File Explorer, Browsers), many Linux DEs. | | Ctrl + R | Page refresh (identical to F5 in browsers). | Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, macOS (as Cmd + R). | | Ctrl + F5 | Hard / Cache-Clearing Refresh (forces a fresh download of all page data). | Web browsers (Windows/Linux). | | Cmd + R | Standard page refresh. | macOS. | | Shift + Cmd + R | Hard / Cache-Clearing Refresh. | macOS browsers. | what is the refresh button on the keyboard

Pressing F5 refreshes the folder view or desktop icons if they haven't updated automatically. Sometimes, a standard refresh isn't enough

Pressing F5 reloads the current webpage to show new content. | Windows (File Explorer, Browsers), many Linux DEs

When you visit a website, your computer downloads a temporary copy of that page (images, text, and code) to display it to you. This is called "caching."