The Fn key has been a fixture on Apple keyboards for decades, but many Mac users lack a sense of its purpose. Adam Engst thought he was going to write a quick article listing hidden keyboard shortcuts ...

To use them, you'll need to press and hold the Fn key on your keyboard, which will make the F keys appear in the Touch Bar. From there, you can select the key for the desired function.

The function keys on your keyboard are the most powerful computer tools that you're not using. We're going to fix that.

I'd like to be able to use my function keys without needing the "fn" key itself when I'm bootcamp-booted into Windows. Any ideas?

If the Functions keys are set to perform media functions by default, pressing the Fn+F12 key will trigger an alternate action, i.e., entering the boot menu.