Windows keystroke app launcher

January 9, 2006 12:07 PM

Please recommend a Windows 2000 program that will allow me to assign a keyboard command to bring all windows of an active application forward or launch the application if it is not yet open.

The latest Firefox doesn't work well with Quickeys 2.5.3 and the latest Quickeys is XP-only. There's so much dreck out there it's impossible to tell which programs are worthy. My criteria:

--I do not want to tab through open applications or windows.
--All keyboard commands must be user-assignable and all keys on the board must be available (even in the face of conflicts with existing commands in other programs). Too many programs stupidly assume I want to use the F keys for launching apps.
--I do not want a new toolbar or other piece of visual crap on the screen.
--I want to avoid using the mouse as much as possible.

posted by Mo Nickels to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

You can almost certainly do what you want with AutoHotkey or AutoIt. (The two programs are related derivatives of a public-domain project that was forked.) You'd have to do some scripting yourself, but you can assign scripts to any key you want -- including the mouse buttons -- and you can assign separate scripts to key-up and key-down. I have written a 500-line AutoHotkey script that provides tap-and-hold right-click functionality on a touch-screen PC (and lots of other functionality as well). You can compile your scripts into EXEs with tray icons and whatnot as well. Plus they're free.
posted by kindall at 12:27 PM on January 9, 2006

I love hoekey, but I have to admit, I'm not certain it will do exactly what you asked. It is very powerful.
posted by Chuckles at 12:46 PM on January 9, 2006

In particular, I'm not sure about maping the focus change command and the launch app command onto the same key.

It meets all of your other requirements...
posted by Chuckles at 12:48 PM on January 9, 2006

NVidia Desktop Manager does this, along with a some other things if you're using an NVidia graphics card.
posted by raaka at 12:53 PM on January 9, 2006

Acreing a shortcut on the desktop and assigning a shortcut to it has always been great for me. launches a new mail window, for example.

You are limited to though.
posted by Four Flavors at 2:43 PM on January 9, 2006

*Creating a shortcut on the desktop and assigning a keyboard shortcut... that is.
posted by Four Flavors at 2:44 PM on January 9, 2006

To take Four Flavors suggestion a step further, just go to Start/Programs/Accessories and instead of clicking to make a selection, say on, Calculator right-click it and select Properties. You can assign a keyboard shortcut from there.

The Start menu is considered a hotspot and all keyboard shrtcuts within it can be called on at any time.
posted by geekyguy at 6:30 PM on January 9, 2006