

Can you remember the last time you actually used the Print Screen key? Or Caps Lock, or Insert, or, Pause Break? Hell, does anyone even know what Pause Break does? Chances are, you have a number of keys you've never even touched. Instead of letting them collect dust, why not do something awesome with them? Here's a simple way to assign common, useful actions to those unused keys, like putting your computer to sleep, showing hidden files, or ejecting a flash drive.






Update: Unfortunately, this tool is currently broken. Luckily, you can still do this yourself with just a little know-how: check out our beginner's guide to AutoHotkey and you'll have remapped keys up and running in no time.


A lot of those keys may have useful functions built in to Windows, but if you already know the shortcuts and don't use them, let's be honest—you never will. So let's do something better with them. The nuts and bolts of this post rely on the previously mentioned, time-saving AutoHotkey (AHK) scripting language. You may have heard of it before, but since many of you don't have the time to learn a scripting language (don't worry, we understand), we've put together simple tool will let you use AHK to remap your unused keys in no time. Here's how.

Before You Start: Download the Necessary Software

First, you'll need a few small pieces of software installed on your computer:

Download and install AutoHotkey Click on the Start menu, go to All Programs, and scroll down to Startup. Right-click on the Startup folder and choose Open. Right-click anywhere in the Startup folder and select New > AutoHotkey Script. Rename it to shortcuts.ahk and minimize that Explorer window—you'll need to come back to it later.

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Now, you're ready to get to the fun stuff: let's start building your shortcuts.

The Tool

Step 1: Select a key for your shortcut

Faded keys indicate that you've already assigned a shortcut to that key.

F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 Insert Print

Screen Pause/

Break Caps

Lock

Home End Page

Up Page

Down Ctrl

(Right) Alt

(Right) Shift

(Right)


Step 2: Select what you want to happen when you press that key

Faded actions indicate that you've already assigned a shortcut to that action.

Eject CD/DVD Tray Drive, Eject

Safely Remove Hardware Run, %A_WinDir%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll`,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll Toggle Hidden Files

RegRead, HiddenFiles_Status, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, Hidden

If HiddenFiles_Status = 2

RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, Hidden, 1

Else

RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, Hidden, 2

WinGetClass, eh_Class,A

If (eh_Class = "#32770" OR A_OSVersion = "WIN_VISTA")

send, {F5}

Else PostMessage, 0x111, 28931,,, A

Return Toggle File Extensions

RegRead, HiddenFiles_Status, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, HideFileExt

If HiddenFiles_Status = 1

RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, HideFileExt, 0

Else

RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, HideFileExt, 1

WinGetClass, eh_Class,A

If (eh_Class = "#32770" OR A_OSVersion = "WIN_VISTA")

send, {F5}

Else PostMessage, 0x111, 28931,,, A

Return Show Desktop Run, "%A_APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\Shows Desktop.lnk" Open Calculator Run Calc.exe Open "My Documents" Run explorer.exe "%USERPROFILE%/My Documents" Empty the Recycle Bin

MsgBox, 4,, Are you sure you want to empty the Recycle Bin?

IfMsgBox Yes

FileRecycleEmpty

else

return

return Start Screensaver SendMessage 0x112, 0xF140, 0, , Program Manager Lock the Computer DllCall("LockWorkStation") Turn Off the Monitor SendMessage 0x112, 0xF170, 2, , Program Manager Sleep the Computer DllCall("PowrProf\SetSuspendState", "int", 0, "int", 0, "int", 0) Hibernate the Computer DllCall("PowrProf\SetSuspendState", "int", 1, "int", 0, "int", 0) Shut Down Run, Shutdown.exe -s -t 00 Reboot Run, Shutdown.exe -r -t 00 Volume Up Send {Volume_Up} Volume Down Send {Volume_Down} Volume Mute Send {Volume_Mute} Play/Pause Send {Media_Play_Pause} Previous Track Send {Media_Prev} Next Track Send {Media_Next}


Note: It looks like the "Safely Remove Hardware" action doesn't work correctly in Windows 7 64-bit. If anyone can think of a workaround, let us know in the comments!

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you're happy with your shortcuts.

Or, if you want to change something, click here to reset the tool and start over.


Step 4: When you're done pairing keys and actions, copy and paste this code into your shortcuts.ahk file

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