HotKeyBind -- like WinKey and more

[Demetris]

I can find no mention of this in the ACF archives or in the
Pricelessware site. I found out about it in the xplorer² forums.

Version: HotKeyBind 1.2
OS: Win 9x, NT 4/5x
Licence: GNU General Public Licence.
Author: Marco Barisione
Languages: English, Italian
Download size: 1.1Mb (for install v.; also no-install v.)
Site: http://hotkeybind.sourceforge.net/

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION

HotKeyBind is a program that lets you use hotkeys (shortcut key
combinations) to do common tasks: opening a web page, launching
applications, opening files, shutting down the computer and so on.

ACTIONS THAT CAN BE BOUND TO A HOTKEY

Control Panel
-- Open a Control Panel item
-- Open the Control Panel
Desktop
-- Cascade windows
-- Minimize all
-- Show Desktop
-- Tile vertically
-- Tile horizontally
-- Undo minimize all
HotKeyBind
-- Pause the program
-- Stop the program
Internet
-- Connect to the Internet
-- Open Web page
-- Web search
Launch file
-- Execute a program
-- Open directory
-- Open file
Mouse
-- Mouse click
-- Move the mouse cursor
Shut Down
-- Hibernate
-- Lock the computer
-- Log Off
-- Restart
-- Show shutdown window
-- Stand By
-- Turn Off
Text
-- Copy text
-- Insert text
Volume
-- Mute
-- Volume Up
-- Volume Down
Window
-- Click a window to terminate the program
-- Close the active child (MDI)
-- Close the active window
-- Maximize the active child (MDI)
-- Maximize the active window
-- Minimize the active child (MDI)
-- Minimize the active window

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I gave HotKeyBind a quick try on XP Pro SP2 English.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- PROS

* Very easy to set up: clean, economical GUI and intuitive options.
* Can disable or override native Winkeys except for Win+B/L/U.
* Can insert text by hotkeys (could not make this work properly with
Greek and Latin accented characters, but I think I may do something
wrong, since the author is Italian, and Italian uses accented characters).
* Can move cursor/simulate mouse clicks (I found a step of 12 pixels was
a good compromise between speed and pointing accuracy).
* Can bind hotkeys to invididual Control Panel items.
* Optional On Screen Display messages (whose letters are big and ugly).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- CONS

* Uses registry for settings, which makes it impractical for average
users to move their settings to another system.
* No option to disable system tray icon.
* No option to call the settings window by hotkey.
* Hotkeys window does not remember its size.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- GENERAL

All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised by this app.

ALTERNATIVES

AUTOHOTKEY (Free Software) Scripting & automation package, highly
versatile, standalone, functionality much wider than just hotkeys,
almost limitless, maybe the easiest of its kind for users with no
knowledge of scripting.

HOEKEY (Freeware) Highly configurable by means of configuration file,
uses .ini for settings.

HOTKEYZ (Freeware) Extended functionality, GUI configuration, less
friendly and intuitive than HotKeyBind, uses two .ini files for settings.

WINKEY (Freeware) Rock solid, basic functionality, GUI configuration,
uses registry for settings, no longer officially distributed.

Greetings,
Demetris

 

[Paul B.]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- GENERAL

All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised by this app.

ALTERNATIVES

AUTOHOTKEY (Free Software) Scripting & automation package,
highly versatile, standalone, functionality much wider than
just hotkeys, almost limitless, maybe the easiest of its kind
for users with no knowledge of scripting.

HOEKEY (Freeware) Highly configurable by means of
configuration file, uses .ini for settings.

HOTKEYZ (Freeware) Extended functionality, GUI configuration,
less friendly and intuitive than HotKeyBind, uses two .ini
files for settings.

WINKEY (Freeware) Rock solid, basic functionality, GUI
configuration, uses registry for settings, no longer
officially distributed.

Thanks for the report. After years of Window's native hotkeys
not working, I've been very happy with HotKeyz for a while.
Would you suggest it's worth trying HKB, or even AHK?


p.

 

[Klaatu]

* No option to call the settings window by hotkey.

How ironic! LOL

 

[Demetris]

Thanks for the report. After years of Window's native hotkeys
not working, I've been very happy with HotKeyz for a while.
Would you suggest it's worth trying HKB, or even AHK?

Hello, Paul,

I have not used HotKeyz, just played around a bit with it, as I did with
HKB. It seems fairly versatile, and has some things more than HKB, e.g.,
you can define hotkeys by active windows. So, if there is not something
in the HKB action tree that you miss in HotKeyz, I see no reason to
switch (and you would have to reassign your hotkeys, which is a pain).

AutoHotkey, on the other hand, is simply amazing. It is mentioned often
here, and many ACF members use it and love it. It can automate almost
everything in Windows and is very easy to learn, certainly easier than
AutoIt (from which it descends) or PowerPro.

I use AHK for a few months now and I have replaced several apps with it.
I installed AHK, made a single .ahk file, put this file in Startup, and
now I add to it all kinds of threads, as I need them:

* hotkeys that start apps or activate them if already running
* abbreviations that autoexpand (hotstrings)
* combinations that type special characters
* hotkeys to handle windows
* hotkeys to handle system functions, like sound volume or
opening/closing CD/DVD trays by drive letter
* hotkeys to open specific sites or groups of sites
* hotkeys to execute macros that relieve me of repetitive sequences of
clicks and keystrokes
* remappings of keys either globally in Windows or by active windows
* etc. etc.

A great place to start with AHK, besides the well-written Help (full of
examples and also available on-line) is the translated c't article
linked from the AHK home page: http://www.autohotkey.com/

Another great advantage of AHK is its perfect portability: once you have
made your script(s), you won't have to rewrite or reassign anything. You
can use the same script in any Windows machine.

Greetings,
Demetris

 

[Paul_B]

[4 quoted lines suppressed]

Hello, Paul,

I have not used HotKeyz, just played around a bit with it, as I did with
HKB. It seems fairly versatile, and has some things more than HKB, e.g.,
you can define hotkeys by active windows. So, if there is not something
in the HKB action tree that you miss in HotKeyz, I see no reason to
switch (and you would have to reassign your hotkeys, which is a pain).

AutoHotkey, on the other hand, is simply amazing. It is mentioned often
here, and many ACF members use it and love it. It can automate almost
everything in Windows and is very easy to learn, certainly easier than
AutoIt (from which it descends) or PowerPro.

I use AHK for a few months now and I have replaced several apps with it.
I installed AHK, made a single .ahk file, put this file in Startup, and
now I add to it all kinds of threads, as I need them:

* hotkeys that start apps or activate them if already running
* abbreviations that autoexpand (hotstrings)
* combinations that type special characters
* hotkeys to handle windows
* hotkeys to handle system functions, like sound volume or
opening/closing CD/DVD trays by drive letter
* hotkeys to open specific sites or groups of sites
* hotkeys to execute macros that relieve me of repetitive sequences of
clicks and keystrokes
* remappings of keys either globally in Windows or by active windows
* etc. etc.

A great place to start with AHK, besides the well-written Help (full of
examples and also available on-line) is the translated c't article
linked from the AHK home page: http://www.autohotkey.com/

Another great advantage of AHK is its perfect portability: once you have
made your script(s), you won't have to rewrite or reassign anything. You
can use the same script in any Windows machine.

Greetings,
Demetris

Thanks, Demetris, for that detailed explanation. I did check out
the other apps more carefully, and concluded that for what HK
does it does it best for my uses. But I also did see that AHK is
on a different level. Since I already have AutoIt, and at this
point don't even use it much and have kept with the simpler
version 2, I didn't think I needed to get into that at this time.

But your excellent explanation will be kept on file.

Paul

 

[Mark Carter]

AutoHotkey, on the other hand, is simply amazing. It is mentioned often
One thing I use AHK for is as a task manager. I assign the Windows-t key
to opening up a text editor on a file called tasks.txt. No big deal in
itself, you might think, but I find that it eliminates the need for things
like "sticky notes" and task management software.

 

[Bill Turner]

Another great advantage of AHK is its perfect portability: once you
have made your script(s), you won't have to rewrite or reassign
anything. You can use the same script in any Windows machine.

_________________________________________________

Also, it's free even for commercial use. I've installed it on several
computers at work.

Bill T.

 

[andrew at portablefreeware dot com]

Hi,

SwizzTool has a hot-key manager that seems to do what you want:

SwizzTool
Description: http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=381
Direct link: http://www.specop.se/

Regards.

 

[Cur8or]

Try WinKeyPlus

You can download it from www.winkeyplus.com.
Map applications, folders and even text to key combinations.
You can also disable keys. (I am looking at you F1).