Windows – How to get the list of defined shortcut keys in the Start menu

keyboard shortcutsstart-menuwindowswindows-explorer

How can I find out which keyboard shortcuts are defined inside the Start menu? And what shortcuts they are assigned to?

Platform: Windows XP SP2 64 bit.

Example:

I open my main Visual Studio solution with a shortcut key,
Ctrl+Alt+M. This is set up
by having a shortcut inside the Start menu with:

Target: "D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" D:\dproj\MSQall\MSQuant\MSQuant.sln

Shortcut key: Ctrl+ALT+M

If a new shortcut is added and its shortcut key is also set
to Ctrl+Alt+M then there
are now two shortcuts with the same shortcut key (conflict).
To prevent this it would be nice to know which shortcut keys
are already assigned and to which shortcuts.

Best Answer

It looks like ActiveHotkeys might be what you want:

On several occasions there have been requests for a program that displays what global keyboard shortcuts are registered by various applications. ActiveHotkeys does just that: it will show a list of all active (registered) or inactive (available) global hotkeys.

Updated to version 1.1 - the Play/Pause edition. Totally free for all; please let me know if you encounter a problem. No installation necessary - just unpack and run. See the included readme file for details (or click the About tab in the program).

Download links are at the bottom of this post. Please be sure to download the latest version.

Please note that Windows does not allow for detecting which application has registered a particular shortcut, so that feaure is not included. (If you think you know how to achieve that, using message hooks or what-not, please post here or earn some karma at StackOverflow)

Main Screen of ActiveHotkeys

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Windows – Why doesn’t Ctrl+F4 work in Notepad++

I don't actually know why it is set to be Ctrl + W but to answer your other question: To change the default tab closing behaviour, go to Settings > Shortcut Mapper. Change the Close shortcut [8] to Ctrl + F4

Windows – Reliable custom Windows shortcut keys

Use Autohotkey. The scripting language is non standard and can be difficult to learn, but if all you're wanting to do is reliably launch programs, its simple. Plus you can base shortcuts off the Windows key! Use following sample script and modify it to your needs. (Lines starting with ; are comments.)

;win + alt + e ... unload ipod
#!E::
   run d:\Downloads\Apps\deveject\eject ipod.bat
   return

;win + w ... launch winamp
#w::
    run c:\program files (x86)\winamp\winamp.exe
    return

;win + a ... launch AS400
#a::
    run C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Client Access\Emulator\Private\1.ws
    return

;win + Shift a ... launch AS400 Printer
#+a::
    run C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Client Access\Emulator\Private\3.ws
    return

;win + ctrl + Shift a ... launch 2nd AS400 
#^+a::
    run C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Client Access\Emulator\Private\2.ws
    return

Save this as a .ahk file on your desktop, install autohotkey and run it.

Every time you press any key combination, AutoHotkey will scan this script. If it matches any of the key combinations that preceed a ::, it will execute the next command. If the return statement is missing, the AHK will continue to scan the script for matches after executing your statement. The key combinations are described below.

# = Windows Key
+ = Shift
^ = Control
! = Alt

You can use these in any combination with the letters of your keyboard. One combination I find extremely useful is as follows.

; ALT Backtick ... ctrl f4
!`::
    Loop, parse, RcvCtrlW, `,
    {
     IfWinActive %A_LoopField%
     {
        sendinput ^w
        Return
     }
    }
    sendinput ^{f4}
    return

; win Backtick ... alt f4
#`::
   sendinput !{f4}
   return

This is Alt + ` and Win + `. When this script is running and I press alt + `, the script sends ctrl + F4. Win + ` becomes alt + F4.

Autohotkey is basically its own programming language. I have scripts set up that simulate "Rocker Gestures" system wide. I have GMail like shortcuts for my email. If you spend the time to learn some of its tricks, you can get nuts with it. Lifehacker has a whole bunch of useful scripts for Autohotkey. Have Fun!

Best Answer

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