Pressing that keyboard combination will execute the command just the same and launch the calculator wherever you are.Ī good example of global hotkeys are the custom play, pause, stop, and mute media buttons on some fancy keyboards. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Word, Excel, in a browser, or on the desktop. Global vs Local Hotkeysīefore we go into details, let’s define global and local hotkeys.Ī global hotkey is a combination of keyboard buttons that execute a command in any application or window, like launching your calculator app for example. NOTE: You don’t need any coding knowledge to follow this guide, but you need to know some basics like creating a text file, changing a file extension, and basic software installation. I finally found a great solution that fulfills all of the above: AutoHotkey. Flexibility to use all keys and key combinations.Easy backup and synchronization between devices.I was struggling for years to find a good software to meet all these needs: So if your machine dies or you decide to work from a different computer, it’s as if you haven’t set up hotkeys at all. Plus, there is no easy way to synchronize them between your devices.

Pretty cool right?Ĭool, but setting up the hotkeys and remembering them in the first place is tedious. Push a button and you are exactly where you want to be. No browsing folders, no icon clicking, no address typing. Imagine that every time you needed to launch your favorite app or website, you do it with the push of a single button. Not only that, but it makes working with a computer more fun because you feel in control. Setting up custom keyboard hotkeys is one of the things that saves us a lot of time every day.

Windows autohotkey