Windows key as a modifier using Sendkeys?

[Vurbal]

I was hoping I could use SendKeys to launch the Run dialog from LBC. Originally I was hoping there might be a shell command to do that but I can't find any reference to one. My next thought was to use SendKeys but from what I can tell that's not possible.

If I'm understanding the documentation correctly only the State Modifiers can be used in that way. I could combine Ctrl-r, Shift-r, or Alt-r, but not Win-r. Is that correct?

I also remembered that NirCmd has its own SendKey function which would probably work except that it doesn't seem to support the WinKey at all.

The really annoying part is that I'm only trying to include it as a sort of baseline option. My actual recommendation is going to be replacing it with something like Run-Command at a minimum. However I don't like it as a default simply because it doesn't handle symlinks properly. That really won't make any difference for most people and it doesn't actually matter to me since I'm hooked on FARR.

Mostly I just want to be able to reproduce everything I consider worth messing with from the Start Menu in LBC and it bugs me. Unless somebody knows another way to launch the Run dialog I think I'm probably out of luck.

[Josh]

You can disable the Windows global hotkey assignment for Win+R using my post here:

https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=34051.0

[Vurbal]

Thanks for the link - I read that when I started using FARR but hadn't played with it yet.

However my problem for this project (not for me but for some tutorials I'm doing for AfterDawn) is figuring out how (or if) I can setup Winkey combinations at all in LBC. From the help file and my testing it seems that only Ctrl, Shift, and Alt can be used as State Modifiers in SendKeys which seems to rule out all Win+X combinations.

Or there's something I just don't understand about how SendKeys works which is entirely possible.

[Vurbal]

So it turns out there's a reasonably good solution. Even though it's not part of the Programs list, there is a Run shortcut in the current user Start Menu folder. Like any shortcut you can set a keyboard shortcut for it. I can use that to create an alternate key combination which doesn't require the Winkey to run.

Sometimes I just have to take a step back to see the obvious.

[Vurbal]

Okay now that I've gotten that solved my last major hurdle is incorporating Windows Search. The more I think about it, the more FARR (with the Windows Search plugin) seems like the best solution. Despite all the power user features it's actually the closest solution I can think of to the built-in Start Menu search interface.

My ultimate goal is to use more or less the same launcher for Win7 and Win8. In Win8 one of my goals was to eliminate being jerked from the desktop to the Start Screen. Using FARR solves both problems without sacrificing any compatibility with the standard Windows Search.

And since I'm greedy it also occurs to me if I'm getting rid of the Start Menu entirely what I'd really like is to eventually remap the Winkey from Start Menu/Start Screen to unhiding my launcher.

Not today though. I've got enough to keep me busy already.