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Author Topic: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?  (Read 3361 times)

kunkel321

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Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« on: February 03, 2022, 05:00 PM »
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C stopped working in one of my apps.  I think it's because I probably assigned it to a different app and can't remember which..  :-\   Is there a tool that can "detect" which app is using the keypress?  I see some info about a tool called Spy++, but I think you have to have Visual Studio installed to use that.  Do you guys know of any other utilities to do this?  I'm on Win 10.

EDIT:  I figured it out...  I had an AHK thing set to that hotkey.

Insistently, I don't think it's possible to "see" where hotkeys go in Windows.  Nirsoft has an app that will tell you which hotkeys are free vs used.  It can't tell you what they are assigned to though.
https://www.nirsoft....s/hot_keys_list.html
« Last Edit: February 03, 2022, 05:13 PM by kunkel321 »

skwire

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2022, 05:19 PM »
Insistently, I don't think it's possible to "see" where hotkeys go in Windows.  Nirsoft has an app that will tell you which hotkeys are free vs used.  It can't tell you what they are assigned to though.
https://www.nirsoft....s/hot_keys_list.html

You are correct; it is not possible to see which app has which global hotkey, only that a given global hotkey is in use.



mouser

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2022, 07:25 PM »
It's things like this that Microsoft should be improving with new versions of windows, making it possible to more easily troubleshoot.

x16wda

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2022, 05:50 AM »
I could swear there was a tool that was discussed here years ago with the need to do just that (the mapping)... I don't think there was complete success at that time but I remember the discussion!
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Nod5

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2022, 10:35 AM »
I could swear there was a tool that was discussed here years ago
This thread perhaps https://www.donation....msg445306#msg445306

@kunkel321 For AutoHotkey scripts that you have the .ahk source for try my suggestion from the above thread: use ripgrep to near instantly search through all .ahk source files for a hotkey string e.g. ^y::

rjbull

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2022, 04:51 PM »
I could swear there was a tool that was discussed here years ago with the need to do just that (the mapping)... I don't think there was complete success at that time but I remember the discussion!

There was New program: Ethervane ActiveHotkeys (freeware), but the entire thread is dated 2009.

wraith808

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2022, 05:07 PM »
I could swear there was a tool that was discussed here years ago with the need to do just that (the mapping)... I don't think there was complete success at that time but I remember the discussion!

There was New program: Ethervane ActiveHotkeys (freeware), but the entire thread is dated 2009.

The app is also attached to the first post, so you can take your chance with that. Last update 2012.

kunkel321

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2022, 11:43 AM »
Ethervane ActiveHotkeys does seem to work (Win 10)

kunkel321

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Re: Tool to find where a hotkey press goes?
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2022, 10:11 AM »
I wonder it anyone has tried to make an app that records when a hotkey press happens (or even invokes it), then records any new Windows processes/treads/etc that follow it immediately in time?  Then it could make a "best guess" at what the hotkey was assigned to. 

Of course Windows wouldn't like this because it would look like a virus.