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Any new "List Hotkey" apps?

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kunkel321:
I still have, and occasionally use, the excellent Ethervane ActiveHotkeys
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18189.0
by Tranglos.  It looks like Tranglos hasn't been on the DC forums for 4 years, so I didn't reply to the thread. 

Over the years I've seen a couple of similar apps.  Of course they all suffer from Windows OS limitation of not being able to tell you which app the hotkey is associated with.  Has anyone tried to make a "logger" that would always run in the background, and watch for hotkey presses, then attempt to determine which app is being affected by them?  The app could then save the "assumed associations" to an .ini file and use them to populate a List Hotkeys app like ActiveHotkeys...

Of course antiviruses would probably flag this as a virus(?)  I dunno.  Seems like it might be a worthy project. 

Thoughts?

KodeZwerg:
Thoughts?-kunkel321 (December 26, 2023, 11:57 AM)
--- End quote ---
From a professional point of view where really all is listed reliable = Impossible.

I am just aware about HotKeyList what is pretty useful to find out current used to know if your dream combination is free.
There are several way how "Hot Keys" may get triggered, to name 2 where there is a possibility to get an link for an executable is
- a) the registry (again several locations)
- b) the desktop (splitted into file shortcuts and registry links), to get them you would need to parse every shortcut from the desktop and the startmenu and the taskbar

For both of them an accurate success rate is given (after checking if target/destination still exists) to get what you was asking for, HotKey + Executable.
Them I personal call System hooks.
But Windows wouldnt be Windows if there are not more possibilies  :P

- c) on the fly hotkeys, them you cant figure out plus there is no relation to any executable stored.

What the heck he talk about?
If you ever played on Windows a game and cheated with a Trainer (a memory resident tool that wait for a special keypress combination) them you can't figure out and those type of hotkeys are very wide spread among many kind of application since they are mostest simple to handle.

- d) application specific hotkeys, they are just triggered while the application has got the focus, mostest easy example "ALT+F4" = "Terminate Application", them you only can order to an application by doing a lot of checks to really determine if "Alt+F4" comes from the focused app or from somewhere else

As you can see, your needed task is not easy to put into code and even more hard to make it halfway reliable.

Sorry that I am more talking pessimistic than optimistic but good luck on that project, you got all my love for it!  :-*

KodeZwerg:
Oh and I total forgot to mention the absolute undetectable:

- e) keylogger type, they simply hook on again more than one possible location to record any keyboard input, I will not go into detail about the "how" since it is harmful but I can tell that such can of course also be used to do actions when a specific keyboard state is signaled = hotkey-like and as the other soft-hooks (I call them that, option c to e), untraceable.

skwire:
From a professional point of view where really all is listed reliable = Impossible.
-KodeZwerg (January 04, 2024, 10:10 AM)
--- End quote ---

100% agreed.

I am just aware about HotKeyList what is pretty useful to find out current used to know if your dream combination is free.
--- End quote ---

I use LOTS of NirSoft applications -- love love love them.

All said, IMO, if even the great Nir Sofer, author of all NirSoft apps, can't do it, it's pretty much not doable.  This is one of those hotkey-related applications that, if it _could_ be written, it _would_ have been written long ago.

BarryG:
I'm not sure if this is what OP is asking for, but "Hotkey Screener" tells you which apps have registered which hotkeys: https://www.ntwind.com/freeware/hotkey-screener.html

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