"Hot System Keys"?

I had to trash my wireless keyboard and go back to an old plug in job. The
Question...

That wireless keyboard had a neat extra row of keys to bring up the IE 7
browser, Outlook Mail and do a number of things. How can this be done with
key combinations from a standard keyboard? Hey, it has to just be a bunch of
key combinations that hopefully a standard keyboard can produce.

If nothing else, can someone point me to a reference? I tried the MS help
files and they don't appear to give me much to work with.

Jerry Jensen

The added keys and their functionality are provided by the input device
manufacturer and the software that's installed with the device. You could,
in theory, take the standard keyboard driver software and modify it so you
could add "extra" keys with various shortcuts and key combinations - if,
that is, you could write programs and de-compile software. These shortcuts
and added key definitions do not exist in Windows so there's no way to
activate them.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/


"Jerry Jensen" <> wrote in message
news:OeM5wD$...
>I had to trash my wireless keyboard and go back to an old plug in job. The
>Question...
>
> That wireless keyboard had a neat extra row of keys to bring up the IE 7
> browser, Outlook Mail and do a number of things. How can this be done with
> key combinations from a standard keyboard? Hey, it has to just be a bunch
> of key combinations that hopefully a standard keyboard can produce.
>
> If nothing else, can someone point me to a reference? I tried the MS help
> files and they don't appear to give me much to work with.
>
> Jerry Jensen

So how does a keyboard, just serially transmitting, bring up the IE or
Outlook? There has to be some sort of acceptable serial signal coming into
the machine to activate the functions. What can "trip" IE or Outlook from a
keyboard. There has to be recognition built into the operating system to
start with that can respond to some sort of a signal from the serial
keyboard port.

Nope, it's all built into the driver. It simply sends the keyboard
combination to the system that you would ordinarily have to type into the
"Run" box to start the various applications or that would be invoked by
clicking on the program's icons. There's no magic in Windows that makes
this happen or else it would be available for any keyboard, not specific
ones with specific keys.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/


"Jerry Jensen" <> wrote in message
news:...
> So how does a keyboard, just serially transmitting, bring up the IE or
> Outlook? There has to be some sort of acceptable serial signal coming into
> the machine to activate the functions. What can "trip" IE or Outlook from
> a keyboard. There has to be recognition built into the operating system to
> start with that can respond to some sort of a signal from the serial
> keyboard port.

On Tue, 13 May 2008 23:19:03 -0500, "Jerry Jensen" <>
wrote:

>So how does a keyboard, just serially transmitting, bring up the IE or
>Outlook? There has to be some sort of acceptable serial signal coming into
>the machine to activate the functions. What can "trip" IE or Outlook from a
>keyboard. There has to be recognition built into the operating system to
>start with that can respond to some sort of a signal from the serial
>keyboard port.

Try here: http://allhotkeys.com/windows_vista_hotkeys.html

Ah, I see said the blind man. Now all I need to do is dig out an old DOS TSR
routine to send a string with a "hot key".

many thanks for the insight,
Jerry