Do you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again? Do you open the same program, then start another utility to help with that program, time after time, day after day? Are you visiting the same websites, or checking your email so many times a day that you lose count? Do you type the same text information so often that you could do it in your sleep? For those of you who answer “Yes” to any of those questions, there are programs that make those tasks fast, simple, and easy to perform called Hotkey and Macro Recorder utilities. Real time-savers, and let’s face it, who has enough time to do everything we want nowadays? With the right utility and a small amount of effort to learn and set up the program to suit your needs, you can enjoy your computing experience in a much more pleasant and productive way, and never be bored with those repetitive tasks again!
For macho macro power you can't beat AutoHotkey [1]. This extremely versatile program can automate most anything by capturing keystrokes, mouse clicks and even joystick movements and linking them to virtually any action you want including application launching, surfing to a particular website, and even inserting text or code snippets. Combine these features with a powerful scripting language and you have a product of awesome capability. Indeed, calling this product a mere "hotkey" utility is like calling Westminster Cathedral a chapel. However, all this power does come at a cost; AutoHotkey is no product for beginners. That being said, there are many ready-made AutoIt v2 scripts available on the Internet that do just about anything you can think of, ready to download and put to good use.
For average users a good choice is PS Hot Launch VVL [2]. This is a free utility that allows you to define your own hotkeys so that a single key press can launch an application, insert commonly used text, change your audio volume, or just about anything else. The program requires Win95/98/ME or WinNT/2000/XP, and is an excellent performer even on slow machines. PS Hot Launch is the perfect alternative to the Start menu and the Quick Launch panel.
A second option for average users is Qliner's Hotkeys, a free Open Source utility [3]. It's strength is ease of use, wide support for international keyboard layouts, plus a handy reminder key that flashes up your current hotkey assignments. Just hold the Windows key for three seconds and up pops an on-screen keyboard display with icons on the keys that are configured. You can use this not only to remind you of hotkey combinations, but also for Drag and Drop configuration. On the minus side, it's not quite as flexible as PS Hot Launch. It runs under Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Vista, but requires that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 be installed.
Still another choice, which is not really a hotkey utility at all but achieves the same result by using "magic words", is SlickRun [4]. This program places a tiny text box on your screen and when you type specially assigned words into the box, it will launch a program, go to a web site, or whatever. For example if you type "mail" it can launch your mail reader. Type in "46" and it can take you to the web page of the "46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities." Of course, it's up to you to define these “magic words” and you can have as many as you want. It all works very neatly with some really nice touches like auto-complete for your “magic words”, which means you only have to type in two or three letters and SlickRun will complete the rest. Another great feature is an eyedropper tool that allows you to identify a program you want to "hotkey" just by clicking in its application window. There's also a built-in note jotter and calendar date display.
Hotkey utilities overlap with another class of programs: Program Launchers
[1] AutoHotKey
Website: http://www.autohotkey.com/
License: Freeware
Download File size: 1969KB
Windows Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista
Non-Windows Operating Systems Supported: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
[2] PS Hot Launch VVL
Website: http://www.pssoftlab.com/pshl_info.phtml
License: Freeware
Download File size: 711KB
Windows Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
Non-Windows Operating Systems Supported: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None
[3] Qliner's Hotkeys
Website: http://qliner.com/hotkeys/overview.htm
License: Freeware
Download File size: 3.50MB
Windows Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
Non-Windows Operating Systems Supported: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
[4] SlickRun
Website: http://www.bayden.com/SlickRun/
License: Freeware
Download File size: 175KB
Windows Operating Systems Supported: 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
Non-Windows Operating Systems Supported: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Portable Version Available: No
Additional Software Required: None