Hotkeys are also known as accelerators or shortcut keys (although there are
subtle differences between them). There are two general types of hotkeys.
Application hotkeys and global hotkeys.

Application hotkeys are application specific and can't be changed (at least
not easily). If you must change it then get a program like Resource Hacker
and edit the hotkey table in the application. Not all hotkeys are set in
this table, some are set by code and you can't change these.

There are two types of global hotkeys. Application registered and window (as
in what you see on the monitor) registered. When a hotkey is pressed the
application that registered it is activated and sent a message that a key
has been pressed. Windows when they are created can also have a hotkey
assigned.

When a user sets a hotkey they are telling Explorer (the program that does
the desktop, start menu, and taskbar) to register the hotkey to explorer,
and explorer starts the program, and then assigns the hotkey to the window
that is created.

Explorer looks in only 4 places for user defined hotkeys. The per user and
all user's start menu and desktop (and subfolders). However if it starts a
program that has a hotkey assigned it will register that hotkey to the
window.

E.G. If there is a shortcut on the start menu to notepad that has a hotkey
assigned, pressing that hotkey starts the program. Pressing it later while
the program is still running will switch to that program (as explorer then
registered that key to the window). If the shortcut is somewhere that
explorer does not look (like the Quick Launch bar) the hotkey does not get
registered. However if you start the program from this shortcut its hotkey
is registered to the window.

Microsoft is divided into teams. The Shell team decided that for letters
only Ctrl + Alt + a letter would be allowed (so users don't assign keys that
programs normally use like Ctrl + S for Save a file). The International team
forbids the same keystrokes (as Alt Gr key is the same as Ctrl + Alt and
thus prevents entering that international character). So one can only assign
hotkeys that are forbidden. Also F12 is reserved for a debugger. The Shell
team considers this legal as well.

Below is a list of hotkeys that can start programs. If you need to list all
user hotkeys see the Diagnostics section as it will be slow as all files
need to be examined. Also Internet Shortcuts aren't included due to speed
reasons. The Diagnostics section does list these as well.

List user set hotkeys

List all user set hotkeys

This includes all favourites and shortcuts. This will take a quite a few
minutes (30 minutes for 33,000 files in 7,000 folders on my machine) and the
application will be listed as Not Responding till it finishes (a program
listed as Not Responding means it hasn't picked up any messages from windows
for 10 seconds - windows guesses it has crashed but can't actually tell -
the program is unaffected by the status windows assigns to it). You can
continue to use other programs.

Under Hotkeys a similar routine lists all hotkeys that can start programs
(and takes a fraction of the time). This lists all shortcuts and favourites
on your hard drive. If a program is started from this shortcut then the
hotkey is applied to the window, and will switch to that window, even if the
hotkey can't start the program.

As mentioned in the Hotkeys topic, Explorer looks in 4 locations (and their
sub folders) for Hotkeys to register. This lists what 4 locations Explorer
is actually looking at on this computer.

Current User Desktop
C:\Users\David Candy\Desktop
Current User Start Menu
C:\Users\David Candy\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
All Users Desktop
C:\Users\Public\Desktop
All Users Start Menu
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
Using multiple keyboards may also reserve hotkeys. See Switching Keyboards
topic. Unlike other hotkeys here, which can be any key, these can only be
from a small specified list, Ctrl or Shift + Left Alt + <a number, tilde
(~), or accent grave (`)>. If you have problems with these keys see the
Switching Keyboards topic to review your settings. Other hotkeys may have
rules but the rules are enforced when setting the key. One can manually
change it to any key.

The debugger hotkey is stored at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug in a
dword value named UserDebuggerHotKey. The default value is 0 which means the
F12 key is used. A non 0 value here is the virtual key code (0x7b is the key
code for F12 so 0 or 0x7b will make F12 the hotkey). Microsoft's
documentation incorrectly states it is a scancode.

On this computer the key is F12

In Windows XP Professional (or Windows 2000) type in Start - Run ntsd
c:\windows\notepad, then type g (for Go) at the command prompt. Notepad will
start. Press F12 and the debugger will halt notepad and one can single step
through its' code (type p). Type g again to allow notepad to continue
running. When exiting Notepad press g again to finish terminating it. It
automatically breaks after loading and just before unloading.


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