Keyboard Shortcuts without Ctrl + Alt?

I have a bunch of useless keys on my keyboard that i dont use for anything. Is there a way i can set just those to run a program without using the annoying ctrl + alt combo?

EX: i want to be able just to hit page up or page down or even pause/break to bring up the calculator or any program i set.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks in advance :).

A 3rd party app can watch for the key(s) you define - then do what you want. AutoHotKey, AutoIt3 and others.

Never heard of these programs before. Thanks :).

Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows 7 / XP / Vista - How-To Geek

You can even see in the second example image, you can map App: Calculator (E0_21)

Infinite said:

Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows 7 / XP / Vista - How-To Geek

You can even see in the second example image, you can map App: Calculator (E0_21)

Now thats more user friendly. Thank you x1million

polraudio said:

Never heard of these programs before. Thanks :).

You are welcome - there are lots of programs like the one that Infinite pointed out. These programs do exactly what you want... but that is pretty much all that they do. If you have the time and the interest, the scripting tools that I mentioned will do what you want and a lot more.

Below is code that should work for you with AutoIt3:

Code:

HotKeySet("{PGUP}", "calc")
 
While 1
    Sleep(100)
WEnd
 
Func calc()
    Run("calc.exe")
EndFunc

If you want more keys defined, just add to the script:

Code:

HotKeySet("{PGUP}", "calc")
 
HotKeySet("{PGDN}", "note")
 
While 1
    Sleep(100)
WEnd
 
Func calc()
    Run("calc.exe")
EndFunc
 
Func note()
    Run("notepad.exe")
EndFunc

If you always want the calculator window to appear in the same place on your desktop - you can add code to wait for the window and then move it. The same can be done for notepad or most any window. Move them, resize them, send stuff to them..... :-)

This script can stay as a tiny text file and run at start up. There are lots of other scripting tools out there too - if you don't like these.