Can't use Shift + F12 as a hotkey for a Start Menu shortcut

Quisquose · 30 Mar 2021

I'm trying to assign Shift+F12 as a hotkey for a .lnk Start Menu shortcut, but it doesn't work.

The hotkey is accepted and is successfully saved into the shortcut file, but it just doesn't work when the hotkey is pressed. It does work if the shortcut link is clicked on using the mouse, so there is no problem with the 'target' that is specified in the shortcut file.

I can use any other Shift + F key combination (Shift + F11, Shift + F10, Shift + F9 etc.) and all of them work except for the one that I actually want to use (typical!).

I don't think I have anything running on my system that would cause interference (tried after a fresh reboot) but the best way to confirm this would be for somebody else to check on their system.

Therefore: can someone please pick an item off their Start Menu and temporarily give it a hotkey of Shift + F12 and let me know if they are able to run the shortcut link by using the hotkey? Thanks!

If you can, then I'll know that it's something on my system. But Windows being Windows, it might just be that this particular hotkey combination doesn't work for shortcut files for some bizarre reason. I don't have a second system to test it out on.

TechnoMage2016 · 01 Apr 2021

I could be wrong, but F12 is not a Hot Key, but one that is monitored by the BIOS, NOT by Windows, during the boot up process.
Use F12 the way it was meant to be used, and you should have NO problems with it. Unless, of course, F12 is NOT the key that your BIOS uses to bring up the boot menu. Some motherboards use different keys, pressed during the early moments of the boot process. I've seen F10 and the ESC key, used for that same purpose. It just depends on who made the Motherboard. Eh?

Good Luck!