ritschmaster / w32bindkeys

xbindkeys for Windows

w32bindkeys

xbindkeys for Windows

Current state

I have moved on to use macOS exclusively. As a result I completely dropped using xbindkeys/w32bindkeys and also stopped developing w32bindkeys. Therefore I am open to transfer the ownership to anyone who is willing to actively maintain this piece of software. Just write me an e-mail.

Using w32bindkeys

Using binary releases

1. Head over to the Release page and download the latest binary zip file.
2. Decompress it somwhere
3. Execute w32bindkeys.exe
4. An example configuration file was copied to your home directory named .w32bindkeysrc. Modify it to your needs!

Using source code releases

1. Head over to the Release page and download the latest source zip file.
2. Decompress it somwhere
3. See Compiling
4. Execute w32bindkeys.exe
5. An example configuration file was copied to your home directory named .w32bindkeysrc. Modify it to your needs!

FAQ

There is already auto hotkey. Why should I even bother to give w32bindkeys a try?

1. Auto hotkey is complicated and slow. Especially if you just want to open a terminal on Win + Enter.
2. If you are a Linux user you might already use xbindkeys. w32bindkeys helps you to bridge that gap to a frequent use of Windows.

Are there known limitations?

Yes, there is: w32bindkeys uses the WIN32 API Low Level Keyboard Hook. The nature of this hook is that the registered function (i.e. processing w32bindkeys key bindings) will be terminated if its execution speed is too slow. This happens without any notification and therefore the developer cannot check if his hook will be removed. Normally this won't happen, but if many key bindings are registered then this might occur. To avoid this issue w32bindkeys applies the following strategies:

1. The key bindings are segmented on currently 30 different hooks. As every hook will receive its own time slot this helps to avoid the removal of the hook.
2. Each hook tracks by itself if it has been successfully left after entrance. This allows w32bindkeys to notice if a hook has been removed and will reset the tracked keys.
3. After a certain amount of time the tracked keys will be reset. This is especially important if the CPU is under heavy load.

Points 2. and 3. will result in losing the track of already pressed keys. Example: Imagine you have bound Win + return to opening a command prompt. Then you press Win for 15 seconds and then finally press return. The command prompt won't show up as the tracked keys have already been reset in the mean time. But pressing both keys at once of course will open the command prompt.

If you have any better solution to this issue, please contact me or open a pull request.

I want to remap the Win key

w32bindkeys supplies you with that functionality! But be aware that it is imossible to remap Win + L. The key must be disabled, but by doing so locking the PC will be disabled too.

You might be interested in this solution to that problem. It works like a charm.

I need key bindings in my application too. Can I re-use parts of your project?

Not only can you re-use it, but you can actually rely on it directly via the optional library that is produced during the build process!

You might want to have a look at (copy parts of) src/main.c to enable w32bindkeys for your application as fast as possible.

Any cool hacks you know of?

Win is reserved in Windows for some special bindings. Like opening the Explorer by hitting Win + E. This can be annoying even if you do not use w32bindkeys. Almost every special binding can be disabled by doing the following:

1. Run regedit
2. Go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
3. Create the DWORD NoWinKeys with the value 1
4. Restart the computer
5. Win + E and friends are now disabled. The only exception is Win + L (see fix above).

Compiling

Dependencies

• MinGW
• Collections-C

On Windows (64 bit) using Msys2

You will need a functioning MinGW environment. This sections describes the compilation using Msys2.

First install the dependencies:

pacman -S make cmake automake autoconf mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc libtool

Use the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit Terminal for the next actions and everytime you want to re-compile w32bindkeys.

Then compile and install Collections-C:

wget https://github.com/srdja/Collections-C/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd Collections-C-master/
sed -i s/add_subdirectory\(test\)//g CMakeLists.txt # Testing is not needed
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/mingw64 ..

Then compile w32bindkeys:

git clone https://github.com/ritschmaster/w32bindkeys.git
cd w32bindkeys
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/mingw64/lib/pkgconfig
./autogen.sh
make

If you want to re-use the core functionality you may supply a special option to the configure script that will produce a dynamic installable library:

./configure --enable-install-library

Afterwards you may install w32bindkeys by performing:

make install

On Fedora Linux (64 bit) for Windows (64 bit)

First install MinGW:

sudo dnf install -y mingw64-gcc mingw64-gcc-c++ cmake automake autoconf autoconf-archive libtool

Then compile and install Collections-C:

wget https://github.com/srdja/Collections-C/archive/master.zip
unzip master.zip
cd Collections-C-master/
sed -i s/add_subdirectory\(test\)//g CMakeLists.txt # Testing is not needed
mkdir build
cd build
mingw64-cmake ..
sudo make install
sudo cp /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/sys-root/mingw/lib/pkgconfig/collectionc.pc /usr/lib64/pkgconfig

Then compile w32bindkeys:

git clone https://github.com/ritschmaster/w32bindkeys.git
cd w32bindkeys
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/pkgconfig/
./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32
make

If you want to re-use the core functionality you may supply a special option to the configure script that will produce a dynamic installable library:

./configure --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --enable-install-library

Version scheme

The version scheme of w32bindkeys is as follows: x.y.z

• x is the stage:
  • < 0 is an unstable release
  • > 0 is a stable release
• y incidates changes to the API or the configuration file functionalities.
• z indicates additions without breaking any compatibility.

Author

Richard Bäck [e-mail]

License

MIT License