[New PowerToy] Launch apps / command with keyboard shortcuts

[mxrsoon]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Aside from being able to remap a keyboard shortcut to another one, it would be nice to assign shortcuts for opening applications. Example: Open Windows Terminal with CTRL+ALT+T.

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

Keyboard Manager already has the things needed to listen to keyboard shortcuts. Run has what's needed to launch apps.

[qsypoq]

Would be amazing if we can target files, allowing us to run applications but also things like scripts. 👍

[Satanarious]

WinHotKey is worth taking a look at for inspirations.

[capedghost]

Set global shortcuts for apps, folders, files, and websites, use shortcut to launch them.
For example:
Set Alt+J for Windows Terminal;
Set Alt+K for "D:\MyDocuments\Work";
Set Alt+L for "D:\MyDocuments\Knowledge.pdf";
Set Alt+; for "https://github.com".

[ffes]

Without this feature the Keyboard Manager doesn't add much value for me.

In addition to the comment about, I would love to able to use these options:

• Start any default app set in the Windows Settings. For instance Win+M to start your mail client and Win+B to start the browser.
• Start any installed app found in the Start Menu. For instance Win+T to start Windows Terminal or Win+V to start Visual Studio 2019.
• Start any exe/bat/ps1 somewhere on my disk or network. Useful for internal or development tools that are not really installed. For instance Win+R to start the docker-run.bat script I use for my current project or Win+O to start the internal Order Management tool.
• Start the Explorer in any given directory, including network shares (incl \\wsl$ shares). For instance Win+P to open the project directory I'm currently working on.
• Open a given document.
• Open a given URL.

And allow me to remap default Win-key combination I never use. For example, right now Win+C starts Cortana and Win+G opens the Game bar. I never use them, so please let me remap these keys.

[mxrsoon]

I think a more general case would be to launch URIs with keyboard shortcuts, since it allows any of the mentioned cases.

[Jay-o-Way]

You can give a .lnk shortcut (file) a keyboard shortcut in the Properties. When pressing a single letter, Windows places "Ctrl+Alt" in front of it bij default.
The Start menu is a good place to find common shortcut files. One downside (of this location) I noticed so far is that when a program updates, often these shortcut files get re-created, which mean you have to set this again. But hey, it works.

[mxrsoon]

@Jay-o-Way, I tried it before, and then remapped the CTRL+ALT+<Key> shortcut using PowerToys. The biggest downside for me is that it has a huge delay (sometimes of 5 seconds on my computer) before opening the application, even without the remapping. It's not related to my computer's performance, as clicking the shortcut works instantly.

[chall3ng3r]

Same interface like remapping a shortcut, but instead create a new shortcut to launch a process or command or even just add an string to current open window, be it terminal window, notepad, Word, etc.

This can be implemented in following way:

1. Set shortcut
2. Select type dropdown:
   -- Process (browse to exe)
   -- cmd line
   -- Text string
3. Input field for entering exe path / command line / text

[htcfreek]

@jefflord Is it correct that currently only win32 apps (Exe file) are supported?

Right now, yes. It's using CreateProcessW so, anything executable should work. If you need to run a script you can call the script host and pass the script file as an argument, e.g.:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -File "C:\Path\MyCoolScript.ps1"

If you are asking if you can "run" something like URL (launching its default app), right now, only like this:

cmd.exe /c start https://www.asdf.com

@jefflord
I was more thinking on starting uwp apps using the AUMID or something else. Or supporting protocols to do things like ms-edge:https://bing.com or ms-settings:bluetooth.

[jefflord]

@htcfreek oh, that has not been considered. However it seems that since this works:

explorer.exe "ms-settings:bluetooth"

this works just fine also:

Also, thanks for the example because I thought you might be talking about Store Apps, which, in theory can be started with PowerShell, though you need to use "Get-StartApps" and know the tricks "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68907012/how-to-open-installed-microsoft-store-apps-from-powershell"

So, I guess the answer is yes, because since there is a way to do anything from the command line, you can do that here. One thing that is planned to be added is to start the app "hidden", in case you need to use cmd or something and don't want a console to flash up.

[crutkas]

@jefflord, i do want to call out, there are two active PRs that could conflict with this workflow.

#29399
#28473

[htcfreek]

Needs label "Status In-progress".

[jefflord]

Needs label "Status In-progress".

htcfreek agreed.

I will attach a draft PR also, after I get all the previous commits pull into my code. Also, I got busy and sick, but don't worry, I'll continue ASAP.

[happyTonakai]

Happy to hear the progress. Looking forward to the release!

[jefflord]

Draft PR (#30121) is in

[jaimecbernardo]

This has been worked on during the 0.79.0 release cycle.
Please update to the latest: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

[joeldeteves]

This has been worked on during the 0.79.0 release cycle. Please update to the latest: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases

Awesome!

[happyTonakai]

Hello everyone! Is it working for you? I've updated to 0.80 and neither running program nor opening url work for me. Win+A seems to be conflict with Windows default shortcut and the other two are not conflict with any existing shortcuts.

[jefflord]

Certainly still works. And Win+a should be OK to use.

EDIT: Are you running in elevated mode? See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/administrator
If you have foreground/focused elevated app, shortcuts might have issues unless PT is also elevated.

To test this I configured this:

To make sure I got an error, and I did:

You can open the log to see if anything interesting is there (you might need to restart PT to flush this):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\PowerToys\Keyboard Manager\Engine\Logs*v0.80.1**\log

[tristan-k]

I'm on PowerToys v0.83.0 but there is no option available to launch a app or run a executable. Is this feature even available?

[htcfreek]

I'm on PowerToys v0.83.0 but there is no option available to launch a app or run a executable. Is this feature even available?

Yes. You find it in the module Keyboard Manager. There you can define keyboard shortcuts to open apps.

https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/powertoys/keyboard-manager#remap-a-shortcut-to-start-an-app

[joeldeteves]

I'm on PowerToys v0.83.0 but there is no option available to launch a app or run a executable. Is this feature even available?

Latest version has this feature yes.

I've tested it myself and it works great.

It's located under Keyboard Manager -> Remap a shortcut

[tristan-k]

Thanks! I must have missed the option because I was only looking in the Dashboard.

[jtpavlock]

Can this be used to execute a powershell command?

[jefflord]

Can this be used to execute a powershell command?

Yes