Key remapper doesn't recognize Office key

[clairernovotny]

Environment

Windows build number: 10.0.19041.264
PowerToys version: 0.18
PowerToy module for which you are reporting the bug (if applicable): Remap Keyboard

Steps to reproduce

Try to add a key mapping for the Office key (on the new Ergonomic 4000 keyboard). The key isn't detected correctly

Expected behavior

I expect the Office key to be detected correctly so I can remap it.

Actual behavior

It's either detected as Space or Win (Left)

Screenshots

[arjunbalgovind]

@clairernovotny I don't have an office key on my keyboard, but I believe that it internally does a shortcut like Win+Ctrl+Alt+Shift or something like that. Out of curiosity can you open Remap a shortcut and click Type Shortcut and try pressing the Office key while that window is up. In theory. that should display what the key actually does, and would allow us to support it in the future :)

[clairernovotny]

Here's what I see when I push the office key. Four modifiers and no key.

Then this

[clairernovotny]

FWIW, the Emoji key maps to this:

So that has four modifiers and space.

[clairernovotny]

I'll add that people have complained loudly about not being able to remap the Office key using the Microsoft keyboard software, so this would be a big win.

[arjunbalgovind]

Thanks for the screenshots, that helps a ton! I think we might have to support remapping a shortcut to a key before we can get that in, but we do plan to have that for the v1 release, so we should be supporting this too! I honestly didn't even know there was an Emoji key 😂

[clairernovotny]

Here they are on the keyboard

The dust that shows up 😂

[saahmedm]

This is great feedback, thanks claire! never thought I'd need an emoji key LOL. Curious why the Emoji key doesn't map to Windows Key + . though

Like @arjunbalgovind mentioned, we're hoping to support these use cases for our v1. Will make issues to track shortcut to key mapping and shortcuts with >2 modifiers.

[crutkas]

seeing if i can't get @arjunbalgovind that keyboard for testing :)

[scrthq]

@crutkas - You wouldn't need that exact keyboard, per se. Any keyboard capable of sending that modifier combo replicates the behavior, including mechanical keyboards that come with a Hyper modifier key built-in (Hyper is just sending the same modifier combo). When Windows 10 was updated to treat that modifier combo as the Office launcher, it was a world of fun for the existing macros I have where that combo is used heavily

[corbob]

This is great feedback, thanks claire! never thought I'd need an emoji key LOL. Curious why the Emoji key doesn't map to Windows Key + . though

Like @arjunbalgovind mentioned, we're hoping to support these use cases for our v1. Will make issues to track shortcut to key mapping and shortcuts with >2 modifiers.

or Windows Key + ; 🤷

[TheSimArchitect]

Any chance this will be happening on a future update (ability to map more keyboard combinations including the new Office key)?

[RonnySvedman]

I notice several issues that would be resolved by allowing more modifiers than 2.

[5inf]

I found this issue while trying to deactivate the office key on one of my Microsoft keyboards (with the help of PowerToys).

Implementing this would be really great, because 1) on any recent Microsoft keyboard with "Office key" this key is sending the "hyper-key" modifier combination (Win+Ctrl+Alt+Shift) without another modifier key (why Microsoft?), and 2) the hyper-key combination alone (another why Microsoft?) being used in Windows 10 (since May 2019 update, registered via explorer.exe) to start MS Office, or - if there is no MS Office to start - leads you to an MS Office advertising page.

So if you have an older keyboard with a dedicated hyper-key, pressing this key will try to start of MS Office, too.

By the way there are more hyper-key combinations included in Windows 10. Hyper-key (or Office-key)+L leads you to Linkedin, Office+T to Teams, Office+Y opens Yammer.com, and so on, without any way to configure it.

Some more background and how messed up this is can be found here: https://www.howtogeek.com/445318/how-to-remap-the-office-key-on-your-keyboard/

The Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/mouse-and-keyboard-center-download-f5b10905-7887-eedb-2f1c-d0737a36a3b2) allows to configure several keys on the keyboard, but not the office key (again why Microsoft?).

This is great feedback, thanks claire! never thought I'd need an emoji key LOL. Curious why the Emoji key doesn't map to Windows Key + . though

I guess that's another one of these "why Microsoft?"-moments.

The best solution, but outside of the scope of the of the PowerToys, would probably be to change the behaviour of what a Microsoft keyboard sends when the office key is pressed, e.g. sending not the hyper-key combination alone but some other combination (hyper+O maybe), or even better allow to reconfigure what that key sends (which would fit well into the already existing Mouse and Keyboard Center). Maybe someone internally at Microsoft could forward this, as I don't see any chance for such an request to succeed from the outside.

[Jaans]

Is this still on the board to be done?

[franky920920]

@Jaans: Not on our roadmap yet, but community pull requests are welcome, simply let us know if you (or anyone) would like to contribute to PowerToys!

[crutkas]

This may be extended with the triple modifier branch but our UX needs to be extended is the blocker to ship

[crutkas]

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/tree/dev/crutkas/tripleModifier

[iksi4prs]

I think closing of https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/17213 as duplicate of https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/3194 is not correct.

17213 is about a mapping where the target contains just modifiers withOUT a character. eg I can map "right WIN" to "ALT+CTRL+SHIFT", and then for all shortcuts on system that contains above, instead clicking 3 modifiers keys every time, I need to click only one key,

As my check, its not possible on V 0.59.1

[jhoelzel]

it still doesnt work on V 0.59.1 , the smiley key reads as space even though its hyperkey + space

[jaimecbernardo]

@jhoelzel What's an hyper key? If it's a combination of keys underneath, you'd need to use the Edit shortcut instead of Edit Key to catch it.

[jaimecbernardo]

I think closing of #17213 as duplicate of #3194 is not correct.

17213 is about a mapping where the target contains just modifiers withOUT a character. eg I can map "right WIN" to "ALT+CTRL+SHIFT", and then for all shortcuts on system that contains above, instead clicking 3 modifiers keys every time, I need to click only one key,

As my check, its not possible on V 0.59.1

17213 was about being able to map "WIN+CTRL+ALT + H" from what I read. That's possible now.

[iksi4prs]

I think closing of #17213 as duplicate of #3194 is not correct. 17213 is about a mapping where the target contains just modifiers withOUT a character. eg I can map "right WIN" to "ALT+CTRL+SHIFT", and then for all shortcuts on system that contains above, instead clicking 3 modifiers keys every time, I need to click only one key, As my check, its not possible on V 0.59.1

17213 was about being able to map "WIN+CTRL+ALT + H" from what I read. That's possible now.

@jaimecbernardo

it was about adding hyper/meh keys (this should answer also your other question). its not about mapping "WIN+CTRL+ALT + H" to "some key", its about mapping ""WIN+CTRL+ALT" (only modifiers) as target.

example of usage: since "WIN+CTRL+ALT+SHIFT" is rarely used, because hard to click. u can add an hyper key, eg map "CAPS" to "WIN+CTRL+ALT+SHIFT". and then u can add many custom shortcuts (WIN+CTRL+ALT+SHIFT) in any app, without overriding/deleting existing shortcuts, and the bonus is u need only one key (CAPS) to run the shortcuts.

This is quite a common "trick", in keyboards the are programmable.

[JamieRCHI]

Does this help? Remap Office Key Also this HowToGeek link that points to the above Github thing: Office Key I opened a new issue on the above Github link about the possibility to do this with the Star key on the Natural Keyboard 4000. Seems like something like this could be integrated into PowerToys. Now if only I new what the "Hyper" key sequence is for the Star key.

[TheSimArchitect]

Is this still an issue?

I don't know. I don't have a keyboard with that key at this moment.

[JamieRCHI]

I'll have a look. I just updated to the latest version. Still not working with version 0.61.1

[Jaans]

Yes, while there's been some changes to capture the keys, it fails to map them.

Here's screenshots of attempting to map the "Office" hyper-key:

Which gives this message:

[Jay-o-Way]

Okay well that message is to be expected. For a shortcut you need at least one modifier key and at least one "normal" key.

[crutkas]

@jay-o-way, that isn't it I think. This is the remap involves the same key due to how Office key works ... we have a shortcut that involves the same key, namely here Win-Left. @jaimecbernardo as FYI

[crutkas]

@JamieRCHI what are you trying to remap your office key to?

[JamieRCHI]

I want to remap the Star Key on the Natural 4000 to any program or macro.

And the Application key to any program or macro. (Never ever used the Application key.) Might be nice to duplicate the Windows Key here.

Similar to how the Mouse and Keyboard center allows me to remap the Browser Back and Browser forward buttons.

[TheSimArchitect]

I want to remap the Star Key on the Natural 4000 to any program or macro.

And the Application key to any program or macro. (Never ever used the Application key.) Might be nice to duplicate the Windows Key here.

Similar to how the Mouse and Keyboard center allows me to remap the Browser Back and Browser forward buttons.

I have the same keyboard and I'd love to be able to remap all keys. I even ended buying a Stream Deck because I couldn't do it and I needed some keys for macros and other functionality. The top row, for example, is very limited and it makes no sense. We should be able to assign macros and key combinations to them as well instead of apps or taskbar items.

[PatrickKennedy]

I'm glad we've made it to the point where we're not limited to 2 modifiers, but either there should be a special exception for the Hyper combo, or remapping modifiers should be allowed. It's very silly that Windows doesn't support disabling the shortcuts natively but it would be the perfect redemption moment for PowerToys to be able to given it's tailored to power users

[hanss0n]

Why is it still not possible to remap the hyper modifier combo?

[iksi4prs]

For anyone still following this issue: Because this feature was not implemented in PowerToys, I've ended developing my own app using keyboard hooks. Unfortunately, Hyper/Meh didn't work well, because some apps "miss behave", and also execute their actions. Eg, if you define "Hyper = Left Control + Shift + Alt + Winkey", and then use "Hyper" + "A" to do something, other apps, which are un-ware of this "Hyper" option, will also do their thing own action "Ctrl+Alt+A", etc (eg open dialog, etc), so you end with 2 actions, one from the "Hyper" and one from the "partly Hyper".

My solution was to map "Left WinKey" to F17 (just something no one uses), and then use F17 as modifier. So WinKey generates key event of F17, and in my "end-user app" I treat F17 as modifier, in addition to existing modifiers. It works (99% of the time...) But I don't think it will be supported/added in PowerToys, because you need an special code to treat standard keys (eg F17) as modifiers. I'm still trying new ideas on my spare time, if you have any ideas/suggestions, please post in this thread.