remapping a shortcut to run app 1 or app 2 doesn't seem to work

[roeisold]

I was trying to remap ctrl+c to open calculator but it doesn't seem to work it seems like every key I'm trying to remap to open the calculator doesn't seems to work

example:

[franky920920]

It seems like you are remapping Win(Left)+c in the screenshot, which might conflict with the Cortana in Windows 10 or Microsoft Teams in Windows 11.
If you are remapping Ctrl+c, this might conflict with the copy command.

[roeisold]

I have a keychron c2 and it had a dedicated button on it that does win+c thats why I'm trying to make it to open calculator (don't need teams) is there any way I can do it?

[roeisold]

also I don't think trying to remap the win+c was the problem because for example I tried to remap the key "w" to open app 2 aswell and it still didn't work

[Jay-o-Way]

Maybe a different approach: find the .lnk shortcut file from the start menu. Open its properties. There you can set a hotkey to launch this shortcut. Entering a C will be prepended by Ctrl+Alt+, but Ctrl+C might possibly work too. (haven't tried it myself)

[roeisold]

Again I don't think the. Problem is the shortcut I think the software doesn't have the premission to open the windows apps

[dedavis6797]

This is interesting, I don't have enough familiarity with how this is implemented. @mykhailopylyp how are Start App 1 and Start App 2 defined?

cc @jaimecbernardo

[jaimecbernardo]

(Start App keys are physical keys on some keyboards, it's not a functionality we've introduced.)

Some earlier investigation into this is done here: #3192 (comment)

Looks like we're hitting some security restrictions here and would have to be able to have the involved components bypass the UAC UI Protection.

[roeisold]

and how can I do that?

[roeisold]

or will it be fixed in future builds

[jaimecbernardo]

This is a fix that must be planned yet, as there are some concerns about security.

[jaimecbernardo]

Unfortunately, this is not something that you'd be able to fix from your end.

[jaimecbernardo]

There might be a workaround that works for you, though:
1 - Create a shortcut for C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe.
2 - Right click and open properties.
3 - Add the "Ctrl+Alt+C" shortcut.
4 - Remap "Win+C" to "Ctrl+Alt+C" on Keyboard Manager.

This seems to work for me.

[dedavis6797]

(Start App keys are physical keys on some keyboards, it's not a functionality we've introduced.)

Thanks for the context @jaimecbernardo. I'm noticing that none of our documentation explains this well, so I'll add this as a work item to update while we work through general enhancements to make Keyboard Manager more extensible (#12642)

[roeisold]

this seems to sometimes work but only when the shortcut it self is on the desktop

[roeisold]

but maybe this is a windows 11 bug

[anishre]

@dedavis6797 Just some additional info.
I have this issue as well, so for example I can remap windows E to any function in the list for "Mapped To" except Start App 1/ Start App 2. In my case I was trying to remap Windows + E to open an application from the MS Store (Files).

[Jay-o-Way]

this seems to sometimes work but only when the shortcut it self is on the desktop

@roeisold Calculator has a shortcut file in the Start menu, you can use that one. Or does that not work?
@dedavis6797 What text should be added to the doc? Is anybody working on it already?

[crutkas]

This is fixed in 0.53, get it at https://aka.ms/installPowerToys

[Voidlighter]

I'm still confused, how do I choose what "Start App 1" refers to without creating a desktop shortcut like @jaimecbernardo showed?

Edit: Unless that's not possible, looking at the documentation it looks like it simply does what the keyboard has programmed it to do. I don't know what that means for me in my case of a qmk programmable keyboard, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

Keyboard Manager lists mappings for all known physical keyboard keys. Some of these mappings may not be available on your keyboard as there may not be a physical key that it corresponds to. For instance: the Start App 1 option shown below is only available on keyboards that physically have a Start App 1 key. Trying to map to and from this key on a keyboard that does not support the Start App 1 key will result in undefined behavior.

[jaimecbernardo]

@Voidlighter , on the next release (0.79), there is a feature being release for mapping shortcuts directly to apps on keyboard manager. Expect that to be released sometime next week.