AutoHotkey Community

Currently I've no idea how to assign/map a (non existing) winkey to the existing FN key on my IBM notebook (and therefore map the FN key to the F8 key) .

Here you can see a screenshot I've captured with KeyboardSpy (a tool of the Eventcorder Suite) to get some data about the FN key ...



Any help ?

Whenever you have a non-standard key, such as one that lacks a virtual key code like yours, try the approach here: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm#SpecialKeys

To whom it may concern (eg. owners of an IBM T40 notebook).



This marvelous piece of code is based on the superb support of Chris Mallet. Please keep that in mind with every click on your WinKey-look-alike formerly known as FN key !

So this one will make your life easier (perhaps if you are an owner of the IBM T40 notebook, sorry )

The first will remap the unliked BrowserBack-Button (which is positioned above the Left-Button) with the well known but missing Left Winkey.

The second will remap the BrowserForward-Button which is positioned above the Right-Button with the missing AppsKey (the one which invokes the right-click context menu).

Beastmaster:

Thanks much for the codes! I used your last entry to map the browse-back and -home keys to Home and End, and mapped the right-Ctrl to Delete. That gets me 90% of the way to making my otherwise wonderful T42p usable. Wondering, though, whether you had any luck remapping the FN key? I tried to swap it with the left-Ctrl (leaving FN in the middle, where God intended it to be ), but I can't get the Ctrl to act like the FN when used in combination with FN-associated keys. I'm going to explore the AutoHotKey help some more to see if I can figure it out. Maybe the tilde (~) has something to do with it? We'll see.

Thanks again!

ewb

The Fn key on some notebooks might be a hardware level key, meaning that the hardware/firmware of the keyboard/notebook itself may monitor key combinations and take action based on what you pressed. This makes sense when you think about it, because I believe some Fn combinations trigger actions (e.g. screen off) even when Windows isn't running.

If this is the case, it might not be possible to remap a different key to become the Fn key. To help in your quest, use the steps at the bottom of this page:
http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm#SpecialKeys

ewbi, if you use the technique at the link above to discover whether your Fn key has a virtual key code and scan code, maybe you can post here what they are.

If the virtual key is FF or something else non-standard, support for sending any scan code is planned and might help with this. Then again, it might not if it's a bios/firmware/hardware handled key.

IBM Notebook T40

The FN key:
VK = FF
SC = 163

-----

Yep, I've tried to remap the FN key to another key as well (eg. F9) this way

F9::Send {SC163} ;like you can do it with a standard ASCII character, but unfortunately it didn't work

I've made a change to the installer that might help. After re-downloading, give this a try:
LCtrl::Send {vkFFsc163}

It might allow LCtrl to partially work as the Fn key, but even if so, I doubt it will be a complete substitute because I suspect most notebooks have firmware that handles some of their Fn key functions.

My T42p also shows FN as FF-163 as Beastmaster described. I tried the new download but am still not getting FN-like behavior. Perhaps it is firmware. Nonetheless, I'm thrilled with what AutoHotkey has helped me do. Thanks again!

ewb

I just realized that if you want the Fn key to behave like a modifier (to modify other keys while it is held down), you'll probably have to use the more complete remapping method. Try this instead:

Anything new on this?

I tried with the last suggestion without luck on my IBM T42p. Maybe the notebook producers should add the option to switch FN with CTRL in the BIOS. It seems hardware related as it's not possible to map FN to anything.

On notebooks where the Fn key generates an event (as seen in View > Key history), it should be possible to remap the Fn key to become another key such as Ctrl. The exception is those hotkeys that are built into the hardware/firmware/bios, since it recognizes the physical Fn key at a low level (beneath the OS).

However, the reverse is probably not possible (e.g. making Ctrl into Fn) since the bios/firmware will not understand that when you press Ctrl you really mean it to see Fn instead. There may be some exceptions where even this will work, especially for PCs that come with a utility to control what the Fn key does.

Hi,
I'm a total newby, so maybe my question is stupid, but:

I have problems assigning my IBM T41 FN key together with F2:

SC163 & F2::MsgBox, Hello World.

does not work, when I use

SC163 & LButton::MsgBox, Hello World.

I have to press FN+LButton a couple of times before the MsgBox appears.

What am I doing wrong?

Since I don't have an Fn key to test this with, it might just be a quirk of your particular hardware (maybe someone else with a similar notebook can test it).

I tried these two hotkeys on my desktop and they work okay. Note that sc1e is the letter A:

sc1e & F2::MsgBox, Hello World.
sc1e & LButton::MsgBox, Hello World.