AutoHotkey Community

mashenden · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Unless I am missing it, there is not a page that summarizes AHK's uses (possibly because it is so far reaching). Hopefully the forum's experts can answer a few questions easily for me, prior to taking the dive.

I am thinking that AHK is the solution to a couple of things that I want to do. I have a universal remote (Harmony 890 Pro) and a MCE-XP PC with the IR-USB Remote interface.

Questions:

1) Can AHK be used to launch iTunes (I have a PC, not an Apple)?

2) If so is the answer still "Yes" if from within MCE?

3) Can AHK be used to program a key that will reliably launch into MyMovies? Being MM is an add-in there is not a MyMovies button on the MCE remote, which in turn makes it hard to program this functionality into the Harmony. I have set it up so that it does 3 downs and an enter which works most times but it does not work when MCE is first launched (not sure why).

Trikster · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:49 pm Post subject:

Yes. Lookup hotkeys, and the run command.

mashenden · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

HugoV · Joined: 27 May 2007 Posts: 650

Start at the homepage (links below introduction)
and check the http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/Tutorial.htm
that covers the basics of creating hotkeys, sending mouseclicks etc.

Starting a program is as easy as:

mashenden · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

mashenden · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

I ran into a problem with another program so I got gun shy about trying AHK.

Here is why - Using another key/command substitiute program I have been able to launch iTunes (slowly) when pressing My Music, BUT I have not been able to get My Movies to run when I push My Video becasue My Movies does not have an executable file, only shortcuts (see what I mean about my learning curve concern, arg)

Specifically, has anyone got AutoHotKey to launch My Movies when the My Video button is pressed on the remote? Yes or no - If yes, please share how.

Rhys · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 736 Location: Florida

If you can get AHK to recognize that button as a hotkey, you can do 'anything' with it - If all else fails, maybe you can program the Harmony (I'm unfamiliar with it) to simulate a hotkey (Like set it to press CTRL+Shift+M) press that AHK will then act upon (^+m:: in AHK).

If you search for the WINLIRC script in the documentation, it might work as well but is probably a steeper learning curve. I haven't tried it myself yet so I can't comment too much.
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mashenden · Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Great help, folks. I took the plunge and downloaded AHK. Setting it up so that Ctrl+ Alt+E launches My Movies was a piece of cake. Thank you HugoV for getting me started.

Also, right you are Rhys. WinLIRC looks way too difficult. So far I have good results using AHK as noted above, then using Intelliremote to remap the My Video key to Ctrl+Alt+E which AHK uses to launch My Movies.

There is still a bug in that when I am in My Movies and press LiveTV it does not work unless I do a "Back" first. Once I get this sorted out I'll post the whole solution. It really was easy to configure.