Using fn key as a modifier

[enigment]

Hi folks, It's been a long time since I worked actively with AHK, I've just been using and occasionally tweaking the scripts I built. However, I've just moved to Windows 10, and a number of my shortcuts that were triggered by the Windows key in combination with a letter don't work right, because the Windows key is used a lot by shortcuts built into the OS.

I'd like to change these to use fn + a letter. Looking around I see that sc163 is the fn key, but for example this doesn't appear to work for fn + a:

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sc163 & a::

Is it possible to use the fn key as a modifier? What am I missing about how to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[guest3456]

i tried it and i couldn't get it working either

[HotKeyIt]

Try something like that, as far as I remember Fn key is not kept down state but pressed repeatedly:

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sc163::LastFnPress:=A_TickCount+50
#if (LastFnPress<A_TickCount)
a::MsgBox a
#if

[Helgef]

Try,

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MsgBox, % GetKeyName("sc163")

On my computer it say Help
I don't get any output in the keyhistory when i press my fn key.

[guest3456]

i get "Help" also. i didn't even know about the GetKeyName() func

KeyHistory shows me vkFF sc163. did you #installkeybdhook ?

interestingly, GetKeyVK("sc163") shows "2F" but keyhistory shows "FF"

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msgbox, % GetKeyVK("sc163")     ; shows 47 aka 0x2F

vk2Fsc163::msgbox             ; fails

vk47sc163::msgbox            ; fails

vkFFsc163::msgbox            ; works

[guest3456]

Try something like that, :

Code: Select all

sc163::LastFnPress:=A_TickCount+50
#if (LastFnPress<A_TickCount)
a::MsgBox a
#if

this didn't work for me

as far as I remember Fn key is not kept down state but pressed repeatedly

if i hold down "k", KeyHistory shows repeated events. but if i hold down "Fn", KeyHistory only shows 1 event

[guest3456]

looks like this guy had a solution but all links are dead
https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/2784 ... -solution/

[qwerty12]

Is it possible to use the fn key as a modifier? What am I missing about how to do this?

ThinkPad? On my laptop, quick testing shows the Fn key can indeed be detected by AutoHotkey, but (presumably due to the way the EC is programmed to work) the letters pressed whilst Fn is held down aren't sent to Windows (at least raw input isn't picking them up).

The only workarounds I have:

• If this wouldn't severely annoy you like it would me, enable Fn sticky key mode from the UEFI. You won't get the Fn+a combination, but you will be able to do Fn and then "a" in quick succession
• There may be a couple of unused Fn hotkeys you can use instead. On my laptop, Fn + F1 is unused and so is the ThinkVantage key. (And Fn+F6 wants me to install the useless Lenovo Settings software.) I have the latter running an AutoHotkey script that drops down ConEmu. To check this out, use Process Monitor and set the following filters:
  • Process Name is shtctky.exe then Include
  • Path contains SOFTWARE\Lenovo\ShortcutKey\AppLaunch then Include
  If you get a hit when pressing your desired Fn+<whatever> combination, look at the other registry keys present in AppLaunch to get an idea on how to get your own script running when you press said key.

[enigment]

Thanks folks. I have a number of scripts that used Windows + something, so a modifier is really what I'm looking for, not one specific fn key that isn't used. There aren't any other keys that can be used as modifiers besides Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Windows, are there?

If there's nothing like that, I guess I need to to trim down the tools I have available that quickly.

[guest3456]

you could try using SHIFT+WIN+XXX instead?

+#a::msgbox

[Helgef]

There aren't any other keys that can be used as modifiers besides Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Windows, are there?

See Hotkey Combinations.

[enigment]

you could try using SHIFT+WIN+XXX instead?

+#a::msgbox

I did a combination of that (before I saw your msg actually), and removing some less frequently used items with Windows key triggers.

To me that feels better than the somewhat convoluted process required to use other keys as modifiers (though it is kind of cool that you can do that).