Automate Windows Tasks with AutoHotkey
Posted on March 22, 2008 at 6:07 am
If you are given two choices: one is to complete a task manually and another is to let a computer automatically do it for you, which one would you choose? The second choice obviously! This is because the computer was created to automate lame, repetitive tasks, such as computing mathematical problems, payroll calculations etc.
A computer is not really smart, so you have to program it first before it can complete a job for you. Having said that, one useful freeware that can help you to automate Windows tasks with simple scripted instructions to do your bidding is AutoHotkey.
How AutoHotkey Works
AutoHotkey is a free, open-source utility for Windows that can automates almost any task by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks to your computer. It allows you to do a simple tasks such as creating custom hotkeys for launching applications to complex tasks such as monitoring your computer system for unwanted applications.
To create a simple task, you need to enter a few commands inside a text editor and save it in .ahk extension. Next, double click the .ahk file to run AutoHotkey inside the system tray so you can start executing this task based on what you have written inside the file. Multiple AutoHotkey scripts can be run simultaneously so you can load as many scripts as you want. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a programming guru to create a simple script – check out AutoHotkey’s Quick Tutorial to get a better idea on how AutoHotkey works.
Things You Can Do with AutoHotkey
AutoHotkey unleashes the power to automate Windows tasks by providing these features:
- Create hotkeys for keyboard, mouse, even joysticks! You can use almost any key or combination of keys on the keyboard if you wish so. For example, you can create a script to launch several Windows programs at once by pressing a single shortcut key.
- Use AutoHotkey as a typing tool. For example, a simple command like ::btw:: allows you to expand the “by the way” phrase by typing it’s btw abbreviation from any text editor.
- Remap keys and button on your keyboard, mouse or joysticks. For example, the RAlt::RButton command allows you to mimic a right click mouse press action to the Right Alt key on the keyboard. Therefore, you can now find better usage for your idle function keys (F1 to F12)!
- Convert a script to an EXE file so you can bring your script to another computer without AutoHotkey installed and run it there.
- Controls music volume – increase, decrease, mute etc. for any sound card.
- Use your keyboard as your joystick or mouse – Linux command line geeks will absolutely love this.
- Retrieve and change Windows clipboard contents.
- Disable or change the default Windows shortcut keys to your preferences.
- Create a macro to record your current action (with Macro Recorder) for later use – useful for completing repetitive computer tasks, on demand or automatically. If you make some mistakes while scripting a task, the Syntax Checker is there to help.
The possibilities of things that you can do and automate with AutoHotkey are endless. Another good use that I can find for AutoHotkey is to reuse idle keyboard keys to run a program that provides limited hotkey support. You may find AutoHotkey a little bit daunting at first but with an extensive manual and active AutoHotkey user forum, this freeware can work wonders for your computer. Download AutoHotkey and automate your Windows today!
This is a guest post by Syahid A. from TechMalaya
Tags: autohotkey, automate windows, windows automation, automate tasks, hotkey
» Filed Under Free Software Downloads
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Several tasks can be defined inside one ahk file. You don’t have to have one script file per task. For example, the three following tasks can be in one ahk file:
^y::run http://www.yahoo.com
^g::run http://www.google.com
^e::exit
So, pressing the hotkey ‘ctrl+y’ will launch Yahoo, pressing the hotkey ‘ctrl+g’ will launch Google and pressing the hotkey ‘ctrl+e’ will terminate the script.
It is a very simple yet useful example. I tested with success ahk files with more than 100 tasks. Of course with so many tasks you could have to use an Enterpad because it is not practical to remember all the hotkeys.
Sonia