GBM How-To Series # 19 : Assigning Shortcut Keys in Vista

There are many useful utilities found in Vista today. You name it, from snipping to syncing to sidebar, they cover all sorts of neat features. Additionally, there are all sorts of system specific utilities that ship with today’s mobile PC’s.  Today’s “How-To” is a bit retro, and I know I’m showing my age here, but remember the “good old days” when GUI navigation was a dream and mice were something that you did not want in your house. You had to remember key assignments to get any functionality from DOS or application software. It’s a curse,  but I still remember most of the  key commands for the shareware editor called PC-Write. Pretty old huh? Well not as old as Dennis… ask him about his punch card days… now that’s old. Sometimes it’s quicker to to fire off a utility with a keystroke rather than navigate the menus with a mouse or pen. Here’s your “Retrofied Hot Key How To”…

Let’s assign a hot key combination to the Vista Snipping tool. This will work with just about any program in your start menu. Think about the possibilities… say your favorite UMPC / Tablet utility does not have a hot key. Now you can fix that with this how-to!

GBM How-To Series # 19 : Assigning Shortcut Keys in Vista

Step 1 : Navigate to the desired Start menu item.

First, navigate the Start menu to the program/utility you wish to assign. For this example, we will assign a key combo to the Snipping Tool by navigating to Start/All Programs/Accessories/Snipping Tool. Now, Right-Click and select Properties. You will see the program properties window similar to the one here.

Step 2 : Assign a key combination.

Now, select the input box for the shortcut by clicking in the Shortcut Key entry area of the Snipping Tool properties window. You are now ready to assign a keystroke combination to the program you have selected. In this case, again, we are assigning the “Control-Alt-S” combination to the snipping tool. To do this, once the entry box is selected, just press the key combination that you want. Literally enter them by selecting them on the keyboard. If the key combination you select is reserved or already assigned, you will notice that the Shortcut key assignment will return to “None”. Click Apply then OK.

Step 3 : All Done!

That’s it. Your newly assigned keyboard combination is ready for action.