Create Custom Shortcut Keys in Windows

Windows 8 and 8.1 has the option to add a hotkey or shortcut key to your applications. This is built directly into Windows so you don’t have to worry about another third party background program running monitoring all of your key actions to detect the hotkeys. This feature should of been added long ago, but at least it’s finally here and there is no more waiting.

Add Custom Hotkey in Windows

• Right click on a programs Icon or executable. This can be a shortcut icon pointing to a program or the program itself.
• Go to the tab Shortcut in the Properties window.
• For the setting Shortcut key select the shortcut you want that beings with the keys ctrl + alt

There is some limitation where shortcuts have to start with the two keys of ctrl + alt and the final key cannot be another “action” key such as shift or other similar keys including the space bar.

Along with the limitation and restriction of keys you can use for making shortcuts, you also cannot make shortcuts for Portable Apps. The program has to be installed to your computer to have the option to create a shortcut to. I believe this is so if you ever delete a portable app, you don’t have a shortcut key still active that will never be used again. With installed programs, when the program uninstalls, Microsoft Windows will release the shortcut keys assigned to that software.

Deleting Custom Shortcut Keys

You have now created a shortcut key, but it’s no longer required. To remove the shortcut, open up the Shortcut settings under Properties again for that application. In the Shortcut key field, you can press backspace or any other key for the most part to clear the field. None will appear when the shortcut has been removed. All you have to do now is apply the changes and close out of the Properties window.