Is it possible to change what a FN key does?

[J-Lord]

Hey guys, my latest issue is that I bought a new laptop but this laptop doesn't have a FN key feature that my last laptop has that I used a lot.

My last laptop has a FN key that allowed you to pause/play and choose next or previous songs when using media player. My new laptop does not have this feature, so I was wondering is there a way I can set a key such as F10, F11 or F12 (which are not in use) to do this feature? Or is this just something that is not editable and stuck the way it is?

[lemmingllama]

You can change any and all of your key bindings, including adding or removing shortcuts. Since I normally add on a small amount of Logitech bloatware, I use that. I am not sure if there is a windows equivalent that is preinstalled

[kashem2]

has for has i know and im pretty sure windows doesnt have a thing like that. you could try googleing for software that might let you do it. but sence you have a laptop your pretty much stuck with what you got.

[Mujklob]

It would be easier to just to find a media player that allows hotkey functions than to remap your keys. I use MediaMonkey and I could assign any key to do anything, but I have all of the keys on my keyboard. It's a lot easier to do something like CTRL+Enter than the function keys--they're a little harder to reach. Also, (Shift+)F10 is nice for right-clicking without a mouse, F11 is full-screen and F12 opens Firebug--these keys all have uses already.

But if you must, and you use Windows, you can remap them in the registry and freeware applications exist to do this.

[J-Lord]

You can change any and all of your key bindings, including adding or removing shortcuts. Since I normally add on a small amount of Logitech bloatware, I use that. I am not sure if there is a windows equivalent that is preinstalled

Guess i'll keep searching and trying new things, cheers lemming!

has for has i know and im pretty sure windows doesnt have a thing like that. you could try googleing for software that might let you do it. but sence you have a laptop your pretty much stuck with what you got.

Yeah this was my first thought to, im still gonna see if I can change these though.

It would be easier to just to find a media player that allows hotkey functions than to remap your keys. I use MediaMonkey and I could assign any key to do anything, but I have all of the keys on my keyboard. It's a lot easier to do something like CTRL+Enter than the function keys--they're a little harder to reach. Also, (Shift+)F10 is nice for right-clicking without a mouse, F11 is full-screen and F12 opens Firebug--these keys all have uses already.

But if you must, and you use Windows, you can remap them in the registry and freeware applications exist to do this.

Well I forgot to mention in the first post that I used the Fn keys to change songs when I wasn't in media player but in a different window. I play a few games that I play in full screen mode on my laptop and I listen to music at the same time, it gets a pain when I want to skip a song that I have to push the windows start icon key to get back to the desktop screen just to change song.

Sure having another program might help but would it only work while im on the media player or can it work when the media program is a background program. (By background I mean the program im not using, say for example im on kametsu which is the main window I have open while media player is the background program, normal hotkeys won't work for the background.)

[Mujklob]

Ah, my bad, you want a a global hotkey. In most media players you would need a plug-in. Which media player do you use? WMP has one called WMP Keys. That will allow you to set hotkeys for playback regardless of your active window. There are other plug-ins for other media players.

As for remapping keys, the applications I was talking about only assist in the registry editing process, so they would have a global effect and wouldn't have to run at the same time as your media player.

[Dae314]

You could try autohotkey. I've heard of it, but never used it myself. I took a quick look at the documentation, and it seems like you can use it to send keystrokes to programs regardless of what's active on your screen. You can probably use this to write a script that will send a play/pause keystroke to your media player.

The learning curve for autohotkey is probably a bit higher than other stuff, but given the power that its scripting language gives you over Windows I think it would be beneficial to you.

[J-Lord]

Ah, my bad, you want a a global hotkey. In most media players you would need a plug-in. Which media player do you use? WMP has one called WMP Keys. That will allow you to set hotkeys for playback regardless of your active window. There are other plug-ins for other media players.

As for remapping keys, the applications I was talking about only assist in the registry editing process, so they would have a global effect and wouldn't have to run at the same time as your media player.

I see, and yeah I use Windows Media Player, so I guess i'll give this WMP keys a go. Thanks!!!

You could try autohotkey. I've heard of it, but never used it myself. I took a quick look at the documentation, and it seems like you can use it to send keystrokes to programs regardless of what's active on your screen. You can probably use this to write a script that will send a play/pause keystroke to your media player.

The learning curve for autohotkey is probably a bit higher than other stuff, but given the power that its scripting language gives you over Windows I think it would be beneficial to you.

If push comes to shove I'll be sure to give autohotkey a try. Im sure if im devoted enough i'll ride the learning curve to get it to work. Thanks for your support!

[abhirup]

thanks! it really helped!