Q: is this topic vs winUp, which deservs more tcost?
A: I could live without the hot keys, so let’s reduct out t-investment.
— My goals:
- hot key with meaningful, memorable key combination .. 0.txt, tmp.txt
- desktop folder of shortcuts to my hot folders/files .. most visible but could clutter
- startMenu shortcuts to my hot folders/files
Most important file types are .. 1) *.txt 2) *.xls
— method 1 (non-admins): I created a desktop folder ‘1sys’ to avoid ‘sys’. Now I can use keyboard to hit WinKey -> 1sys. Physical file/folder on desktop is good but a shortcut named 1sys failed to work 🙁
q[ `dtopHot ] worked fine.
🙂 This technique lets me create memorable hot keys for many different files and folders.
- — to set up
- I move the file link like tmp.txt.lnk (or the physical file spreadsheet.xls) to a 1sys on the desktop
- — to use
- hit winKey
- start typing the file name
- pray that your file will show up
— method 2 (non-admins): hot key
Find the folder on desktop or C: or a remote folder, right click -> pray to get a “pinToStart” (above SendTo) that can create a clickable shortcut in start-menu but the only workable keyboard accelerator involves several keystrokes: Winkey->downArrow->downArrow
( The pinToQuickAccess is for a different purpose – quickAcess is a list of folders showing on top in MSWE. )
minor question: can I make winKey-E start from a custom directory?
— method 3 (admin users): create a prominent item in start menu
create a folder like C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\myHotKeys. In it, create regular windows shortcut to your favorite file. Name the shortcut something like 0.txt. This method is tested on HP71 and A95
Then press winKey -> type 0 -> the shortcut would show up -> right click -> pinToStart to create a clickable shortcut in start-menu
Result: from now on, when I press winKey, I can see abc.txt showing up as a favorite file
- — to set up
- I created one or more regular desktop shortcut to say tmp.txt
- Then I created a subdir like “txt” in exactly C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
- then I move those shortcut files over
- — To use:
- (1 keystroke) hit windows key or click start button. In some systems, you would immediately see 0.txt 🙂
- now type first few chars of the shortcut filename
- (1 keystroke) “0” key. Some Systems automatically suggest 0.txt
- (3 keystrokes) “tmp”, to get “tmp.txt”
- (1 keystroke) Enter key to open the file in notepad++
Q: how to make the search more precise, by making the item names more unique?
Q: To rename the folder from myHotKeys to 0HotLinks?
- duplicate the folder
- rename the clone folder
- go back to original folder and rename the files therein and test. The files in the new folder should work. If you type the first chars of the file name -> file shows up -> Click the OpenFileLocation -> reveals the renamed folder. Note the file is a *.lnk file.
- remove original folder.
- After a while (up to minutes), the 0Hotlinks folder would show up in the start menu, above the names starting A, B etc, hopefully above all others. In that case, you can use keyboard navigation
====Other shortcuts using more than keyboard
- MSWE QuickAccess
- desktop folder of shortcuts