Challenge MET: Minimize-all Hotkey Toggle WITHOUT Winkey!

OK, a friend has a new notebook with no Winkey, and she is an avid avoider of the mouse: a superfast touch-typist who never wants her hands off the keyboard.

I've shown her how to access everything in the Start Menu-Programs, and how to add frequently used progs to the main Start Menu list for ultra-fast access, and she now knows how to get to Start with the Ctrl + Esc keys. We've got her set up with a ton of QuickStart icons, every one of which has a hotkey shortcut. So she's doing almost everything with the keys (i.e., without mousing) now, but ...

The only thing I can't figure for her that she really needs is a substitute hotkey for the toggle icon that lets you Minimize All and Restore All. It's the Show Desktop toggle. Getting the Show Desktop icon set up and moved onto the QL toolbar is a snap, but that toggle icon doesn't allow hotkeys. I've tried every variation of putting the icon in the Start Menu or the QL bar and creating a shortcut to it so that I can hotkey the shortcut, but nothing I've tried works.

When she's got a bunch of open windows and wants to minimize all and then restore all, she still has to reach for the mouse. Notto Goodo, she says.

Ideas?

 

I've just tried this out, place a Show Desktop shortcut in the Start Menu. Rename the shortcut so that the first letter is unique from the other Start Menu entries, e.g., "zShow Desktop". Now, you can do Ctrl+Esc+z and voila.

 

Ken,

That's the cleverest thing I'll see ALL DAY! Why the heck didn't I think of that ???

Many thanks! I'll relay the word right away.

Thanks for your solution, too, robo. I'll have her check the combo and the Accessibility Options setting today.

Well, so much for stumpers around here!

I'd heard that notebooks differed from maker to maker and model to model, but not having used one except to repair the software or OS on it, I had no idea. Why can't they standardize? And if they're not going to HAVE a Winkey, shouldn't one of the other keys be the standard substitute? I dunno, I dunno, I dunno.

 

You're welcome, WW.

Years ago I've seen a similar tip years ago (before the QL bar was developed, Win95 days) as another way of launching favorite/frequent programs by putting a number at the beginning of the name ("5 Notepad") so by doing Win 5 (or Ctrl+Esc 5 not Ctrl+ESC+5), Notepad is launched. BTW, I do have this setup when I do frequent Copy/Paste actions.

:edit - just realized something, that tip I gave you should not have the "+" between "Esc" and "zShow Desktop". Should be "Ctrl+Esc" followed by "z"

 

robo,

I checked the site, but I don't understand your discovery: what does Accessibility Options in Control Panel have to do with whether or not Ins + F6 works? (Sorry for the denseness on this.)

 

But WHICH ACCESSIBILITY OPTION has to be ON to make that combo work?

In CP, AccOpts, I don't see anything that turns a bunch of things on (or off) at once.

I just see options for toggles and stickies and filters. Does one of those affect the combo of Ins + F6?

(I must be working with half a deck today.)

 

AHA!

Well, confusion loves company!

It's probably just that the AO files make a few things available that wouldn't otherwise be, even when you don't actually TURN ON any of the options.

I'll go with that guess, and I'll make sure she has AO installed if she tries the combo and nothing happens.

Now I don't feel quite so stoopid as I felt a few mins ago. I are quite smart, reely. Well, sumtimes.