Rebinding Keys on a Dell Keyboard

Question

I have a Dell Multimedia Keyboard, similar to this one:

It has many non-standard keys, like the small circular ones across the top, and the "Multimedia" keys above INSERT/HOME/PAGE_UP.

They can be rebound through simple registry entries. Some sample ones are included below:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\15]
"ShellExecute"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe http://mail.google.com/mail/#inbox"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\16]
"Association"=".cda"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\17]
"ShellExecute"="C:\\Windows\\System32\\SnippingTool.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\18]
"ShellExecute"="calc.exe"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\7]
"Association"="http"

I've rebound the "MAIL" key to, instead of booting Outlook, to booting Firefox directed at my G-Mail account. I've rebound the button that would normally open "MY COMPUTER" to instead boot the Windows 7 "Snipping Tool", something I find very useful.

Now, I'm looking to do some other things that I don't already know how to do. Note that answering this question doesn't necessarily require any knowledge about the keyboard or rebinding the keys: I can add, for any given key, a "ShellExecute" entry, and it will simply execute the following command as if it was typed at a Command Prompt. (I'm aware I dumbed that down rather significantly, but bear with me. I'm not really a Windows guy myself.)

I use the volume knob for it's intended purpose, to change volume. I would like to change, however, a different key, to "reset" the Windows volume level back to exactly 50%, or, as it refers to it, "50", on it's 0-100 scale.

I'm looking for the "program" (what I would type at a command prompt? these are still just Sys32 programs in the PATH, aren't they?) that, I imagine, would take arguments, to change Sound/Volume settings under Windows 7. Perhaps, for clarification, something that might take the form "C:> SetVolume -slevel 50" or something.

Solution 1

It looks like you're going to need some additional software to do this for you. There's some excellent links here and here.

In particular:

NirCmd is an application that changes the volume and more.

Example of use:

* Increase the system volume by 2000 units (out of 65535)
nircmd.exe changesysvolume 2000

* Decrease the system volume by 5000 units (out of 65535)
nircmd.exe changesysvolume -5000

* Set the volume to the highest value
nircmd.exe setsysvolume 65535 

Solution 2

You can perform "key rebinding" on Windows for any keyboard using AutoHotKey. Here are some examples (from my AutoHotKey startup configuration) that show how to control the sound card:

 #z::Send,{VOLUME_MUTE}
 #=::SoundSet,+5
 #-::SoundEet,-5
 Capslock::Send,{MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE}

('#' means the Windows Key, you can also specify any combination of control, shift, and alt keys).

Comments

[Maarx]

This is almost exactly what I was looking for. Despite involving third-party software (I was hoping for a native Windows solution), sometimes nativity is overrated. The program is small, concise, does everything I could need it to, nothing I don't, and doesn't consume system resources when I don't need it. Thank you.

[Nathaniel]

NirCmd is awesome. OT, but a cool example: "at 21:00 nircmd standby" and you've got a Standby schedualed for 9:00 tonight.

[martineau]

AutoHotKey is great for rebinding normal keyboard key combinations, but does it also support rebinding extra keys/buttons/knobs that a keyboard like the OP's has?

[jdigital]

Yes: if you bring up the AutoHotKey window and switch to the Key History view, you can view a list of all the recently pressed keys, with the names or codes that can be used inside AHK.

[martineau]

+1 Actually I found names for them listed in the AutoHotKey Help file in a section about Multimedia and Internet keyboards -- such as Volume_Mute, Launch_Mail, Browser_Home, etc.

[martineau]

While I think volumemouse is very useful utility for what it does and use it myself, I don't believe there's any way to configure it to reset the volume level back to exactly 50% -- nor in general rebind the OP's Multimedia keys. You can use it to mute/unmute the volume with certain key + scroll-wheel combinations, however.