Dropbox Ban Has Been Discontinued (although it still changes everything): "Alert! Dropbox has blocked the downloading of these scripts at the old Dropbox download site, apparently because there are too many people accessing them. The scripts have all been replicated at ComputorEdge AutoHotkey Downloads." (May 28, 2016)

AutoHotkey Script Roundup by Jack Dunning (Currently in the Process of Updating June 2016)

Get the AutoHotkey overview e-book, AutoHotkey Tricks You Ought to Do with Windows! (See how to get this book free!)

Note: AutoHotkey is an offshoot of the free Windows utility language AutoIt. While both are very similar  in features and capability, there are significant differences in both form and function. For more information see the Web page "AutoHotkey Versus AutoIt: A Comparison and Review of the Free Windows Scripting Languages".

included in the chapter on "Stealing AutoHotkey Scripts" in the e-book AutoHotkey Tricks You Ought To Do With Windows.

The AutoHotkey script I call HideWindow.ahk was found on the AutoHotkey scripts page. (I'm not sure who originally wrote it.) This HideWindow app quickly makes a window disappear, WIN+H (+H), and even removes the active Taskbar icon making it almost impossible to find the hidden window. It's not minimized, but hidden. Great for hiding inappropriate activities from the boss. The hidden window continues to run the program (whatever it is) in the background. Right-click on the AutoHotkey icon in the System Tray and select if from the menu to bring it back.

• ImageList.zip included in the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

The AutoHotkey app Imagelist.ahk and  ImageList.exe displays (at left) the icons in SHELL32.dll along with the image number, shown in image at left. This is useful for finding icons available on Windows computers to add to GUIs, Menus, the System Tray.

InstantHotkey.ahk and InstantHotkey.exe, and included in the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

The InstantHotkey script quickly sets up hotkey combinations temporarily for adding repeated and/or long lines of text to any current Windows document or Web editing field. This is handy for those situations where you know that you will be using a particular term or set of terms a number of times. The window to set up the hotkey opens immediately when the script is loaded. After the combination is set, it can be changed by right-clicking on the icon in the System Tray and selecting ShowHotkey. Hovering over the same icon will display the current hotkey combination setting.

If your security setting makes it difficult to download the EXE file, the same two files are also located in the InstantHotkey.zip file for easier downloading.

•

• KeyPad.zip If you have a Windows laptop computer without a number keypad or want to use the click of a mouse rather than your fingers to punch numbers, then you're going to like this one. A person who goes by the forum name sveco has produced a short AutoHotkey script which places a number keypad on a Windows computer screen (see Figure below left). The beauty of this app is that it never takes the focus away from your working document. When you click on the keypad, it does not become active and will send the input to your last active window.

You can use it with any active window to input numbers or use the cursor keys. For the right person, this could be just the ticket. The only issues was that the keypad on a keyboard doesn't necessary sync with the pop-up, but if you don't have a keyboard numeric keypad, it's no problem.

You don't need to know AutoHotkey to use this app. I've compiled it and posted both the KeyPad.ahk and the KeyPad.exe files in a ZIP file at the ComputorEdge AutoHotkey download site. Download the compresses ZIP file, KeyPad.zip and extract the EXE file. Double-click and the app loads. Click the little x in the upper right-hand corner to close the app.

AutoHotkey Notes for KeyPad

For people who are learning AutoHotkey (and you should be learning

Gui, +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop +ToolWindow +Border +E0x08000000

Gui, Show, x1350 y87 h260 w215 NoActivate

^!k::Gui, Show, x1350 y87 h260 w215 NoActivate

• MousePrecise.ahk

PathCheck.ahk and PathCheck.exe

The PathCheck script is merely a message box which displays the paths represented by the AutoHotkey variables A_UserName, A_MyDocuments, and A_AppData respectively.

• QuickLinks.zip

The QuickLinks script sets up a pop-up menu system with a special QuickLinks folder of your favorite shortcuts whether programs or Web pages. It may be a suitable replacement for the missing Start Menu in Windows 8, although I use it regularly in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista as a quick way to open working pages on the Web and a couple of programs. For the standard version of QuickLinks, once loaded, the menu is accessed with the hotkey combination WIN+Z. In a modified version, QuickLinks Tray, the menu structure is added to the System Tray icon right-click menu. The QuickLinks.zip file now includes QuickLinks.ahk, QuickLinks.exe, QuickLinks Tray.ahk, and QuickLinks Tray.exe.

Explanations of the QuickLinks script are included in this special Web page and one part of the e-book Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey.

• RecipeTree.zip included in the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

A six-part series demonstrating an alternative application with the TreeView AutoHotkey GUI control.

This AutoHotkey script uses a fairly advanced technique for attaching TreeView branches to GUI Edit control data fields by saving variable names within variables.

Reminder.ahk and Reminder.exe

The Reminder script has gone through many iterations and has more to come—although I'm not sure when. I use it to tell me to take out the trash on the right day and other quick temporary reminders. It is called up with the hotkey combination CRTL+WIN+R plus the most recent version has a Set Reminder option in the System Tray icon right-click menu.

The various versions of the files (some compiled into EXE files) have been included for people who are reading the related articles. They are now combined in the Reminder.zip file. The following is a list of the articles in order in which they deal with the different versions of the Reminder script:

Explanations of the Appointment Reminder script are incorporated in more detail in one section of the e-book Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey and extended in Chapters Thirty-two and Thirty-three in the e-book AutoHotkey Applications. I encourage anyone to tailor the script for personal use—possibly adding a multiple reminder capability and a repetitive reminder feature. I plan to do that myself when the time is right.

Various versions of the Reminder script can be downloaded in Reminder.zip at the ComputorEdge

SayWhat.ahk and SayWhat.exe included in the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

This SayWhat script is a demonstration of how easy it is to use the text reading capability of Windows with AutoHotkey. Once the script is loaded a "Speak to Me!" window will open. Type in any text and click "Talk!" The default Windows voice reads the text out loud.

• ScreenDimmer.zip included in Chapter Eight of the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

Demonstrates the AutoHotkey Slider control in a GUI which dims the computer screen. The second section adds an AutoHotkey Statusbar control which can reset the screen control, plus a one-click pop-up in the System Tray.

• ToDoList.zip contains ToDoList.ahk and ToDoList.exe included in Chapter Nine and Chapter Ten of the AutoHotkey Applications e-book.

This ToDoList.ahk script creates a one-column ListView window which displays text items in a list of tasks. This text list is saved to a text file (ToDoList.txt) in the same folder as the script. (That way, if you exit the app or your computer crashes, you will still have your complete "to-do list" available the next time you logon.) With a right-click on ListView, items can be edited or deleted. A closed To Do List window can be reopened with CTRL+ALT+T or with the right-click menu from the System Tray icon.

To add new items, enter the text into the editing field at the bottom of the window and click "Add to list:" on the left side at the bottom of the window. Select Edit from the right-click menu to put the item text into the editing field at the bottom. Click Update to save changes. Click the heading "Items To Do" to reverse the order of the items. Each item can be checked when completed or deleted with the right-click menu.

• WindowList.ahk for finding lost windows, included in Chapter Thirteen of the Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey e-book.

The idea for the WindowList script was inspired by a reader wanting to bring lost (off-screen) windows back in view. This script makes a dropdown menu of all the open windows (CTRL+WIN+L to activate after load). The list is filtered to avoid Windows system windows. When a window is selected from the menu, it is activated and positioned on top near the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

• WindowMove.ahk included in the e-book Digging Deeper Into AutoHotkey.

The WindowMove script is a demonstration app similar to Aero Snap. When the hotkey combination CTRL+WIN+M is activated, the script creates a dropdown list of moving and sizing options for the last active window. It only moves that last window activated. To move another window the menu must be closed, the new windows selected, the CTRL+WIN+M.

• WindowProbe.zip

I put together this quick tool I call WindowProbe for capturing some of the same AutoHotkey information displayed by Window Spy, but in a different format. WindowProbe uses a tooltip help pop-up to display vital information as you move the mouse cursor around the screen (as shown at right).

The hotkey combination CRL++T (^#T) toggles the tooltip message on and off. Since you may want to capture this information for use in an AutoHotkey script, the CTRL+F12 key combination saves the codes in the Windows Clipboard. After capturing in the Clipboard, it can be pasted into any text document or file in this format:

Unique ID: ahk_id 0x1b051c<
Title: WindowProbe.ahk - Notepad
Class: ahk_class Notepad
Control: Edit1
Active Control: Edit1

• WindowRollup.zip included in the chapter on "Stealing AutoHotkey Scripts" in the e-book AutoHotkey Tricks You Ought To Do With Windows.

The WindowRollup script is designed to semi-minimize active windows making it easier to see what's behind them and quickly access running programs on the Windows Desktop. The difference with this WindowRollup app from the previous HideWindow script is that rather than hiding or minimizing an open window, it reduces the window size to the title bar (or close to it)—making it possible to keep a good number of active windows on the Desktop without them interfering with each other.

The app works as a toggle using the CTRL+Z hotkey combination. (I changed the hotkey from the original +Z because I was using +Z for my QuickLinks menu app. I discuss how to make this change in the hotkeys in the chapter "A Beginner's Guide to Stealing AutoHotkey Apps." I note that you may not want to use CTRL+Z for the hotkey combination, since it is also the Undo hotkey in many programs. This app will block other CTRL+Z functions. It's easy to change the hotkey to something else by following the same steps in the e-book. The app called "Window Shading" was written by Rajak and the source is available through the AutoHotkey Scripts Showcase site.

As a convenience for people who don’t want to dig through the Web for individual tips, but would like to learn some cool AutoHotkey Hotstring tricks, the e-book Beginning AutoHotkey Hotstrings is now available on the ComputorEdge E-Books site and through Amazon. If e-books are not your thing, then it might be worth your time to peruse some of the blogs included in this book and linked at “Beginning AutoHotkey Hotstring Techniques” found under the “AutoHotkey Topics and Series” tab in the top menu bar. They just might inspire your next AutoHotkey script.