AutoHotkey

Steve Gray ( Lexikos )

AutoHotkey, short AHK, is a scripting language with which you can control the Windows user interface. With the help of AutoHotkey, you can automate repetitive tasks in Windows. AutoHotkey is a free software.

Overview

AutoHotkey is a scripting language for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 With Windows 95/98/Me, it works with some limitations.

AutoHotkey is also easy to learn for novice programmers. The supplied to the programming documentation includes a tutorial and examples for each command complete program or at least concrete applications.

Areas of application

AutoHotkey is intended to automate repetitive tasks. With AHK scripts, you can, for example,

With AutoHotkey both system-wide and program-specific keyboard shortcuts and functions can be assigned. So you can, for example,

  • The keyboard layout as desired change,
  • Call by pressing a key websites ( regardless of whether the browser is active)
  • Hotstrings (AHK - term for self-defined abbreviations ) replace text entries automatically by another (usually longer ) text.

Advanced users can create graphical user interfaces with AutoHotkey (GUI) that work with regular expressions ( PCRE ) or directly accessing Windows DLLs or application programs.

Special

It is possible to compile AutoHotkey scripts into standalone executable programs. These programs can thus be run on Windows computers without AutoHotkey installed. A suitable compiler is part of the AutoHotkey program package. Scripts as well as compiled programs are intended by the developer license and are therefore likely to be sold as stand-alone programs. In the compilation process can specify a password (up to version 1.1). In order for the program before reconverting simple in source code ( decompiling ) can be protected, as long as the password is not known. However, such protection it does not correspond to a binary compiled program. In order not to give this false impression (from version 1.1) no longer support newer versions of the password protection.

In the package there are still the tools

  • Car Scriptwriter, a macro recorder. It registers keystrokes, mouse clicks and identifies the currently active window. He puts these actions into an executable AHK script that can be played back later at a higher speed.
  • AU3_Spy, extensive information about the currently active window supplies (window title, window text, button names, contents of input fields, etc.). The information often help in the identification, evaluation and control of windows / dialogs.

AutoHotkey program examples

This script will display Hello world! in a MessageBox from:

MsgBox Hello world! The script starts the Notepad program waits until the window is active and type there Hello world! a:

MfG :: :: Sincerely Output of some system information in a user-defined surface:

The programmer Chris Mallett began work on AutoHotkey in 2003. Reason for this was that his desired hotkey support for the then standing under the GNU General Public License Program AutoIt2 at that time did not exist and was not planned.

Version 1.0 of AutoHotkey was published in February 2004. AutoHotkey can AutoIt2 scripts to run, and about 40 AutoHotkey commands are based directly on the source code of AutoIt. Some AutoHotkey enclosed utility programs (including the compiler ) are also from AutoIt.

AutoIt is now no longer an open source program more.

On 10 October 2010 the developer Chris Mallet stated that he would AutoHotkey no longer actively developed. He had lost interest because, in contrast to other active developers, the scripting language never wanted to expand to a fully equipped programming language. On the download page now is a direct development, which was developed by some members of the community, offered as a download for AutoHotkey. This official successor named AutoHotkey 1.1 and offers 64bit support also includes support for Unicode, arrays, and objects. The original version, now called AutoHotkey Basic, does not have these advanced functionalities.

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