WINDOWS-AHK

A simple and intuitive AutoHotKey script designed to enhance Windows shortcuts and improve your workflow.

Note

Why WINDOWS-AHK?

Do you often find yourself repeating small, tedious tasks—like:

• switching between apps (quite frequently),
• copying text, pasting it into a browser, just to search,
• checking the calendar just to type today's date,
• changing text case (lowercase, UPPER, or Title Case),
• or typing the same responses over and over?

This project helps eliminate those micro-frustrations by automating repetitive actions—so you spend less time on busywork and more time on what matters.

🚀 Features

Here are some of the features WINDOWS-AHK offers:

• 🔄 Application switcher: Launch or toggle between apps using function keys (customizable).
• 📁 File Explorer power-shortcuts: Instantly Open file explorer or navigate to folders like Downloads, Music, or open VS Code in the current directory.
• 🧠 Hotstrings & snippets: Type /date, /addr, etc., to expand text dynamically (customizable).
• 🔤 Text case transformers: Change selected text to uppercase, lowercase, or title case instantly.
• 🔍 Quick search: Search any selected text directly in your browser.
• 🖥️ Presentation / stay awake: Toggle Windows Presentation Mode where available; on Home and similar editions, a stay-awake fallback keeps the system from idling to sleep while the script runs.
• 🧩 Customizable: Change actions, hotkeys, and text expansions via configuration file — no code needed!

Learn more about AutoHotKey

AutoHotkey is a free and open-source scripting language for Windows, originally designed to create custom keyboard shortcuts, automate tasks, and perform fast macro-creation. It empowers users of all skill levels to automate repetitive tasks in Windows applications.

• Official Website: autohotkey.com
• Download AutoHotkey: autohotkey.com/download

📖 Usage

CAUTION!
THESE SCRIPTS TEND TO BE VERY ADDICTIVE.

Option 1

✅ Recommended

1. Download windows-ahk-setup-v3.x.exe from the latest releases.
2. Run the installer
3. Done!

Prefer the installer over WINDOWS_AHK.exe (portable/advanced use only).

Note

Please note: You are likely to encounter a Windows SmartScreen warning when launching windows_ahk.exe for the first time. This is a common behavior for executables that aren't digitally signed or widely downloaded.

To proceed: Click "More info" on the warning screen. Then click "Run anyway".

Option 2

☑️ Ideal for users who prefer not to run .exe files or want to tweak the script

1. Download and install AutoHotKey v2 from autohotkey.com/download.
2. Clone this repository and navigate to the windows-ahk/ directory.
3. Run the WINDOWS.ahk script. That’s it!

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

Explore the available keyboard shortcuts in keyboardshortcuts.md or download the keyboardshortcuts.pdf.

🛠️ Customize Your Experience

You can personalize the script by editing config.ini (for function key behaviors and hotstrings). To do so after launching the script:

1. Right-click the tray icon → Preferences (or press Alt + F1)
2. Click Open config folder or Edit config file
3. Edit as needed, guidelines can be found on the config file itself or in keyboardshortcuts.md
4. Save changes and reload the script

🔄 Updates

• In-app auto-update is for the compiled exe build only (not WINDOWS.ahk source mode).
• Open Preferences and click Check for updates.
• If a newer release is found, click Install update.
• The app downloads the latest installer, launches it, and closes the current process so upgrade can complete.
• Your config stays in %AppData%\windows-ahk\config.ini, so settings are preserved.

Keyboard shortcuts PDF

• assets/keyboardshortcuts.pdf is not generated in CI. When you change keyboardshortcuts.md, update the PDF yourself (any Markdown→PDF workflow you prefer) and commit assets/keyboardshortcuts.pdf so installs and release builds include it.

📂 Project Structure

• WINDOWS.ahk – Main script
• assets/ – Icons, screenshots, and media
• keyboardshortcuts.md – Keyboard shortcuts documentation
• keyboardshortcuts.pdf – PDF version of shortcuts
• config.ini – User configuration (generated after first run)
• version.txt – App version source used by updater/build
• installer/ – Inno Setup script for no-admin per-user install
• scripts/build-release.ps1 – Local release build script (exe + installer)

🔗 Additional Resources

• 🔍 AutoHotKey Documentation
• 📜 AutoHotkey Script Showcase – Discover scripts created by different authors that showcase AutoHotkey's capabilities.
• 🛠️ Skrommel's One Hour Software – More useful scripts and utilities.
• 📄 md2pdf by @realdennis - Offline markdown to PDF converter.

💬 Join us on Discord

at discord.gg/a2NyrV6PBY to connect with other Windows AHK users and get support.

Join our Discord server!

📜 License

Copyleft (ↄ) 2025 Bibek Aryal

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3). You are free to use, modify, and distribute the code under the terms of this license.

See the LICENSE file for full details.

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Made with ❤️ by Bibek Aryal.