How to Create a New Hot Key for a Dell Inspiron
Windows Hotkeys are useful for quickly completely a task. Instead of using your mouse and clicking on the appropriate buttons, you can use keyboard combinations. For example, pressing the "Ctrl" and "C" buttons on your keyboard will copy any highlight text or file; that is much faster than right-clicking on the information and selecting the "Copy" option or using the application's "Edit" menu. Unfortunately, Microsoft does not provide a way to create custom hotkeys from within Windows. However, the free Keyboard Tweaker is an easy-to-use application that allows you to manage and create custom keyboard shortcuts.
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Instructions
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Open your Internet Browser and navigate to the Keyboard Tweaker download page (see References).
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Click the "Download" icon next to the "Keyboard Tweaker" entry.
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Double-click the file once the download has completed. The file is a ZIP archive, which means that you must extract the installation file before you can use it.
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Click the "Browse" button and click the "Desktop" button.
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Click "Extract."
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Close the file.
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Go to your computer's desktop and double-click the new Keyboard Tweaker installation file.
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Follow the on-screen directions to install the program.
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Click "OK" when the installation has finished.
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Click your Start menu and open the Keyboard Tweaker application from the Programs menu.
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Click the "Hotkeys" tab.
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Scroll through the list of pre-installed hotkey functions and locate one you would like to implement. Alternatively, you can change one of the hotkeys to do something entirely different by changing the "Execute" option.
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Highlight the hotkey you want to edit by single-clicking on it. For this example, we will use the "Volume Up" option.
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Check the box labeled "Enabled," located under the "Properties" heading.
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Check which key want to press in order to start the hotkey ("Alt," "Control" or "Shift"). Alternatively, you can leave each of these options blank if you want the function keys to automatically execute this command without the use of a "starter key." For our example, we will leave this area blank.
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Choose the keyboard button you want to use by selecting it from the "key" box--for example, F12.
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Click the "Apply" button.
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Close the Keyboard Tweaker application by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner.
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Press the keyboard combination you chose to test its functionality. For our example, we choose to force the F12 key to raise the volume on the computer. Pressing F12 will now increase the volume.
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Tips & Warnings
Note that this program must be running at all times for the custom hotkeys to work. If the application is closed, the keys will cease their functionality. You can tell if it is running or not by locating a small "smiley face" icon in the taskbar next to the computer's clock. Clicking the "X" in the application does not close the program completely. Keyboard Tweaker does not use many system resources, so it will not slow down your computer.
