How to Use AHK Scripts (for Windows 10 & 11)

• Install AutoHotKey (v2 Dual-Runtime Recommended):
  • Install AutoHotkey v2 via Official Installer or PowerShell:

    winget install AutoHotkey.AutoHotkey

  • The AHK v2 installer automatically sets up the AutoHotkey Launcher, which seamlessly runs both v1 and v2 scripts side-by-side based on the #Requires directive at the top of each script.
• Version Directives (#Requires):
  • Legacy scripts in AllScripts/ use #Requires AutoHotkey v1.1 to ensure the launcher uses the v1 interpreter without breaking functionality.
  • Any new scripts can use #Requires AutoHotkey v2.0 to take advantage of modern v2 features.
• Add the scripts directory to StartupScript.ahk to run all scripts at once.
• Local Custom Paths: Copy local_paths.ahk.example to local_paths.ahk in the root directory to define your machine-specific paths (e.g. custom courses or scripts). local_paths.ahk is automatically ignored by Git to keep your folder structure private.
• Personal Keywords & Privacy: Copy AllScripts/PersonalKeywords.ahk.example to AllScripts/PersonalKeywords.ahk to define your private hotstrings, passwords, and shortcuts. PersonalKeywords.ahk is automatically ignored by Git to prevent accidental data leaks.
• Compiled Executables: .exe files are not tracked in Git. Compile StartupScript.ahk locally using Ahk2Exe whenever needed (see section below).

To Create the EXE from Script (with Custom Icon)

Note: Task Scheduler's "AHK Startup Script" task launches the compiled StartupScript.exe, not the .ahk source directly — a source edit alone does not take effect until the exe is rebuilt using one of the methods below.

Method 1: Using the Build Script (Recommended)

.\build_startup_exe.ps1

Rebuilds StartupScript.exe with the correct icon and base binary in one step, and auto-stops any already-running StartupScript.exe first (it locks itself while running, which otherwise makes the compiler fail with "is still running, and needs to be unloaded"). Doesn't relaunch it after building — prints the command to do that when ready.

Method 2: Using Ahk2Exe GUI

1. Right-click any .ahk script (e.g. StartupScript.ahk) in File Explorer and select Compile Script (GUI) (or launch C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe).
2. Source: Select your .ahk script file.
3. Destination: Select the output .exe filename (e.g. StartupScript.exe).
4. Custom Icon (.ico): Click Browse and select your .ico file (e.g. StartupScript.ico).
5. Base Bin: Select the installed AutoHotkeyU64.exe (v1) — not a .bin file on this setup.
6. Compression (Optional): Set the UPX path to upx-3.95-win64\upx.exe for executable compression.
7. Click Convert. Stop any already-running StartupScript.exe first (Task Manager), same reason as Method 1.

Method 3: Using Command Line

Run the following command in PowerShell / CMD to compile with a custom icon:

& "C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\Compiler\Ahk2Exe.exe" /in "AllScripts\StartupScript.ahk" /out "AllScripts\StartupScript.exe" /icon "StartupScript.ico" /base "C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey\AutoHotkeyU64.exe" /silent verbose

/silent verbose is required when running non-interactively (e.g. from a script) — without it, Ahk2Exe opens its GUI compiler window instead of compiling directly and does nothing.

Watchdog: auto-relaunch an app if it crashes or closes

AllScripts\Watchdog.ahk (one of the scripts StartupScript.ahk launches at boot) polls a configurable list of apps and relaunches any that aren't running. Fully generic — it has no knowledge of which apps it watches; that lives entirely in local_paths.ahk, so real paths never end up in a tracked file.

To watch an app, add one entry to WATCHDOG_APPS in local_paths.ahk (see local_paths.ahk.example for the placeholder form):

WATCHDOG_APPS := [{name: "SomeApp.exe", path: "C:\Path\To\SomeApp.exe"}]

Multiple entries are just more array items. Nothing else needs to change — Watchdog.ahk itself never needs editing to add or remove a watched app.

Reacts to any exit (crash or deliberate close) — there's no reliable way from outside the process to tell the two apart, so closing a watched app normally will bring it back within one poll interval (CheckIntervalMs in Watchdog.ahk, 10s by default). This replaced an earlier attempt using Task Scheduler's RestartOnFailure setting, which was measured to correctly detect a crash's failure exit code but never actually queue a restart — unreliable in practice, not just here.

Working Hotkeys

• BRIGHTNESS

  Key	Usage
  F1	Set Current +5 Brightness
  Shift+F1	Set Current -5 Brightness
  Ctrl+PgDn	Push Brightness Extremes Down -10
  Ctrl+PgUp	Push Brightness Extremes Up +10

• BASIC TASKS

  Key	Usage
  Win+Del	Empty Recycle Bin
  Win+C	Run Calculator
  Win+M	Minimize Active Window
  Win+F	Open FireFox
  Win+F8	Bluetooth On/Off
  Win+Shift+A	Open Notification Center
  Win+Shift+E	(Folder) Open Downloads (Screenshots) Folder
  Win+Shift+J	(Folder) Open Java Course
  Win+Alt+C	Run Alarm Clock
  Win+Alt+N	Clear Notification Center
  Win+Alt+X	(Script) Reconnect Cloudflare Network
  Alt+X	Open Today Calendar in Checker Plus Extension
  Alt+D	Open ChatGPT
  Alt+G	Monica AI Grammar Correction
  Alt+Shift+S	Monica AI Content Summary
  Alt+Shift+T	This Window Always on Top
  Alt+Ctrl+D	Sort Folder Content by Date
  Alt+Ctrl+E	Enable/Disable File Extension
  Alt+Ctrl+H	Enable/Disable Hidden Files
  Alt+Ctrl+MouseLButton	Move Background Apps
  Ctrl+G	Search the Selected/Clipboard Text
  Ctrl+T+T	Open New Tab (In Browser)
  Ctrl+J+J	Close Downloads Bar (In Browser)
  Ctrl+Y+T	Open YouTube (In Browser)
  Ctrl+Shift+V	Browser to Go to Previous Tab When Taking a Screenshot in Awesome Screen Recorder
  Capslock+Capslock	Double Tap to Activate/Deactivate
  MouseLButton	Double Click Functions (Taskbar Show/Hide)

• HOTKEYHELP

  Key	Usage
  Win+F1	Display Help
  Ctrl+F	Find in Hotkey Help
  Win+Ctrl+F1	Excluded Files, Hotkeys, and Hotstrings
  Win+Alt+Ctrl+F1	Raw Hotkey List
  Win+Alt+F1	Settings

• WINDOW STARTUP SCRIPT

  Key	Usage
  Win+ScrollLock	Suspend All Scripts
  Win+Ctrl+Alt+ScrollLock	Terminate All Scripts
  Win+Ctrl+Alt+R	Reload All Scripts
  Win+Ctrl+Alt+W	Run Window Spy Script

• PERSONAL KEYWORDS

  • It's a key-value pair. Type the key in the text field to get its corresponding value.

    Key	Usage
    ValueOfPie	3.141592653589793238

• FORCE CLOSE PROGRAMS

  • For programs that go to the system tray when closed by pressing the close button

    Key	Usage
    Alt+Ctrl+F4	Close All Programs
    Alt+F4	Close Currently Active Screen

Get Installed Apps List and Run Apps

• Get Installed Apps names (Powershell):

  Get-StartApps | Sort-Object Name | Format-Table -Property Name, AppID

• Open the app in AHK:

  Run, shell:AppsFolder\SamsungNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App

License

MIT LICENSE

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❗❗ Reload the script `StartupScript.ahk` after any edit in ".ahk" file 😄

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