Setup a button to open a specific software

[ericsacchetto]

Hi there,

I am trying to implement a button to open a specific software in Windows.

So, pressing a button would open Steam, for example.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe

I am not sure if that is possible or how to do it. Can anyone help me?

Thanks

[chechu2k5]

1. Map your hardware button to generate one of the extended Fn keys
2. use an Autohotkey script to launch the steam exe like so

; press of F13
F13::Run "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe"
return

; press of Shift+F15 will run notepad
+F15::Run "notepad.exe"
return

; press of Win+F14 will send the following text verbatim to the window with focus
#F14:: SendInput {Text}Foobar1000
return

; press of Alt+F24 will kill the process whose window is having focus (that is possibly not responding)
!F24::
    WinGet, PID, PID, % "ahk_id " WinExist("A")
    Process, Close, %PID%
return

Note: Most but not all combinations of F13 through F24 and modifiers Ctrl, Shift, Alt, Win can be used as triggers.
One unusable combination I know of is Win+F16 which triggers a shutdown sequence on Windows 10.