Shortcuts in an operating system or application can make or break the user experience, and frustratingly, Windows certainly has a lot you probably won't use. Luckily, there is a free, open-source app that lets you customize almost every single shortcut in Windows and most apps.
What is PowerToys?
Microsoft's PowerToys are an open-source collection of utilities available for Windows. By default, PowerToys comes packaged with more than 20 different tools that do everything from allowing you to rename files and resize images to offering a complete replacement for the Windows Start Menu.
The majority of the features are basic quality of life things, like Mouse Highlighter, which allows you to double-tap a key to show you where your cursor is.
However, one tool in particular, Keyboard Manager, has improved how I use my PC.
What does Keyboard Manager do?
Keyboard Manager is an open-source utility that lets you change what individual keys or shortcuts do when you press them.
You can set them to open individual apps, send keystrokes as if you pressed a key, open websites, and more.
Keyboard Manager isn't the only program that can do this sort of thing—most software suites for enthusiast keyboards can do it too. However, the quality of those applications vary widely, and there is no guarantee it'll work correctly. In the time I've used it, Keyboard Manager has never once crashed or failed to work exactly as expected.
I used keyboard manager to fix annoying shortcuts
Microsoft has been pushing Copilot out to nearly every Windows PC out there, and when they did that, they added a new hotkey: Windows+C. Unless you go to the trouble of disabling it, Windows+C will open Copilot by default.
Even if you remove Copilot, pressing Windows+C will bring up the Settings menu and pester you about binding that shortcut to something. I didn't realize how frequently I accidentally hit Windows+C instead of Ctrl+C when I went to copy something.
Thankfully, Keyboard Manager lets me rebind Windows+C to anything I want. Since I found that I was regularly hitting the wrong key combination to copy, I rebound Windows+C to Ctrl+C.
Add any productivity shortcuts
I have primarily used Keyboard Manager to remove nuisance shortcuts, but you aren't limited to that.
Adding shortcuts to apps
One of the standout features of Keyboard Manager is the ability to create app specific shortcuts or keybinds. That means you can have Windows+C do one thing in one app, but something completely different in another.
So far, my favorite rebind is specific to Chrome, which is the browser I use for work. I do most of my writing in a separate app (Joplin), but I always want to be sure that everything I paste into Chrome is free of formatting. So, I rebound Ctrl+V to Ctrl+Shift+V (paste without formatting) in Chrome only. Now I can just press Ctrl+V without thinking or worrying about it.
Another example that I use frequently is the emdash. By default on Windows 11, you can press Windows+- to insert an emdash, but for some reason, that shortcut doesn't stick in my head. Instead, I used Keyboard Manager to rebind the subtraction key on the numpad to insert an emdash instead.
If you're still on Windows 10, Windows+- doesn't insert an emdash, so you'll need to use "Send Text" instead of "Send Key/Shortcut," however you'll probably find it even more useful, since this is the most convenient way to add an emdash in Windows 10.
Remap useless shortcuts to helpful ones
Windows has more shortcuts than you'd expect, and I don't use the overwhelming majority of them. Windows+C opens Copilot by default, Windows+K opens the Connect menu, which lets you cast your PC's screen to supported devices on the network. By default, Windows+J opens *Recall*, which is an application I literally never want to use.
Instead, I rebound them to things I find more useful. I use the app Joplin constantly for drafting articles, writing down ideas, and my notes while conducting research. So, I rebound Windows+J to open Joplin instead.
If you wanted to, you can even pass special arguments to the program so it launches in a particular way. If I used multiple Chrome profiles, I'd definitely consider binding each Chrome profile to a specific hotkey.
I have Windows+K bound to open Slack, which I use for work, and Windows+D bound to open Discord, which is the application I use to keep up with most of my friends.
The Keyboard Manager is intelligent enough that it even lets you configure what you want to happen if something goes wrong with the shortcut. For example, if I press Windows+D while Discord is already running, it just maximizes the app. You can have it do nothing, close the window, end the task, or launch another instance.
Keyboard Manager is only one of the fantastic utilities available in PowerToys. If you're not using them already, you definitely should be–they're so useful that they should all be integrated into the operating system by default.
