KeyboardLink 1.1

Publisher's description of KeyboardLink

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KeyboardLink is an open source shortcut launcher software for Windows. Using KeyboardLink, you can easily run and control your media player, launch Notepad, Calculator, MS Paint, Wordpad and Microsoft Office. In addition, you can control your computer's master sound setting.

Features: Easily run Notepad, WordPad, Paint, Calculator; Launch and control Windows Media Player, iTunes, Winamp, Nero ShowTime, QuickTime and GOM Player; Launch Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Netscape Web browsers; KeyboardLink can automatically select installed Web browser; Launch Microsoft Office (Support for XP, 2003 and 2007) applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access); KeyboardLink can automatically select installed Office programs; Easy to change shortcut keys.; Start with windows ability; and Control master volume (Up, Down, Mute). This version is the first release on CNET Download.com.

See more CNET content tagged:

media player,

Microsoft Office,

Web browser,

open source,

Microsoft Corp.

Editor's review of KeyboardLink

KeyboardLink is a great little tool for turning your standard Windows keyboard into not just a program launcher, but a program controller, as well. Open source and using a scant 3MB of RAM, getting started requires configuring the activation keys, called the Master Keys, in the program's General features tab. Users can set one or two master keys, an important feature that prevents you from accidentally launching a program. Other basics, such as running the app when Windows starts, also live in the General tab.

The second tab controls your media player. Here you can set basic track and volume controls. You can also check off a box that supersedes your default media player and controls whichever media player is currently running. The Software tab is where most of the action is, though, with hot-key commands for Notepad, Calculator, your Web browser, media player, MS Paint, and WordPad. For the Web browser and media player, users can specify which program they want the hot key to activate. It'd be nice to see future versions of KeyboardLink extend this feature to more program types.

The Office and System tabs control more generic functions: global volume, mute, emptying the recycle bin, launching the screen saver, and the Microsoft Office suite. The only problems are that it can't be configured to recognize other applications and launch them, and the installer is a ZIP file, not self-extracting. Nevertheless, KeyboardLink is a must-have for power users who hate repeatedly jumping over to the mouse.

User reviews of KeyboardLink

• Average user rating: out of 4 votes
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  KeyboardLink

  Exactly what it says...and nothing more.

  by: rundmv on 01-Apr-2008 03:28:55 AM

  Pros: It is easy to install and understand. It gives you the ability to open up the programs listed above with a hotkey.

  Cons: ONLY the programs listed above can be opened with hotkeys. I guess I was looking for a program that would let me set hotkeys up for the programs I wanted. This is not that program. There is nothing wrong with the software itself, however.

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  KeyboardLink

  Beware of Trojan Horse.

  by: saasira on 13-Jul-2008 04:35:57 AM

  Cons: Comodo Anti Virus reported a Trojan.Win32.AutoHK.I

  COMODO BO Clean Report : DRP-AGENT.SBC VARIANT STOPPED BY BOCLEAN!

  Trojan horse was found in memory.

  DOWNLOADS\KEYBOARDLINK_V1.1\KEYBOARDLINK.EXE contained the trojan.

  Active trojan horse WAS shut down. System safe.

  But strangely, Avast did not detect any thing suspicious.

  I request the CNET Administrators to thoroughly scan this once again.

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  KeyboardLink

  awesome product

  by: rrg123 on 18-Mar-2008 07:11:43 AM

  Pros: quick and easy, very easy to understand

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