How can I remap a tablet hardware key to alt-tab?

My issue is that there's no way to alt-tab on a tablet running W8 Pro (NOT RT) when I'm in a full screen desktop application. I want to remap my screen orientation hardware key to Alt-Tab. However, the problem here is that its scan code, E0_5B, is shared with the scan code for the hardware key for the Windows key. How can I remap the screen orientation key to alt-tab while retaining the functionality of the Windows key?

Edit: Before anyone brings this up, tablet buttons is not supported.

Lunyx

Posted 2013-02-07T20:05:23.000

Reputation: 483

2The Scancode Map REG_BINARY value under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout (which you can edit easily using programs such as SharpKeys) only lets you remap single keys. IMO you'll need AHK or similar for this. – Karan – 2013-02-07T22:38:15.517

Seems like you're right on that part. I tried checking the mapping for 00_A5 and it actually maps to 'K'. Apart from that, I'm still having trouble distinguishing the two hardware buttons from one another. The key code for both is the same, so how does Windows distinguish the orientation lock button from the Windows button? – Lunyx – 2013-02-07T23:06:29.453

I'm not too sure about the orientation lock button, but either two different buttons generate different scancodes, or in case of special buttons (such as on multimedia keyboards) the keyboard driver itself handles it and not Windows. – Karan – 2013-02-07T23:08:05.753

@Karan: I suggest you answer this based on AHK. – harrymc – 2013-02-10T08:58:49.657

@harrymc: I would, but first we need to know how exactly to make AHK detect the orientation button, and how to differentiate between it and the Windows key reliably. For all we know this might even require a device–specific solution. – Karan – 2013-02-10T17:04:08.333

@Daniel: How did you find the scan-code for the Windows key and the screen orientation hardware key ? – harrymc – 2013-02-10T18:05:32.423

I used AHK with #InstallKeybdHook to determine what the key was, and it turned out to be LWin. Resulting output for key history was KeyDown LWin KeyUp LWin for both. – Lunyx – 2013-02-11T03:38:14.340

In that case you would need a solution at the level of the keyboard driver. It's unlikely that one exists. – harrymc – 2013-02-13T21:55:58.643

How can I remap a tablet hardware key to alt-tab?

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