Determine application consuming hotkey

Question

I have run into a very strange problem. I have a mouse with programmable keys (Logitech G700s) and I wanted to set one of the keys to be Play/Pause. However this didn't work and the reason why it didn't work seemed to be that some other application (I'll refer to this application as X) was consuming the hotkey. I can verify this since I can hold a modifier key (such as Ctrl or Alt) and press the key and it will work (as in the hotkey will not be consumed by X) and it will actually play or pause my music.

This is where things get strange. This hotkey seems to only be consumed by X while certain applications are active. So far I've tested that the hotkey is consumed by X when Chrome or Desktop is active. The hotkey is not consumed by X when Task Manager or CCleaner is active.

I have tried to identify X by using Hotkey Commander/Hotkey Explorer but the problem is that the hotkey is not being consumed by X when Hotkey Commander/Hotkey Explorer is active! So Hotkey Commander/Hotkey Explorer assumes that nothing is consuming this hotkey.

If anyone have any ideas on how I might track this application down that would be great. Thanks!

Computer details: Lenovo Y510P laptop Windows 8.1 x64

Answer 1

I found the culprit! Who would have thought it was actually Google Chrome (or more specifically Google Play Music extension) that was behind hijacking the multimedia hotkeys. After removing these hotkeys by following these steps, my hotkey bindings are now working perfectly.