Alt+U started producing € sign

Question

For a long time I have been using Right Alt+U as a shortcut for starting an application in my OS. It's the one where you type the name of an app in the Start menu, open Properties and under Keyboard shortcut you bind a key to it (e.g. http://imgsrv.worldstart.com/shutdown_keyboard_shortcut_2.jpg).

But recently it stopped working for no apparent reason (I haven't changed anything). Today I found out that when I press Right Alt+U in any text editor/field it produces a euro sign: €. I don't know if it also did that before when my shortcut worked (i.e. launched my app).

My question is: how do I make my keyboard shortcut work again (i.e. start an app)?

Answer 1

Since you stated that you use Polish Programmer keyboard layout, it is by default that AltGr+U produces the euro sign.

Source: http://eurosymbol.eu/keyboard & https://superuser.com/a/848007/481708\

As for why it changed, you might have pressed Left Alt + Shift or other combination that changed your input language accidentally and reset it to the default input for AltGr+U instead of your custom shortcut. Or as others stated it might have been a system update. I guess you should just choose a shortcut that does not conflict with those already assigned by the system, just to be safe that it won't be reset. A tool like ActiveHotkey(http://www.tranglos.com/activehotkeys/) would help view those already assigned.

Answer 2

Right-Alt was since always the AltGr key, defined by Wikipedia as:

a modifier key found on some computer keyboards and is primarily used to type characters that are unusual for the locale of the keyboard layout, such as currency symbols and accented letters.

On the keyboard layouts I tested it on, it gave : English UK - ú, English US and French - beep.

Evidently something changed in your keyboard layout definition, but I don't believe it's worthwhile finding out what, because it can just come back. It this was the result of a Windows Update, then this is a lost cause.

To ensure that this key combination will always work, no matter what is the keyboard layout, I suggest to download and install AutoHotkey, the ultimate keyboard macro utility. You could create a a AutoHotkey script in your Startup folder, for example C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\AutoHotkey startup.ahk, and store inside the following mapping for Right-Alt+u to run your program:

RAlt & u::
Run, "\path\to\your\program.exe"
return