When we work daily with our Windows-based team , what we often seek is to be able to get the most out of the system. This will help us to gain productivity, for which it can be very helpful to automate certain tasks, actions or behaviors. For this we can use various third-party solutions, such as AutoHotkey, a program that we are going to talk about now.
To start, we are going to tell you that this is a program that, depending on the knowledge we have in programming , we will get more or less from it.
Utility and advantages of AutoHotkey in Windows
At first we could say that we are dealing with a script editor that will allow us, with some programming knowledge, to automate Windows tasks. But of course, with the passage of time and versions, this is an application that has not stopped evolving. In this way, at this point we could almost say that it has become a complete programming environment .
And it has evolved in such a way that right now it even allows us to create applications with it. But as we say, it also presents us with everything necessary to create individual scripts to automate certain default Windows actions.
Of course, for all this it is recommended to have some previous programming knowledge. The potential that we can extract from AutoHotkey , to a great extent will depend on this knowledge that we have. Now, putting it into operation is not at all complicated, as we will see below.
Installation of the program in Windows
As we mentioned, there has come a point where this is not just a platform to run scripts. The new version of the software at this moment already becomes a complete individual scripting language. This will allow us to create our own solutions suitable for the needs that interest us most in each case.
In this way and by typing a little code, from here we can automate anything we normally do on the Windows desktop. That is why below we are going to show you the easiest way to start working with the program as such. Thus, with some prior knowledge of code, we will be able to create scripts to convert any multi-step process in Windows, in a single keystroke .
How to download AutoHotkey for free
At this point, we must first download and install AutoHotkey from its official site. Thus, from our favorite browser , we connect to the official website of its developers . Of course, among all the versions that we are going to find here, we recommend that you opt for the link that says Download Current Version, which is the latest version released.
We tell you this because it is better to ignore the other two options to download. One of them is incompatible with existing scripts, while the first one is old and very limited.
How to launch and use AutoHotkey on your computer
After installation, AutoHotkey will have been registered as the default application for files with the AHK extension . This is why it works as an executable, since AutoHotkey itself will analyze these files, which correspond to scripts created in real time, and execute their content. Of course, those files in AHK format are scripts, so we can open them with any text editor.
Once installed, we can either start up directly, or we can take a look at the complete tutorial it presents. This is something that will be very helpful to us if it is the first time that we are going to use this scripting platform and to see all the functionalities and commands that we can use.
To start with our first script, we create a new folder, for example on the Windows desktop, and then click on it with the right mouse button. Thus, in the contextual menu that appears, we will have the opportunity to select the New / AutoHotkey Script option.
But to start working with all this, in this case instead of double-clicking on the .AHK file that we have created, we click on it again with the right button. Thus, in this case we select the Edit option to access its initial content. In the same way we can already start typing the code corresponding to the script we want to create. That is why we recommend that you previously have some programming knowledge, or take a look at the tutorial.
Say that we can edit these .AHK files in any text editor , everything will depend on their level of complexity. To say that here one of the best and most complete solutions that we can use is Notepad ++ .
Of course, for the simplest scripts, Notepad that includes Windows itself will suffice.