AutoHotkey - brilliant tool that can make your life easier
About a year ago after reading a blog post by Maciej Aniserowicz Nie będziesz brał myszki, wroga swego, nadaremno I decided to install and try a variety of tools that he describes there. I was playing with VistaSwitcher, Launchy and AutoHotKey.
After I installed AHK, I decided to use it for some simple tasks I repeat every day that are easy to script.
I searched a little in the depths of the internet and started to create a new script. I put shortcuts there to most frequently run applications, shortcuts to files that I often edit and commands that I run from time to time in CMD.
I created something like this:
#z:: ; WIN+Z
Input, userKey, I, {Enter}
; RUN
if userKey = rvs1 ; RUN - VISUAL STUDIO 2012 - PROJECT 1
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe C:\pathtoprojects\Proj1.sln
else if userKey = rvs2 ; RUN - VISUAL STUDIO 2012 - PROJECT 2
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe C:\pathtoprojects\Proj2.sln
else if userKey = rdp ; RUN - DOT PEAK
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\JetBrains\dotPeek\v1.1\Bin\dotPeek64.exe
else if userKey = rssms ; RUN - SQL SERVER MANAGEMENT STUDIO
Run ssms
else if userKey = rnpp ; RUN - NOTEPAD ++
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe
; EDIT FILE
else if userKey = efhosts ; EDIT FILE - HOSTS
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
else if userKey = efahks ; EDIT FILE - AUTO HOT KEY SCRIPT
Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\notepad++.exe C:\pathtoyourscript.ahk
; COMMAND
else If userKey = crap ; COMMAND - RECYCLE APP POOLS
Run %systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe recycle apppool /apppool.name:".NET v4.5"
else if userKey = crahks ; COMMAND - RELOAD AUTO HOT KEY SCRIPT
Reload
else if userKey = rcmd
Run cmd
return
I push WIN+Z and then type rvs1 and hit enter then Visual Studio starts with an open project on which I work for a long time.
The cool thing is that I set the script to run with elevated privileges, so all commands in it run with administrator rights. Thanks to this Visual Studio or hosts.etc file opens correctly.
I encourage you to play with the AHK and read materials on the wiki because this tool is much more powerful than I show you here.
