Launching a Windows application sometimes become a hectic job when you don’t have a Desktop and Start Menu shortcut. You need to find out the directory where the application is installed and find out the executable to run the application. One of the best possible ways is to assign keyboard shortcuts.
There is a lot of applications that allow the user to launch them using shortcuts. It is very easy to assign shortcuts and customize the Hotkeys every time you want. It is a built-in functionality of Windows to assign keyboard shortcuts.
The procedure is very simple and works for almost all the Windows versions. It works with both the desktop and UWP apps by following a few simple steps.
Adding Hotkeys for Desktop Applications
- Find out the application shortcut on the desktop.
- If the desktop shortcut is not available, find the application in the “Program Files” and right click on the application executable and Send to > Desktop (Create Shortcut).
- Right click on the desktop shortcut and open properties.
- In the “Shortcut” tab, add shortcut key and click Apply button.
Adding Hotkeys for UWP Applications
- Find the EXE for UWP apps from the Start Menu and go to the Apps list. Once you find the app to create a shortcut for, drag and drop the application executable on the desktop to create a shortcut.
- Rest of the procedure is same choose the Properties from the Shortcut context menu and click on the shortcut key field. Add the shortcut keys i.e. Hotkeys for the application then click Apply.