Unable to use Win+C as a hotkey in Windows 7

[robinsiebler]

Does anyone know anything about this? I have cm_CompareFilesByContent bound to Win+c. On my XP machine, this works fine, but when I try it in Win 7, it does not work. I searched the web, but couldn't find anything.

[umbra]

Confirmed. However, WIN+C is supposed to open a Control Panel. You can't override it in TC, just like you can't override other global shortcuts, like WIN+SPACE, WIN+X, ...

BTW, for some reason, WIN+C is not opening a control panel on my PC - it does nothing. Other global shortcuts are working fine. (but this is not TC's fault)

[MVV]

You can't override registered hotkeys, and Win+C is registered by Explorer. You should use all Win+Hotkeys with caution.

[Aezay]

I'm using Win7 and I got my Win+C bound to "Pause" in foobar2k without any issues. Maybe the reason it is blocked for some, is because of Aero, I have that disabled.

[ghisler(Author)]

Maybe foobar2000 has defined a system-wide hotkey for it? Then it will not work in other programs.

[Aezay]

Oh yeah, it is a system registered hotkey, but it was claimed earlier in this thread that Windows has the control panel registered on Win+C as a global hotkey, and that I am not experiencing, as I can easily use this hotkey combination in my programs.

What I meant to say in a more simple way is this: Win+C is not registered by Explorer, at least I am not seeing that. So if the OP has problems registering Win+C for his needs, something else must have registered this combo, not Windows.

[petermad]

According to this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449 Win+C should only work when Intellitype is installed. I don't have Intellitype installed in my Windows 7, but still I cannot use Win+C as a shortcut in TC - and I don't have any other programs running which remaps the keyboard.

I cannot remap Win+V and Win+P either, but I can remap the other Intellitype connected keys like Win+A and Win+S.

I cannot remap the standard Win combinations Win+R, Win+M, Win+E, Win+F and Win+D, but that is not so surprising.

So the mystery is why Microsoft let some of those Intellitype connected Win+key combinations be open for remapping and others not.

[umbra]

Win+C should only work when Intellitype is installed.

Yes, I forgot about that. But while I have it installed, the shortcut doesn't work for me at all.

I cannot remap Win+V and Win+P either

Win+P is a standard shortcut (in Win 7) for choosing a display mode, if you have more than one monitor.
However Win+C, Win+H and Win+V don't seem to be registered to anything, yet you cannot associate them with any application (again in Win 7, at least according to Google). If this is true, then it's not a bug in TC, but some weird behavior of Windows.

[MaxX]

Why do you like winkey so much?
"Alt" is much better instead it.

[umbra]

Why do you like winkey so much?
"Alt" is much better instead it.

I agree. Win+something should be associated only to Windows. Especially now - in Win 8, Microsoft is changing many of its Ctrl/Shift/Alt shortcuts to Win+something (for example, you cannot change a keyboard layout by left Alt+Shift anymore, you have to use Win+Space).

[Aezay]

Why do you like winkey so much?
"Alt" is much better instead it.

I agree. Win+something should be associated only to Windows. <snip>

I disagree. I've often bound certain global hotkeys to the Windows key, such as in foobar2k I have WIN+ZXCVN set to prev/play/pause/stop/next. I would hate to lose this functionality. If I were not allowed to use the Windows key for this, and had to use let's say ALT+SHIFT+ZXCVN, I would run the risk of that particular hotkey combination clashing with one of the programs I use.