Hi there,

I have a MS Ergonomic 4000 keyboard which has a few media keys on it. I used their software to make 2 arrow keys, which are default for back and forward in a browser, to navigate tracks. However they don't work when I have foobar minimized to tray. This works with winamp, which leads me to believe that either I missed a setting somewhere or this has not been implemented yet. Any ideas?

Thanks

Using the keyboard's software to set up the shortcuts is a crapshoot. You're better off configuring foobar2000 to handle it itself, if you're not already.

1. This thread seems to be about a quite similar problem.

2. When (almost) any key combination is pressed in Windows, it is first sent to the active windows. If it isn't used by them, it's checked whether any other application has registered it as its global hotkey. If not either, it's sent to Windows Explorer to do some default action (adjustable in registry for basic "multimedia keys").
The important part is that only one window ("application") can register a particular hotkey at once, otherwise the first one wins (or the behavior is unspecified, at least). This exclusivity was the cause of all but one "multimedia keys problems" I've ever seen.
You might try looking around which other application has registered the hotkeys you want first.

(3. That thing in the lower right corner is not called "tray", fyi.)

Ahh, I managed to figure it out. Foobar wasn't registering the keypress because itype.exe was intercepting it first. So I couldn't bind it using Foobar. The solution was to kill itype for a second, and then register the keys. It still works with itype running as well. Thanks for the help

EDIT: Yes, I found that exact topic just now Thing is, I needed itype to run as well for some of the other shortcuts I used. There might be some alternative software out there though, who knows. I should try to find some.

It isn't called the system tray? I can't remember any program calling it anything else but that, other than notification area I guess..

i actually thought it was system tray too, but decided to search and found:
link

I guess one of the reasons why it's still much prevalent is that it isn't so "notification" area any more. It was originally meant for important icons notifying you of temporary things, like a new email message, available updates, temporarily connected device, etc.

In X/*nix systems, users usually run applications they need to have running, but not visible, on additional desktops. In Windows, this is not possible, so the software authors found a way to clean the working screen another way - by "minimizing them to tr... notification area".

So the "notification area" became rather just "the place with those small icons, you know, when you don't want them to clutter your taskbar" and nobody cares much about the notification function. And yes, the argument what is easier to pronounce and write stands well too, however let's honour the wish of the people who actually created that thing.

Hello

Is it possible to define a mouse button as a (global) hotkey? I got 8(!) buttons on my mouse and don't know what to do with them. To control foobar2000 with them, would be very nice.