Unix shortcuts on Windows (ctrl-P ctrl-N ctrl-F ...)

Question

I recently switched my habits to use the keyboard most of the time. Many times I use those commands in the title to avoid using the arrow keys. I even installed a vim-like chrome extension, and realized that those commands work in my macbook on every application (or most of them).

For example when I start typing on the chrome/firefox address bar and suggestions are shown, I can quickly select between them (ctrl+ p and n), fill the line (ctrl +f) or delete the line (ctrl +u). It became a very useful habit for me.

Recently I need to come back to windows with one computer and none of those work out of the linux-subsystem-for-windows's bash shell. I feel very weird working without those shortcuts.

Is there a way to activate them?

Answer 1

You can use AutoHotkey to make Ctrl+P send Up, Ctrl+N send Down and Ctrl+U send Shift+Delete only in Chrome (or everywhere). I don't know what "fill the line" means so I can't say what the corresponding shortcut for it is on Windows.

Here is an AutoHotkey script for doing so:

#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1

^p::Up
^n::Down
^u::Send +{Delete}

Just install the program and put this code in a .ahk file, then run the file.

To have it make the replacement everywhere, remove the first line.

Similarly you can make replacements for the rest of the shortcuts you want (you need to find their corresponding shortcuts on Windows first though).

Some relevant entries from the documentation of AutoHotkey:

• A list of keys
• Modifier keys
• IfWinActive

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Note: the reason the third line in the script is different from the first two (uses Send instead of just listing the new key combination) is that if you do it like the others, i.e.:

^u::+Delete

then when you press Ctrl+U, indeed Shift+Delete is sent to the application but the Ctrl you're holding down to do it is still taken into account, so you actually get Ctrl+Shift+Delete, which would open the Clear Browsing Data window instead of deleting a line from the address bar suggestions.