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Is it possible to make a custom keyboard (or use one already made) and assign to each key an application to be launched when the key is pressed?

Something that works like a physical dock (for Mac users) made for example with a custom cherry mx keyboard.

PS. I would be in particular interested in how to do it on a Mac but also Linux or Windows version would be interesting. Thanks

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    Any keyboard macro product will do.
    – harrymc
    Apr 9, 2021 at 9:57
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    youtube.com/watch?v=lIFE7h3m40U starting at 2:40 may be on topic - Famous youtuber Tom Scott did an episode on this. In short - autohotkey.com does this for Windows.
    – davidgo
    Apr 9, 2021 at 10:55
  • One problem with keyboard macros is that you are just using the same keyboard shortcuts available on the keyboard. There are products (open source) that can read MIDI inputs and then launch programs or translate to regular keyboard inputs. In addition to buttons, I have seen some people use midi knobs and control surfaces to control e.g. individual RGB color parameters
    – Yorik
    Apr 9, 2021 at 14:09

2 Answers 2

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Many "gamer" keyboards offer configuration software which allow assigning custom actions to key combinations (e.g. Fn+1), like launching applications.

You may also use the popular program AutoHotkey, to create a hotkey-script in windows, which will listen and launch your applications.

You did although asked for a single key action. There are certainly multiple ways of accomplishing this with a diy PCB, but I know of the product stream-deck made by the company Elgato. Their documentation shows under "System Action - Open" how to assign an action to a key. It appears to also work with Windows and MacOS.

Personally I pin my most frequent used applications in Windows to the task bar and launch the specific application via hotkey alt+taskbar_position (e.g. alt+3 for VLC).

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Apparently so. For example, take a look at the Genovation ControlPad CP24 BumpBar USB HID. As noted in the product info provided, "Programming software requires Windows OS: - Windows XP & Newer. Once programmed, operates on any OS and any PC with USB: - Windows / Mac OS / Linux / DOS".

The general approach to setup is straightforward: Provide keyboard-shortcuts / hotkeys / whatever-ya-call-ems on your computer (using whatever keyboard shortcut utility you choose) to launch applications of interest, and then config the keypad to activate each of those shortcuts when an assigned key is pressed. And then label the keys... Unless you're a Das Keyboard Ultimate user. :)

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