AutoHotkey Remote Control

I have two standing desks setup at home. One is for my work computer and one is for my personal desktop.

We have a fairly strict firewall at work so I usually stream whatever music I’m listening to (CodeBass!) on my personal computer. This works fine until someone at work wants to do a Google hangout or I get a phonecall. Then I have to jump over to my other desk and press the mute/off/quiet button, then jump back to my work desk.

While this is good exercise I’d really rather not move that much.

I’ve had one of these stuffed away in a drawer… I rarely use it other than conferences and the occasion TACFUG meeting.

A long time ago I used this at a conference to ‘run’ an HTML presentation. I remapped the keys using AutoHotkey and was able to move forward and back through my HTML preso.

Hmmmmm.

I dug it up and with a quick Google search found the media keys and then it was just a matter of a simple script:

:::ahk
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language:       English
; Platform:       Win9x/NT/Win7/Win8
; Author:         Jim Priest (priest@thecrumb.com)
;
; // KEY SHORTCUTS //
;  # = Windows Key
;  ^ = Control
;  ! = Alt
;  + = Shift
;
; // REMAP TARGUS BUTTONS FOR REMOTE CONTROL //

PgDn::Send {Volume_Up 2}
PgUp::Send {Volume_Down 2}
ESC::Send {Media_Play_Pause}

The Targus has 4 buttons primarily used for Powerpoint. PgUp/PgDn/ESC/B

I remapped the PgUp/PgDn buttons (the forward/back buttons on the side) to the volume buttons and the ESC button to pause. The other button is mapped to the “B” key and this wreaks havoc with normal typing so I didn’t map that :)

Now I can sit at my work desk and easily mute my personal workstation without moving.