Limitations
While the user could always define special keys (and multimedia keys, if such exist), it was only possible since version 6.3 to define them not just globally but also per application.
Version 6.2 forced the user to constantly check for updates by installing and launching the file "dpupdchk.exe" in the background. It must stay in the background for the control panel's settings to launch (although it could be avoided by renaming the file to something else). Version 6.3 fixed this behavior by only making it an opt-in option during the installation.
Version 7.0 and later in Windows 7 64-bit has recently been proven to disable the media keys (Play/Pause, Next, Previous, Stop) for third-party media players such as iTunes and Media Jukebox when they are not the primary window of focus. [6] Some workaround exists: [7] This behavior continues to be an issue as of Version 8.
A context menu is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click mouse operation. A context menu offers a limited set of choices that are available in the current state, or context, of the operating system or application to which the menu belongs. Usually the available choices are actions related to the selected object. From a technical point of view, such a context menu is a graphical control element.
Windows Me is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and then to retail on September 14, 2000. It was Microsoft's main operating system for home users until the introduction of its successor Windows XP on October 25, 2001.
Microsoft SideWinder is a former brand name for a family of video gaming peripherals developed by Microsoft for PCs. It was initially marketed from 1995 to 2003 consisting of game controllers, then again from 2007 until the early 2010s with gaming mice and keyboards.
A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard that can be programmed to cause the operating system or an application program to perform certain actions, a form of soft key. On some keyboards/computers, function keys may have default actions, accessible on power-on.
The Windows key is a keyboard key which was originally introduced on Microsoft's Natural Keyboard in 1994. Windows 95 used it to bring up the start menu and it then became a standard key on PC keyboards. Ctrl+Esc performs the same function, in case the keyboard lacks this key.
Microsoft has designed and sold a variety of ergonomic keyboards for computers. The oldest is the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, released in 1994, the company's first computer keyboard. The newest models are the Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard (2013), the Surface Ergonomic Keyboard (2016), and the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard (2019).
Caps Lock⇪ Caps Lock is a button on a computer keyboard that causes all letters of bicameral scripts to be generated in capital letters. It is a toggle key: each press reverses the previous action. Some keyboards also implement a light to give visual feedback about whether it is on or off. Exactly what Caps Lock does depends on the keyboard hardware, the operating system, the device driver, and the keyboard layout. Usually, the effect is limited to letter keys. Letters of non-bicameral scripts and non-letter characters are generated normally.
Mouse keys is a feature of some graphical user interfaces that uses the keyboard as a pointing device. Its roots lie in the earliest days of visual editors when line and column navigation was controlled with arrow keys. Today, mouse keys usually refers to the numeric keypad layout standardized with the introduction of the X Window System in 1984.
A human interface device (HID) is a type of computer device usually used by humans that takes input from or provides output to humans.
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment. They work in conjunction with the underlying graphical system that provides required functionality—support for graphics hardware, pointing devices, and a keyboard—and are often written and created using a widget toolkit.
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, as well as all editions of Windows 7 except Starter and Home Basic. It was also available on Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro as a paid add-on. It was discontinued as of Windows 10 and the operating system also removes all of Windows Media Center during an upgrade from previous versions of Windows, although it can reportedly be unofficially reinstalled using a series of Command Prompt commands.
Microsoft IntelliPoint is the Microsoft-branded software driver for the company's hardware mice. Microsoft has released versions for both Windows and Mac OS X. It has been succeeded by Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, which combines IntelliType with IntelliPoint.
On personal computers with numeric keypads that use Microsoft operating systems, such as Windows, many characters that do not have a dedicated key combination on the keyboard may nevertheless be entered using the Alt code. This is done by pressing and holding the Alt key, then typing a number on the keyboard's numeric keypad that identifies the character and then releasing Alt.
The Windows shell is the graphical user interface for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Its readily identifiable elements consist of the desktop, the taskbar, the Start menu, the task switcher and the AutoPlay feature. On some versions of Windows, it also includes Flip 3D and the charms. In Windows 10, the Windows Shell Experience Host interface drives visuals like the Start Menu, Action Center, Taskbar, and Task View/Timeline. However, the Windows shell also implements a shell namespace that enables computer programs running on Windows to access the computer's resources via the hierarchy of shell objects. "Desktop" is the top object of the hierarchy; below it there are a number of files and folders stored on the disk, as well as a number of special folders whose contents are either virtual or dynamically created. Recycle Bin, Libraries, Control Panel, This PC and Network are examples of such shell objects.
Alt+Tab ↹ is the common name for a keyboard shortcut that has been in Microsoft Windows since Windows 1.0 (1985). This shortcut switches between application-level windows without using the mouse; hence it was named Task Switcher.
Unicode input is method to add a specific Unicode character to a computer file; it is a common way to input characters not directly supported by a physical keyboard. Characters can be entered either by selecting them from a display, by typing a certain sequence of keys on a physical keyboard, or by drawing the symbol by hand on touch-sensitive screen. In contrast to ASCII's 96 element character set, Unicode encodes hundreds of thousands of graphemes (characters) from almost all of the world's written languages and many other signs and symbols besides.
HIDPoint is proprietary Linux software for USB Keyboards and Mice. Currently it supports most Logitech keyboards and mice. It runs on many Linux distributions such as RHEL, SUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora. HIDPoint has been designed to give users using USB Mice and Keyboards the same experience they get when using these devices on Microsoft Windows.
A computer keyboard is a peripheral input device modeled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches. Replacing early punched cards and paper tape technology, interaction via teleprinter-style keyboards have been the main input method for computers since the 1970s, supplemented by the computer mouse since the 1980s.
Hollywood is a commercially distributed programming language developed by Andreas Falkenhahn which mainly focuses on the creation of multimedia-oriented applications. Hollywood is available for AmigaOS, MorphOS, WarpOS, AROS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Hollywood has an inbuilt cross compiler that can automatically save executables for all platforms supported by the software. The generated executables are completely stand-alone and do not have any external dependencies, so they can also be started from a USB flash drive. An optional add-on also allows users to compile projects into APK files.
Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center is software that provides drivers for recent Microsoft mice and keyboards. It allows the user to set up and configure both mice and keyboards from within the same program.
