List All Assigned Shortcut Keys for Shortcuts on Windows

Ramesh

7 years ago

If you’re not able to assign a particular hotkey combination for a shortcut, then it may have already been registered. But which shortcut is currently using the hotkey, and from which folder path? You can find it out by running the script attached to this article.

This script recursively searches for shortcuts in the Desktop and Start menu (per-user and per-machine locations), Quick Launch, Taskbar – User Pinned & all of their subfolders, and shows the list of shortcuts with hotkey assignments in a popup window as in the image below.

This script has a limitation; it can’t get the hotkeys for .URL (Internet Shortcuts), which I may implement in the future.

So here are the contents of the quick script I came up with, to list shortcut hotkeys.



'File: ListHotKeys.vbs
'Script Info: Obtains the List of Shortcuts With a Hotkey assigned
'Author: Ramesh Srinivasan, for The Winhelponline Blog
'https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/list-all-hotkeys-used-shortcuts-script/
'Created on May 5 2016
'Modified on May 19 2016
'Reviewed on May 22 2021
'URL: https://www.winhelponline.com/blog

Option Explicit
Dim objFSO: Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim WshShell: Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim arrFolders, objFolder, fldr, colfiles, colFolders
Dim objFile, objSubFolder, oShellLink, strHotKey

arrFolders = Array ( _
WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersDesktop") _
, WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop") _
, WshShell.SpecialFolders("AllUsersStartMenu") _
, WshShell.SpecialFolders("StartMenu") _
, WshShell.SpecialFolders("AppData") & _
"\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" _
)

For Each fldr In arrFolders
	If objFSO.FolderExists (fldr) Then Call GetHotKeys (fldr)
Next

Sub GetHotKeys (strFolder)
	Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strFolder)
	Set colFiles = objFolder.Files
	For Each objFile In colFiles
		If LCase(objFSO.GetExtensionName(objFile.Name)) = "lnk" Then
			Set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(objFile.Path)
			If Trim(oShellLink.Hotkey) <> "" Then
				strHotKey = strHotKey & "[" & Trim(oShellLink.Hotkey) & _
				"]" & vbCrLf & objFile.Path & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
			End If
		End If
	Next
	Set colFolders = objFolder.SubFolders
	For Each objSubFolder In colFolders
		GetHotKeys(objSubFolder)
	Next
End Sub

WshShell.PopUp strHotKey,,"Hotkeys Curently in Use by Shortcuts", 65
Set WshShell = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing

Copy the script contents to Notepad
Save the file with the .vbs extension — e.g., ListHotKeys.vbs
Double-click the script to view the list of hotkeys currently assigned in your user account.

HotKeysList from Nirsoft

The HotKeysList from Nirsoft lists out all the hotkeys that are assigned currently – via shortcuts, website shortcuts (.url), and also the hotkeys used by the AutoHotKey script(s). However, one shortcoming of this utility is that it doesn’t show the corresponding file name (.LNK, or .URL) of a hotkey.

Get HotKeysList from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/hot_keys_list.html.