I've found this to be very unfriendly - and very undocumented. (The online user guide reads more like 5 sentences listing the basic "features").

To give an example - the first few minutes of using KeyExtender - I was battling with 2 error messages. I clicked on the "change" button - and got a message Change successfully!The change can be applied after clicking the Activate button." - When you click on the Activate button - you get a message to please "change the key first".

After defining a few keys - I decided to remove them - and just couldn't remove the last key mapping - if you click on the key mapping - and try to reset it, you will get a message that the change was successful - and KeyExtender puts the key mapping back. Solution right click on the mapping in the grid and select remove from there (Don't use the Reset Key button).

Clearly this hasn't been put through any sort of workflow or user testing (that is your job today). If all goes well this should be the first user interface "EasySoft" have designed. (This is certainly by no means at "commercial software" level of polish and function)

Save yourself the hassle - just go with the freeware on this one (the freeware is so much better).

KeyTweak - 2.3.0
http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/
How do I ... remap my keyboard with KeyTweak?
techrepublic.com

Sharp Keys 3.0 note: lots of blogs etc point to older versions for download
http://www.codeplex.com/sharpkeys
Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows 7 / XP / Vista
howtogeek.com
Remap Keyboard (With Sharp Keys)
ghacks.net

How does this all work? (Slightly Techie)
usnetizen.com

To map entire strings or text passages etc to a keystroke - It is more useful and flexible to use a package such as Phrase Express. Freeware for personal use.

(All of the freeware is reported to be compatible with at least XP, Vista and Win7).

BuBBy  –  14 years ago  –  A fost util acest comentariu? da | nu (+156)

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The Good
* Straightforward and easy to use.
* Allows users to remap any keyboard key to any keyboard key (based on a standard keyboard).
* In addition to remapping individual keys to individual keys, allows users to map keys to do other tasks, such as insert predefined text, clean text, simulate a sequence of keypresses, make one key do the work of multiple key keyboard shortcut, etc.
* Supports remapping of "multimedia" keys in addition to the standard keyboard keys.
* Users can suspend/activate the program at will.
* Users can save/load settings at will.
* Has a feature which allows users to disable the keyboard.

The Bad
* Windows 7 users (and Windows Vista?) must either run the program in compatibility mode or restart computer after installation.
* The program manual claims KeyExtender is able to remap keys to the registry (instead of remapping at the program level) but there is no clear way on how to do this.

Free Alternatives
Comfort Keys Lite
SharpKeys

For final verdict, recommendations, and full review please click here.

Ashraf  –  14 years ago  –  A fost util acest comentariu? da | nu (+68)

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Hi,
Installation on XP pro sp3. Ad-aware correctly informed me that a new process was attempting to access my registry. I clicked allow. Unfortunately the installation process didn't wait, it continued, flagged an error and then failed to install properly.

After installing it I was disappointed. I have an English Keyboard yet sometimes need to write Czech characters such as č ě š ž ý. As they are not visible on my keyboard it's a bit hit and miss for me. I have to use the Menu key + 1-9 and thought I could re-map to something like Menu key + s for š. Unfortunately the key combinations in KeyExtender are hard coded, ie you cannot create your own combinations, or at least I was not able to do so.

Also, once you select a mapping to be changed and not set what it should be changed to it will give you an error message when you exit the program.
Exiting the program doesn't close the program either, it's process still runs, you have to exit from your task tray.
When it's running it doesn't show on your task bar, so if you are changing tasks you have to double click the system tray icon to make it appear again. That may not seem difficult but it's not the standard windows way of doing so which is what I'm used to.

You need to be very careful with keyboard mappings, what might be good for one person may well not suite another who uses your computer. Recording macros is great, they are at a program level, changing common keyboard settings at the system level is not a good idea at all.

Personally I think it's very buggy and not well thought out, and is certainly not worth $19 on a normal day.

Kind regards, Andy.

Andy Pandy  –  14 years ago  –  A fost util acest comentariu? da | nu (+65)

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On Vista, I didn't have any problems installing or running (no compatibility mode or reboot required). KeyExtender can do things which simple keyboard remappers can't, such as associating multiple keystrokes or predefined tasks with keys. I found it to be straightforward and easy to figure out. However, it's not very useful. Only certain input keys can be mapped/extended, and only predefined tasks can be launched.

FYI: I tried Opera's latest beta. I haven't had time to study all of the features or hotkeys, but it's very fast, light on memory, and easily capable of opening huge numbers of tabs. It doesn't support some stuff, such as Google Wave.

Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  A fost util acest comentariu? da | nu (+29)

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There are definitely too many limitations and bugs with KeyExtender. It shows input alphabetical characters as uppercase, but in some cases it remaps lowercase (only), in others it remaps uppercase and lowercase input to the same output. Sometimes it fails to create a tray icon or show itself when it starts (you have to kill the process). The tray icon doesn't always respond to right-click properly. Sometimes, it gives a "Cannot open clipboard" message, when it shouldn't be using the clipboard at all. And this isn't even remotely a new product.

Fubar  –  14 years ago  –  A fost util acest comentariu? da | nu (+29)

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