Nil wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

If you use an Aero theme, there should be a "handle" at the right
end of the Windows taskbar that you can either hover over to
momentarily see the desktop (unless you disabled Aero Peek) or
click on to toggle between the desktop and app windows.

Alternatively, right-click on an unused spot on the Windows
taskbar and select "Show the desktop". To toggle back,
right-click again on the Windows taskbar and select "Show open
windows".

Yeah, I know about the little button, but I want to do it without
moving from keyboard to mouse. Also, the button is inconveniently
small. I didn't know about the right-click taskbar thing, though. It's
not what I'm looking for, but it's maybe better than the button.
Thanks.

There used to be a QuickLaunch shortcut (back when there was a Windows
taskbar toolbar called Quicklaunch although you can create one by that
or any other name) called Show Desktop. To have it again, load Notepad
and enter the following in it:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[taskbar]
Command=toggleDesktop

Save the file as "Show Desktop.scf" or by any filename you want but be
sure the extension is scf. Move that shortcut wherever you want, like
into a Windows taskbar toolbar. Alas, all it does is the same as
hitting Winkey+M, and that is to minimize all windows. Clicking it
again does not restore all previously open windows.

New keyboards are cheap, like a couple dollars. Maybe it's time to get
a keyboard with the Windows key (aka Winkey). It's similar to Mac users
that just must have the Cmd key on their keyboards.

How often do you use the CapsLock key? Probably very rarely. Anyone
typing in all caps is considered yelling hence rude. You could remap
the CapsLock key to effect the Winkey+D action of toggling windows.

Maybe this remapper from Microsoft would work:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/down....aspx?id=22339

There are lots of keyboard remap tools. I found one article that has
you do the registry hack to remap the CapsLock key to act like the
Winkey, so you would use CapsLock+D to toggle the windows.

https://superuser.com/questions/3334...n-old-keyboard

You're probably safer using a remapper tool to define the keyboard
layout in the registry. There is the KeyTweak tool. It's dated and I
couldn't find its author had adedicated site and only found it at
download sites, like:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...KeyTweak.shtml
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/keytweak.html

I've heard of but never used the SharpKeys remapper tool.
https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sharpkeys
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...dows-xp-vista/

That last article shows how to remap a key using SharpKeys. Alas, in
their tutorial on how to add a remap, I did not see Winkey listed in the
visible part of the "Map this key (From key)" list. The pic only showed
some of the keys that could be remapped.

Key Mapper is similar in function (remap keys) but is more graphical in
that you drag the keys around to remap them. You drag a key off them
off the window and by dragging the key you want atop the key you want to
remap. That one groups keys by category. My guess is the Winkey is
under the Modifier Keys group but you'd have to search around to see if
it lets you drag the Winkey in its display atop the CapsLock key or
whatever you want to become the new WinKey.

Hunting around for a key[board] remap[per] should let you find something
you like. If none let you remap the Winkey to another key, you'll need
something more robust, like AutoHotkey, but that means the software has
to always be running to intercept the keyboard's scan codes.

There are keyboard macro tools, like AutoIt and AutoHotkey, but they are
overkill when all you want is to change the keyboard layout defined in
the registry to make your keyboard look like the keys are different than
what is normally associated with their scan code (each press of a key
sends a scan code as well as each release of a key sends a different
scan code from the hardware to the OS). Of course, with a keyboard
macro tool, you can define any key combo to perform any action, so you
could have some hotkey that does Ctrl+D (as long as the keyboard macro
tool has the window toggle function to assign to a key combo).