Remapping the ² Key on an AZERTY Keyboard with AutoHotkey (Windows)

Zettel#87

zettelkasten
Published

2023-05-19

This guide explains how to create and automatically run an AutoHotkey script to map the ² key on an AZERTY keyboard to insert a backtick `.

Why not using the Windows PowerToys Keyboard Manager? Because it cannot create this kind of combination.

Installing AutoHotkey

https://www.autohotkey.com/

Creating the script

Open a new text file and insert the following code snippet:

; Pressing the ² key sends the backtick (`) character.
; This is useful for AZERTY keyboards, for the ² key is useless.
²::
Send, `{ASC 96}
return

Save this script with a .ahk extension.

Running the script

Run the saved script with AutoHotkey. It will stay active as long as the script is running.

Automatically starting the script when Windows starts

  1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.
  2. In the Run dialog, type shell:startup and hit Enter. This will open the Startup folder.
  3. Paste the script file in the Startup folder.

This will create a shortcut to your script in the Startup folder and run your script automatically every time Windows starts.