The VideoLAN Forums

Alright, so I looked how to setup Global Hotkeys for VLC and I still can't seem to get it to work. I was wondering if anyone could help me out.

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.110622-1506)
Using VLC Version: 1.1.11 The Luggage

So here's what I've tried:
I accessed the Tools > Preferences > Hotkey selection, double clicked under the global hotkey for play/pause, hit apply, and then saved. I exited out of VLC and started a new instance, both with and without running as an administrator, and tried play/pausing using the global hotkey. Only it doesn't pause nor play with VLC focused or in the background. I also ran VLC in compatibility mode for XP SP3 to no avail. Any suggestions? Oh, and if the specific key matters I set it to the "*" key on my keyboard.

Try VLC 2.0.0-RC1

Alright, just tried the same thing with version 2.0.0-rc1 Twoflower; with no success. I'll try resetting the preferences/cache and update you.

Update: Resetting the preferences and going through and doing everything again did nothing. However setting the Play/Pause button to the space bar as both global and local ended up making the play/pause function work for both. I went ahead and changed the play/pause button to "*" for local and global; The local setting works with "*" set as pause; but the global setting does not.

I'm having the same issues as Smerk.

Local hot keys work fine and global hot keys seem to work fine locally as well, however global hot keys simple refuse to work with any keys I have tried.

I've tried this with 1.11.1 and the RC of V2 and still no luck...

Any other insight to this issue would be awesome, thanks

You have some programs in background that might steal global hotkeys? (like Winamp or some keyboard assist software)

Ah after you said that I checked my processes, WMP.exe was running even though the player wasn't even running, once I killed that the global keys worked as expected

Thanks very much, what a random thing stopping that working

You have some programs in background that might steal global hotkeys? (like Winamp or some keyboard assist software)

You know honestly I'm not sure. It's a fairly fresh install of windows and I don't have winamp. Although apparently I'm using the Saitek Gaming Keyboard Driver. Do you think that might be it? Otherwise I did a And can host that somewhere for you if you'd like; since it's kind of a lot of info to copy/paste

I only know for sure, that many hotkey supported media players and certain laptop hotkey tools do that. I don't know if the Saitek Gaming Keyboard Driver does that.

I also have the Problem, that it decides to ignore the global hotkeys.
I have foobar running parallel, but kmp (video player) recognizes all the hotkeys. Only VLC has the problem.

a little bump, since this still is relevant

Hi everyone,

I have almost the same problem, wonder if anyone knows the answer. When I press the Play/Pause button on my keyboard it opens up VLC player. But I do not want to do this, since I am using foobar and I only want to control foobar. It's worth mentioning that when I press Play/Pause button it does pause or resume the music in Foobar, but at the same time it opens up VLC.

Does anyone know how to stop this behaviour? BTW all the other buttons work fine (next, back, volume controls). It is only the Play/Pause button.

Oh yes, one more info. If I have foobar window maximized or in a normal window (not in tray icon only) then even if the window is not in focus the Play/Pause button works fine, only controlling foobar and not opening VLC.

If anyone has a solution it would be awesome!

Thanks,

Jambo