Fn+Fx key mapping / Windows 7?

[kvv]

I've been trying to find a way to customize the Fn key mapping under windows 7 - can't even find the Thinkpad utility that accesses these key mappings.  Can anyone tell me if it's possible - and how?

I downloaded & installed the "Hotkeys Features & Integration" package from the Lenovo website, version 3.33.0002.  This installed Lenovo System Interface Driver, and Onscreen Display on my system.  Some of the Fn key combinations do work (Fn + F2, F4, F5, F7, F12), and some don't (Fn + F1, F3, F6, F8, F9, F10, F11).  Some of these do nothing at all.

Found somewhere that you need to install a "Thinkpad Configuration Utility" software to access the the keymappings, but also read that's not supported under Win7.

Any info appreciated...

[Serge1410]

hey kvv,

which thinkpad series are you using ?

[kvv]

It's a T500.

(Sorry, meant to say that)...

[Serge1410]

could you try this ::

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-74261

[kvv]

That's exactly what I did before I posted here...

And incidentally, I elected to NOT install the autoscroll utility - doesn't seem like it's related to the problem I'm having though.

[gan Guru]

Did you also install "ThinkVantage Communications Utility"? I belive this one is required for some of the Fn-XX to work.

Also for Fn-F3 to work i believe you need to install power manager, Fn-F6 integrated camera driver/software, Fn-F8 Ultranav driver and Utility. For Fn-F1, Fn-F9, Fn-10, Fn-F11 i'm not sure what you expect these key combination to do. On my computer they do nothing and there is no blue icon on the key either to indicate they should do anything.

There is no Thinkpad Configuration Utility for Windows 7. There is a ThinkPad Keyboard Customizer Utility that works with Windows 7, but only supported for Vista and XP, but you cannot customize the Fn-XX keys using this tool.

-gan

[ColonelONeill]

AFAIK, Fn+F9 is easy eject. Fn+F6 is unlabelled but is handled by the Thinkvantage Communications Utility.

[kvv]

---

gan wrote:

There is no Thinkpad Configuration Utility for Windows 7. There is a ThinkPad Keyboard Customizer Utility that works with Windows 7, but only supported for Vista and XP, but you cannot customize the Fn-XX keys using this tool.

---

Well this is really what I was hoping to do, was to customize some of the Fn-XX key combinations, so it sounds like that's a dead-end.  Checked out the documentation for this utility - it says it assigns "special character input functions"...  Anyone know what that is?

All I'm trying to do is get the startup for some frequently used apps tied to custom keystrokes -- whether it be a Fn-XX key combination, a windows key combination, or a ctrl-shift-X or ctrl-alt-X combination etc, don't really care.  If anyone has any ideas I'd be appreciative...

Thanks!

[ColonelONeill]

You can kind of do it, but it's fairly manual.

Some of the hotkeys link to files in C:\Program Files\Lenovo\HOTKEY, appropriately named TPFnF2.exe, etc. You can compile an AutoHotkey script to EXE and substitute the program in, and it'd work (remember to backup the original). Some of the other programs aren't so easy; I've only been able to find registry entries pertaining to what they load. Can't seem to make any changes take effect though.

[gan Guru · Accepted solution]

Seems like you can manually change most of them in registry.

Run regedit and go to:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\Class\01]

under there you should find a key which correspond to each of the Fn-xx keys. For example:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\Class\01\05] = Fn-F5
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\Class\01\07] = Fn-F7

Then under each of them you add two string values (REG_SZ) where one should be named "File" and the other "Parameters". "File" should point to the programfile you want to run and "Parameters" if the programfile should start with some parameters. If you don't want/need any parameters you still have to create the string value Parameters, but just leave it empty. Below is en example to make Fn-F9 start notepad without any parameters:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\Class\01\09]
"File"="c:\\windows\\notepad.exe"
"Parameters"=""

If you have some spaces in the path to the programfile you might have to add " in front and at the end when you add a value to the string value "File. On my computer i only managed to get this working for Fn-F2 - F9 and F12. I did not manage to get Fn-F1, F10 and F11 to do anything. I didn't try very hard so maybe there are some kind of trick to get those working as well.

To customize the blue Thinkpad button you have to create a string value named "File" and do the same thing under here:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\8001]

For this one it seems like the Parameters string value isn't needed.

Since you need some of the Lenovo software to make these keys work in the first place (like hotkey and comm utilities) i gues these utilities have to be installed for the Fn-xx keys to do anything even if you decide to customize each one of them.

-gan