Turn your caps-lock key into a mute button
- — 28 April, 2009 17:28
Ever wish you could mute your PC's speakers an in instant, like when the phone rings and you need to silence your iTunes tunes? Granted, some keyboards have a Mute button for exactly that purpose, but not all of them do.
If your keyboard falls short in the multimedia-controls department, fear not: There's an easy way to turn your Caps-Lock key into a Mute button. All you need is a popular scripting program called [[xref:http://www.autohotkey.com/|AutoHotKey].
Once you've installed the program, start it, and then do the following:
1. Run Notepad.
2. Copy and paste this line into the document: CapsLock::Send {Volume_Mute}
3. Save the file as Mute.ahk.
4. Double-click the file to run it.
Now, when you tap the Caps-Lock key, it should mute your speakers. Another tap should un-mute them.
If you want to temporarily disable this capability, right-click the AutoHotKey icon in your System Tray and choose Suspend Hotkeys.
This is just the tip of the AutoHotKey iceberg; the program can perform countless other time-saving tasks as well. I'll spotlight some favorites in future posts.
One final note: I can't take full credit for this tip. I first read about it over at Digital Inspiration.
