AHK — This article is to share my insights into the free AutoHotkey Windows utility for people who know little or nothing about it and how a little awareness about how to use it can save you enormous amounts of time.
Is AHK right for you?
Well, it depends. This tiny Windows utility helps in getting mundane tasks done with simple and quite useful scripts
AutoHotkey is a free, open-source scripting language for Windows that allows users to create small to complex scripts for all kinds of tasks such as form fillers, auto-clicking, macros, running batch jobs etc.
If you find yourself executing various routine tasks such as initiating servers with start-server.exe commands, health checks or manual workflows, you could greatly benefit by automating them.
- To activate a CICD server or a reporting utility server or could be one of the SQL/noSQL databases — each from a different folder path using multiple Command Prompt windows.
Why AHK
For starters, its free. Scripts can be written in any notepad application and the complexity of scripts is next to writing an email with instructions to an intern.
AHK Slang
The extension of AHK scripts is .ahk
AHK scripts can be initiated with certain shortcut keys with a Symbol mapped to each of the Alt, shift and Ctrl keys.
Install AHK software
Install AHK software :: https://autohotkey.com/download/
A simple script to see how to get it done
Task: To refresh the Page you are on every 5 minutes(300000 milliseconds)
Script explained
· !1:: Alt+1
Maps the Shortcut key to the script
A mandatory step in the Line 1
The shortcut keys will be used to run the Refreshme.ahk script
Script Logic
Loop, 10{
Loop for 10 times
Sleep, 300000
Script to sleep or wait for 300 seconds/300000 milliseconds
Send, {F5}}
Send F5 keys thereby refreshing the current page view
return
Mandatory to place the return statement in the last line of the script
Some more Usecases
- Start Grafana server from the root folder
AHK script to launch the command prompt CLI, wait till the window is active and send the instructions to navigate to the Grafana root folder and trigger the start executable
- Start Influx DB
AHK script to launch the command prompt CLI, wait till the window is active and send the instructions to navigate to the InfluxDB root folder and trigger the conf file
How to Execute the Script
Step1: Have the script ready
Step 2: Initiate the script by double clicking it
Make sure the H icon is displayed in the system tray. It means that the script is initiated
Step 3: Run the Shortcut keys to execute the Script
The last step is to run the Shortcut keys to kick start the execution of script. The use of shortcut keys in order to trigger the batch job is referred to as a Hotstring — which is where the AutoHotKey name stemmed.
There is no limit to what one can achieve from the vast use of AHK.
References
Issues with installation with AHK are common. Refer the below documentation for sorting out most of them
https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/FAQ.htm#install
Share some of your AHK scripts to help the larger community.
