ShortKeys

ShortKeys Portable

Note: ShortKeys Portable requires a portable license to run.

A portable version of ShortKeys is available for use on any portable drive that can be connected to and disconnected from your computer. These may be referred to as a USB drive, flash drive, flash memory, thumb drive, memory stick or portable hard drive.

Install ShortKeys Portable on the device and run it from that device rather than the local computer.

Download

Download the ShortKeys Portable installer and save it to your hard drive.

Download

v 3.6.1.1

Release Notes for v 3.6.1.1. 

Install

  1. Copy the ShKeyPortable.exe installation file to your portable drive1.
  2. Double-click on ShKeyPortable.exe to install ShortKeys Portable on your portable drive.
  3. Choose the option to run ShortKeys at the end of the installation.
  4. Enter your license information into the License dialog.

Run

If the AutoPlay menu2 is displayed when you insert your portable drive into your computer, click on ‘Open folder to view files’. Otherwise, open File Explorer and click on your portable drive. Then double-click on LaunchApps and click on ShortKeys.

Close

Before you remove your USB drive from the computer you should instruct Windows to eject it. Before ejecting you will need to close ShortKeys Portable, LaunchApps and any other open programs3. If closing all open programs does not release the hook you will need to log off Windows and then remove the USB drive.

Notes

There are some differences between the standard and portable versions of ShortKeys.

  • To run, you must first enter a valid ShortKeys Portable license.
  • There is no uninstaller. To uninstall use File Explorer to delete the files from your portable device.
  • Will not leave traces of the program on the hard drive of the machine where the program is run.
  • The options to import or export the program preferences have been removed.
  • The “Run when Windows starts up” preference option is not available.
  • The “Save settings as defaults for all users” preference option has been removed.
  • The .shk file association is not linked to ShortKeys Portable. You cannot double-click on a .shk file to load it into the program.
  • Default locations for the macro files, temp directory, etc. are stored on the portable drive.
  • Persistent macro files are not available.

Footnotes

  1. To save space on your portable drive you may delete the installer file after installation. However, you should keep a copy somewhere permanent in case you need to reinstall the program.
  2. When ShortKeys Portable is installed it will create an autorun.inf file in the root directory of your portable drive if one does not already exist. If your portable drive already contains an autorun.inf when you install you may choose to edit it. The autorun.inf file will load the program LaunchApps. LaunchApps may be configured to automatically load more than one program. The file autorun_ISS.inf demonstrates how autorun.ini could be set to load LaunchApps. You may configure LaunchApps to automatically load a program.
  3. The reason for this is that ShortKeys interfaces with Windows at a low level. Each program that is running loads the ShortKeys hook into its memory space. Even after closing ShortKeys other programs may still have the hook loaded. If this is the case, when you attempt to eject the drive, Windows will display a message saying the drive is currently in use.