Changing Thinkpad / Access IBM / ThinkVantage button action

[nikki605]

From this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=68562

thanks
downloaded and installed it - runs beautifully
but - the ThinkPad Button starts Nero... and i can't seem to find the way to change this, but i'm not giving up

WOW! The Thinkpad button behavior is strange. My T21 came loaded with Win98 and the Thinkpad button would start the Access IBM utility. Then, several years ago, I upgraded to WinXP Pro, loaded all the IBM utilities, but the one thing that never worked after that was the Thinkpad button. Mine does nothing when I press it, which isn't a big deal to me.

I'll be interested to know what you find out. Where is the Thinkpad button function defined? I don't know. But, how yours is starting Nero really raises my curiousity.

Let us know what you find.

Admin edit: Split this out into a thread of its own

[madkat]

all i have managed to find out about the thinkpad button is this:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkPad_Button

and in the registry you modify the path to anything you would like the button to do

now i'll just have to find the executable file that opens "my computer" - because "C:\Windows\explorer.exe" opens the "my documents" folder

[RealBlackStuff]

M$ has that solution:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... leff1.mspx

[rkawakami]

Anybody know of a way to get the launched program to automatically have the focus? I just tried this registry edit and when I press the Thinkpad button, the program is started but does not have keyboard focus. It appears in the taskbar but if you didn't look down there you'd never know anything has happened.

edit: There's this program:

http://www.schlackman.org/programs/thinkpad.html

but I'd like to know if there's a way to do this from directly within Regedit.

[nikki605]

OK, somewhere, I got lost. Are you guys trying to edit the registry so that pressing the ThinkPad button opens Windows Explorer? Because I'm having trouble getting the registry edited correctly to do anything.

EDIT: I edited the registry. When I added this string - C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe it worked except for the focus issue that Ray asked about. When I added this string - C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, C:\ nothing happened when I pressed the ThinkPad button. What am I doing wrong?

[davidspalding]

... edit: There's this program:

http://www.schlackman.org/programs/thinkpad.html

but I'd like to know if there's a way to do this from directly within Regedit.

I was about to dismiss this software as unnecessary until I read that it'll map the "blue button" to the Windows key ... VERY handy if you like combos like WIN+L (lock), WIN+E (explorer), WIN+R (run dialog, which Launchy improves upon immensely).

Gary, you might need to include the entire command in quote marks or the command is only run up to the .exe part. Or ... create a shortcut link at c:\ for this, and put the shortcut path in the registry instead.


My personal fav for the Access IBM button is "C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Utilities\TP98.EXE".

[nikki605]

I just tried putting the whole command string inside double quotes and no, it didn't work. I even tried the double back slashes as in the example, both with and without quotes and that didn't work either.

[davidspalding]

I later tried putting the Lock command into the key, with and without quotes, and it also failed. I also tried the path to a shortcut link that performs the function, and it didn't like that, either. Seems that only an EXE without arguments works.

[nikki605]

I searched the registry looking for examples and found a format that worked:

"C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe" /n, /e, /select, C:\

However, it still has the same problem Ray pointed out - the new window doesn't have focus when it opens. You just see it blinking on the task bar. But, at least it opens Windows Explorer with all the drives displayed.

[nikki605]

Anybody know of a way to get the launched program to automatically have the focus? I just tried this registry edit and when I press the Thinkpad button, the program is started but does not have keyboard focus. It appears in the taskbar but if you didn't look down there you'd never know anything has happened.

edit: There's this program:

http://www.schlackman.org/programs/thinkpad.html

but I'd like to know if there's a way to do this from directly within Regedit.

I think I solved the focus problem, with this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/886217

Since I had Tweak UI installed, I used those instructions from the KB article. I un-checked the box called "Prevent applications from stealing focus" which sounds counter-intuitive, but it seems to work. As described, it changed the ForegroundLockTimeout value from 200000 to zero (0) in the Registry entry.

I then opened IE7, Word and Excel. Next, I pressed the ThinkPad button and My Computer opened, in the foreground with focus and the C:\ drive pre-selected in the right pane.

I haven't used it long enough to know if the change causes any undesireable operating characteristics, but I'll post back if I see any.

[rkawakami]

Gary,

On my first try with that TweakUI modification, the application I had programmed into the ThinkPad button still appeared "behind" everything else so I thought it didn't work. However, when I changed to a different program, it did work. The program in question is "Master Converter"; a neat little utility that converts measurements from one standard to another. This program appears to break some Windows programming rule as it doesn't get the focus no matter the setting of the Focus option in TweakUI. I was able to get Windows Explorer, Audacity, Network Stumbler and a couple of other programs to launch correctly (with focus) so I must attribute this to the way MC is written.

Nice find! I install TweakUI on all my systems and perform some usual changes (getting rid of the "arrow shortcut" for one) but I've never really noticed the Focus option.

[nikki605]

Yeah, I don't use Tweak UI often enough to remember all of what's in it.

[davidspalding]

TweakUI rocks. Have been using it since 1995.