Rebinding the Pens Purple Button

[TenDM]

Is there any way I can bind this to something other than OneNote? Ideally I want to set it so that when I hit that button it toggles turning the Windows button on the frame off and sets the touch screen to only respond to the pen.
If the purple button can't be re-purposed for this is there another way of achieving that goal?

 

[agt499]

Hi, you can rebind the button using Autohotkey - see my post here re controlling powerpoint.
If you've not used autohotkey before, the learning curve isn't too bad.
As far as the input is concerned for Autohotkey the pen sends F20 for a single-click, and F19 for a double-click, which means you can do two sepearate things.
If you could research whether the outcome you want can be achieved from a command line, I'm happy to try and glue it together...

 

[TenDM]

Thanks. I don't really like Autohotkey so I was hoping there was some built in functionality, but knowing it's F19/F20 might be enough to get me past it. I found a Reddit thread where someone has a working solution using Autohotkey so I think I've got all the info I need to hammer something out tomorrow. They couldn't get the Windows key to disable but I'm left handed so it's not as much of a problem.

 

[r0b123]

I'm looking for this too. It's annoying just having OneNote options when it would be useful to customize this for other apps. I hope they add this customize option in the Surface app where the pen options reside.

 

[kidpiglet]

+1

I saw a detailed step by step youtube video on how to customize the purple button using autohotkey but it was much too complicated for me Microsoft should definitely add this feature to the next update of the Surface Hub app as it will benefit a lot of users that prefer to use something other than Onenote.

 

[agt499]

+1

I saw a detailed step by step youtube video on how to customize the purple button using autohotkey but it was much too complicated for me Microsoft should definitely add this feature to the next update of the Surface Hub app as it will benefit a lot of users that prefer to use something other than Onenote.

Hi kidpiglet.
Video tutorials can be hard to follow, if you have something in particular you want the button to do, I'd be happy to put a really simple how-to for you?
-and I totally agree it should be built in by MS!

 

[TenDM]

Yeah. It'd be great if this was just an option in the Surface app. Clicking the button like you would a pen to turn the Surface into draw mode seems like a pretty natural way of doing things.

@kidpiglet If you want a really blunt and simple way of achieving the same result hit the Windows key, type "Device Manager" and open it (I recommend pinning it to Start so in the future you won't need a keyboard to do this). Then go down to "Human Interface Devices" and expand it. It'll bring up a list of mice, touch screens, pens, etc. If you're on a Surface Pro 3 it should have "HID compliant touch screen" about halfway down the list. Unless you have multiple touch screens connected that should be your Surface's built in touch screen. Right click it (or hold the pen down on it for a second), then select "Disable". Leave Device Manager open, that way you can just switch to it from the task bar, right click "HID compliant touch screen" again and then hit "Enable" to turn the touch screen back on.
Before you actually do this make sure to have a mouse and keyboard on stand-by (one of the Surface's touch/type covers or a standard keyboard/mouse will do). Rebooting the Surface won't re-enable the device so if you do this and then accidentally lose the pen you're going to need an alternative input method to turn it back on.

It's a bit annoying doing it every time but if you're struggling with Autohotkey I recommend this method because running .bat files you don't understand is potentially hazardous. They can open the door to doing pretty much anything so unless you really trust the source it's not a great idea to have them doing things you don't understand. This method, while annoying compared to just hitting the purple button, has you manually doing it so you can see that the only thing happening is HID compliant touch screen being enabled/disabled.

 

[mitchellvii]

I'm on Windows 10 and it seems that even if you have OneNote Desktop chosen as your default OneNote program, the pen click still launches the Metro version. This would be ok except that MS took a pretty nice 8.1 Metro version of OneNote and completely broke it in W10. Don't you just love when MS breaks things that worked and calls it a "new feature"?

So I'd like to be able to use the Autohotkey to launch Desktop OneNote on a single click and Snipping Tool on a double click. Help?

 

[agt499]

I'm on Windows 10 and it seems that even if you have OneNote Desktop chosen as your default OneNote program, the pen click still launches the Metro version. This would be ok except that MS took a pretty nice 8.1 Metro version of OneNote and completely broke it in W10. Don't you just love when MS breaks things that worked and calls it a "new feature"?

So I'd like to be able to use the Autohotkey to launch Desktop OneNote on a single click and Snipping Tool on a double click. Help?

Hi mitchellvii, this should work.
The only caveat is that when asleep it will still launch Metro Onenote, as that function happens at a lower level.
If you already have AHK working go straight to the bold text.

1. Download and install Autohotkey
   Installer from http://www.autohotkey.com/
   Choose “Express Installation”, and once it's done Choose “Exit”
2. Create your script
   In File Explorer, go to your Documents folder, Right-click and select “New AutoHotkey Script”.
   Right-click on this file to edit it in Notepad, then add these four lines to the bottom :
   
   #F20:: run, onenote.exe
   return
   #F19:: run, SnippingTool.exe
   return
   
   
3. Save the file, then double-click it in Explorer to run.
   It should now launch desktop Onenote on single-click of the purple pen button, and Snipping Tool on double-click.
   
4. If it's working how you want, the only thing left is to add it to your startup:
   Right-click the file in Explorer, and select “Create Shortcut”
   Right-click the windows button on your taskbar and select “Run” (near the bottom), then type “shell:startup” and press OK -this should open your startup folder.
   Drag the shortcut you created above into your startup folder.

 

[mitchellvii]

Hi mitchellvii, this should work.
The only caveat is that when asleep it will still launch Metro Onenote, as that function happens at a lower level.
If you already have AHK working go straight to the bold text.

1. Download and install Autohotkey
   Installer from http://www.autohotkey.com/
   Choose “Express Installation”, and once it's done Choose “Exit”
2. Create your script
   In File Explorer, go to your Documents folder, Right-click and select “New AutoHotkey Script”.
   Right-click on this file to edit it in Notepad, then add these four lines to the bottom :
   
   #F20:: run, onenote.exe
   return
   #F19:: run, SnippingTool.exe
   return
   
   
3. Save the file, then double-click it in Explorer to run.
   It should now launch desktop Onenote on single-click of the purple pen button, and Snipping Tool on double-click.
   
4. If it's working how you want, the only thing left is to add it to your startup:
   Right-click the file in Explorer, and select “Create Shortcut”
   Right-click the windows button on your taskbar and select “Run” (near the bottom), then type “shell:startup” and press OK -this should open your startup folder.
   Drag the shortcut you created above into your startup folder.

Sounds awesome. Will try it!