[launcher] - Win+R seems to conflict with WW

[crutkas]

When I execute Win+R, launcher doesn't stay open and it also tries to open WW. When I hold Win+R, it keeps the search box open but starts to open shortcut guide and window walker

workaround is to disable WW.

[koppor]

Same for AutoHotkey and macros bound to Win+C or Win+B. If the key combindation is pressed, the action is done. If the key is released, Window Walker pops up.

Example macro:

#b::
IfWinNotExist, ahk_exe firefox.exe
{
  Run C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
  WinWait ahk_exe firefox.exe
}
WinActivate
return

[betsegaw]

If I understand correctly @crutkas, this only happens when Power Launcher is up right? Since we are going to be working to move this into Power Launcher, the launch bugs won't matter that much.

We will see how much progress I can make this weekend.

[crutkas]

Yes. But I am very interested in why this is happening. Which code base is the offending as it could impact other apps.

[alekhyareddy28]

This is happening because of the code in the shell plugin.

The Shell plugin has it's own code to override the Win+R key and because of the way they are creating and handling hooks (not completely sure how they're doing it), once we press Win+R, the Win key must be pressed again to release it (second if statement). So basically, they're trying to simulate the Win key press, however since simulating only the win key press would pop up the start menu, they are simulating Win+Ctrl which is the same shortcut as that of ww.

To unblock us and mitigate this issue for now, I tried to use the BackSpace keystroke instead of Control, so we would be simulating a Win+BackSpace keystroke and it works fine.

@ryanbodrug-microsoft, @betsegaw and @crutkas any thoughts? I understand the proper way would be to figure out how they're handling hooks and why they're facing this issue.

[crutkas]

Our keystroke override code should be a single spot. i would remove the wox code path IMO.

[alekhyareddy28]

I've put in a hack for now by simulating the Win+Back keypress.
Created an issue to clean up the way in which keyboard shortcuts are handled and to keep them in sync with the rest of powerToys - #2325.