Powertoys: Fn key not showing up in Keyboard Manager

Created on 22 Oct 2020  ·  5Comments  ·  Source: microsoft/PowerToys

ℹ Computer information

  • PowerToys version: 0.24.0
  • PowerToy Utility: Keyboard Manager
  • Running PowerToys as Admin: Yes
  • Windows build number: [run "winver"] Version 2004 OS build 19041.572

📝 Provide detailed reproduction steps (if any)

  1. … Open Keyboard manager and go to remap a key
  2. … hit + to add a new one
  3. … trying to select Fn key by pressing it or finding it on the scroll down list and find that its left out/under a name I don't know

✔️ Expected result

I want to remap a function key to be Fn but can't as it located on the list

❌ Actual result

See above. Apologies if this isn't so much a bug as it is a feature request

📷 Screenshots

Product-Keyboard Shortcut Manager Resolution-Doesn't apply

All 5 comments

Fn keys are keys that are not recognised by an OS. An OEM, a laptop manufacturer decides on the functions of these. It is detected as hardware signals. It is not easy to detect them.

@llamapower13
please read the documentation https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/wiki/Keyboard-Manager-Overview#14-keys-that-cannot-be-remapped

@enricogior @Cyberdroid1 Thanks for the replies and info!

Are there any work arounds for laptop function keys that do not register on the "type key" option? I have a laptop (Asus G14) that has the screen brightness controlled by pressing Fn + F7/F8 but when I tried to remap that to just F7/F8, it changed the screen brightness and did not register within keyboard manager.

My goal was to map F9 to Fn so at least the commands could be one handed but that apparently won't work

See, every key requires a specific driver to be recognised by the operating system. Fn keys don't have the driver. Instead, it is sent as a hardware signal to the motherboard/BIOS, which in turn sends signal to the operating system. So, it is not easy to detect the Fn key. I hope this answers your question.

@Cyberdroid1 it does. Thanks for taking the time to explain; I really appreciate it.

Guess I'm stuck changing brightness with two hands unless ASUS decides to be nice

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