- Some programs, especially those that reside in the system tray ("notification area" in Windows 7), come with a built-in keyboard shortcut to show or hide them.
- To assign a custom keyboard shortcut to an application of your choice, find it the start menu: right-click on it and choose "Properties" (in doubt, pick the shortcut you use to launch it).
- Make sure that the "Shortcut" tab is selected, and click inside the "Shortcut key" text field.
- Press the keyboard shortcut you want: to avoid conflicts, favor Ctrl+Alt shortcuts, because many Ctrl-alone or Ctrl+Shift shortcuts are commonly used by applications. Press and hold the Ctrl and Alt keys, and hit a letter (use mnemonics, like "O" for Outlook, etc.)
- Your custom keyboard shortcut now appears in the field: if it still says "None" and/or another program launches, the shortcut is already assigned. Choose another shortcut, or re-assign.
Tip: the dropdown below lets you customize the startup window state (read "remember window size and position" for more details) - it only affects that particular shortcut.
- Click "OK" to apply: you can start using your shortcut right away!
- When the program is running, use that same shortcut to make it the foreground window.
Note: most programs can run multiple instances of themselves, but typically don't. In some cases, Windows may relaunch a second "copy" the application whose keystroke you pressed, instead of activating it: that's usually fixed by exiting and re-launching the program.
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