Quick Keys — Lightweight Global Shortcut Launcher

Quick Keys is a fast, minimal, and fully customizable shortcut launcher for Windows.
Assign keyboard combinations to open your favorite programs or websites instantly — all powered by a clean and editable JSON configuration system.

Designed and developed by a Computer Engineering student at Cleveland State University, this project focuses on simplicity, speed, and learning real-world software design.

🚀 Features

✔ Customizable Shortcut Slots (8 Total)

Each slot has its own appID, allowing you to assign:

• A program (.exe)

• A website (URL)

• A custom action type

✔ Theme Customization

Change the entire app theme using:

• Primary color

• Background color

• Text color

• Accent color

All stored in settings.json.

✔ Live Shortcut Execution

Use default combinations like:

Keys	Action
Ctrl + Alt + Q	Slot 1
Ctrl + Alt + W	Slot 2
Ctrl + Alt + E	Slot 3
…	Up to Slot 8

Each shortcut reads its configuration from JSON and opens instantly.

✔ URL or Program Launcher

• URLs open in your default browser

• Programs launch via ProcessStartInfo

✔ Settings Panel

Easily change:

• Theme

• Program paths

• Website URLs

• Shortcut behavior

with a clean UI.

⚠ Current Limitations (Still in Development)

Quick Keys works and performs its main tasks well — but still includes known issues:

• Changing the theme updates the JSON but requires restarting the app to fully apply

• Settings panel needs to be reopened for certain UI elements to refresh

• Some shortcuts may trigger multiple times depending on key state

• Further code optimization and stability improvements are planned

This project is actively being improved as part of an ongoing learning journey.

🛠 Planned Improvements

• Runtime theme reloading

• More reliable hotkey handling

• Per-slot dynamic UI refresh

• Shortcut combination parser ("Ctrl+Alt+Q" → automatic detection)

• Optional Windows RegisterHotKey integration

• Better error handling and validation

• Cleaner modular architecture

👨‍💻 About the Developer

Quick Keys is created by a Computer Engineering student at Cleveland State University
as a personal project to explore UI development, JSON configuration systems, hotkey logic, and desktop application architecture in C#.

📥 Download & Install

• Download the latest release

• Extract the folder

• Run QuickKeys.exe

• Edit settings easily through the built-in Settings panel or directly through settings.json

📄 License

This project is free for personal and educational use.