AutoHotkeyTools — Desktop Automation Scripting for Windows

Keyboard with a single highlighted shortcut key

Shortcuts That Fit You

Bind any key, mouse button or combination to an action of your choosing. Swap awkward keys for comfortable ones, or have a three-letter trigger type out a full sentence. Most of these tricks fit on a single line.

READ THE GUIDE

What the Language Does

AutoHotkey is an open-source scripting language made for Windows desktops. People reach for it to fill in forms, drive stubborn applications, batch-rename files, automate clicks and glue together tools that were never meant to talk to each other.

READ THE GUIDE

Who It Suits

If you have never programmed, the first working script takes minutes. If you write code all day, you get a quick sandbox for prototypes, one-off utilities and the little chores your main toolchain refuses to handle.

READ THE GUIDE

Why People Stay

Tiny footprint, instant startup, no runtime to install and no license fee. The source is public under the GNU GPLv2, so nothing about your automation depends on a vendor staying in business.

READ THE GUIDE

How the code reads

The syntax stays out of your way. There is no boilerplate to memorise before the first line does something useful, and you can mix plain step-by-step instructions with objects and functions once a script grows.

The panel on the left cycles through four short examples:

Text expansion and a keyboard shortcut
Reading and rewriting the clipboard
A small window with an input field
Working with a list of values

Browse a larger sample collection…

Everything is readable

Released under the GNU GPLv2

Read the internals, file a fix, or fork the whole thing.
Several long-running forks take the language in different directions.

Repositories
Interpreter source
Documentation source
Script-to-executable compiler
Everything else

Notable forks
AutoHotkey_H + AutoHotkey.dll
Handheld build (WinCE)
AutoHotkey-jk (JavaScript-based)

One short script replaced a folder full of single-purpose utilities on my work machine.

Reader note, shared in our inbox

Email replies used to eat my mornings. Text expansion cut that down to a couple of keystrokes per message.

Support desk lead, quoted with permission

It is the tool I hand to colleagues who say they cannot code. They ship something useful the same afternoon.

Workshop mentor

Powerful enough for people who script daily, gentle enough for someone automating a single spreadsheet chore.

Community moderator

Custom shortcuts turned an unfamiliar accounting application into something I could actually move through quickly.

Reader note, shared in our inbox

Developers keep it around because it removes the small interruptions that break concentration during a build.

Contributor, tooling channel

Save keystrokes and mouse clicks with shortcuts you define yourself, and hand the repetitive parts of the day to a script.

Reader note, shared in our inbox

An automation tool that changes how you work with Windows, with tutorials plain enough to follow on a first read.

Workshop mentor

Genuinely useful, and at a price of nothing, close to unmatched for what it can do.

Community moderator