Versatile Hotkey

Versatile Hotkey is an application that can add multimedia functionality to any keyboard out there.

Especially useful if you’re listening to music and you wish to control playback straight from the keyboard, the application comes as a very light package, so it takes just a few seconds to download and install it.

With an icon that stays in System Tray for one-click access, the application provides no configuration options and comes with a long list of pre-defined key shortcuts.

All of them use the Windows key on the keyboard, allowing you to open the browser, the email client or the calculator, control volume or mute it, zoom or maximize windows, launch Control Panel, switch user, log off or quit Windows.

The good thing is that Versatile Hotkey is impressively friendly with hardware resources, so your computer may not even know that you’re running the app.

What’s more, it also offers shortcuts via the Tray icon to quickly open audio settings and the standard Windows mixer.

While it does its job very well regardless of the Windows version running on your system, it’s a shame that Versatile Hotkey doesn’t allow you to change the standard configuration, so you are stuck with the pre-defined hotkeys.

But overall, those who don’t have a multimedia keyboard definitely find this app helpful, especially because it comes with so many options that it could turn a standard keyboard into a multimedia one completely. Not to mention that it’s very, very easy to use.