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Hot Virtual Keyboard Changelog

What's new in Hot Virtual Keyboard 9.5.0.0

May 17, 2022
  • New: Scheduled check for updates has been added: Settings > Advanced > Check for Updates.
  • New Gestures Ctrl+Key and Alt+Key have been added.
  • New expert settings have been added:
  • Shift, Ctrl, Alt, or Win key remains pressed if held down for less than 500 milliseconds;
  • Additional key border to define the active key;
  • Hold down Arrow keys until pressed again;
  • Hold down Any key until pressed again.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard shows characters accessible via Shift if they were added using the Paste Text action.
  • Improved: The procedure for determining full-screen windows for calculating the location of the on-screen keyboard has been improved.
  • Improved: The list of hidden windows appears as a separate submenu in the popup menu with all actions and in the main context menu.
  • Improved: The "Don't move the mouse when touching the on-screen keyboard" expert setting is enabled by default. The setting has been greatly improved.
  • Improved: The print dialog automatically appears when you print the action list.
  • Fixed: All text templates stopped working if you canceled the processing of a text template with the Esc key.
  • Fixed: The logon keyboard appeared in the upper left corner if you set "Don't move" in the "Default position" section.
  • Fixed: The issue of the disappearance of the program icon in the system tray has been fixed.
  • Lots of other fixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 9.4.0.0 (May 28, 2021)

  • Improved:
  • The size of the keyboard in the "Edit shortcut icons" window is set to the size of the main on-screen keyboard.
  • Improved: Handling of active input languages has been improved.
  • The information message describing the triggered hotkey has been improved.
  • The volume information window has been improved.
  • The "Move the on-screen keyboard to a screen border" setting has been replaced with the "Default position" setting.
  • You can change this setting for any keyboard in the "Edit Keyboard Type" window. So your keyboards will have different positions on the screen when you switch between them.
  • The keyboard position changes even if the Lock setting is set.
  • The on-screen keyboard with the "Moves and sizes the active window" option enabled can now resize maximized windows.
  • The Docking setting for the on-screen keyboard now works correctly for web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) in kiosk mode and full screen mode.
  • New key label templates have been added based on the "Segoe MDL2 Assets" font in the "Edit Keyboard Type" window.
  • Now you can use the <INPUT> tag in the Paste Text action. This tag adds the ability to enter text from the keyboard that will be inserted into the text template.
  • Changed:
  • The two on-screen keyboard settings "Changes the position of the active window" and "Changes the size of the active window" have been merged into one "Moves and sizes the active window" setting.
  • The "Do not overlap the taskbar" setting has been moved from the expert settings to the "Position" section of the main settings. The taskbar is taken into account when moving the keyboard to the edge of the screen if this setting is enabled.
  • Now the Ctrl-Alt-Del button is not shown by default above the keyboard on the logon screen in Windows 10. You can force this button to be shown using the ShowCAD parameter.
  • The automatic snapping to the edge of the screen when changing the screen resolution has been removed.
  • Fixed:
  • An issue with the Japanese keyboard (106/109 key) layout has been fixed.
  • Some other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 9.3.0.0 (Mar 28, 2021)

  • New keyboard types: Narrow, NarrowExtra, NarrowFunction.
  • New: You can assign the Paste text action with one symbol to Shift+Key hotkey, and this symbol will be visible in the corner of the key.
  • A new "The taskbar is taken into account when moving the keyboard to the edge of the screen" expert setting has been added.
  • A new Javascript function "ChangeLanguage" has been added. Now you can change the input language in the web browser, using the onscreen keyboard functions.
  • New: Persian interface language has been added.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard typing in Chinese and Japanese has been improved.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard now appears when DateTime Pickers are focused.
  • Improved: The expert "Highlight the keys on the on-screen keyboard when you lift your finger" setting now works for the physical keyboard as well.
  • Improved: You can type the © character by holding down the C key. See the Show alternate characters or symbols setting.
  • Changed: If multiple monitors are connected and the AccessDenied parameter is set to 2 or 3, then you can move the on-screen keyboard to any monitor.
  • Fixed: The search field now remains active when typing with the on-screen keyboard in Microsoft programs: Outlook, Word, Visual Studio, etc.
  • Fixed: The appearance of the keyboard settings window when working with multiple monitors has been fixed.
  • Some other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 9.0.1.0 (Dec 7, 2017)

  • Changes in this version:
  • New design and new icons.
  • New styles have been added: Windows 10, Colored, Android. Order of styles has been changed.
  • Improved: Almost all on-screen keyboards have been improved.
  • Improved: The window for selecting the type of keyboard has been improved.
  • Improved support of High DPI Displays on devices like Microsoft Surface, when "Size of text, apps, and other items" is more than 200%.
  • New keyboard types: MiniTouch, TouchScreen.
  • Improved: Many settings have been moved to new places.
  • New section "Show/Hide" for the on-screen keyboard has been added.
  • New: "Hide the on-screen keyboard when typing on a physical keyboard" setting now hides the keyboard when you attach "Cover Keyboard". If your attachable keyboard doesn't hide the on-screen keyboard, please contact our support team.
  • New "Show only when you click or tap a text box" setting has been added.
  • New "End state" setting for "Auto Hide" feature has been added.
  • New "Use all uppercase letters when I double-tap Shift" setting has been added.
  • Improved: "Set capital after" setting has been replaced by "Capitalize the first letter of each sentence" setting. Now this setting can recognize empty input field. The work in the Spanish language has been improved.
  • New: Now you can use <SELECTION>, <CLIPBOARD> tags for "Open URL" and "Run program" actions. For example: https://translate.google.com/#fr/en/<SELECTION>
  • New "Working In Background" kind of option "Type of URL opening" has been added for "Open URL" action.
  • New folder with Gamepads for computer games has been created. All rarely used keyboards have been moved to the "Outdated" folder. You can add and remove Outdated keyboards and Gamepads from the keyboard list using the menu items in the keyboard selection window.
  • Improved: Sounds "Quiet" has been improved and refined.
  • Improved: The operation of the on-screen keyboard with various combinations of settings has been thoroughly refined.
  • Improved: The switching of the input language has been improved.
  • Improved: The UWP app definition in Windows 10 to create dependencies has been improved.
  • Improved: New options have been added to the Dependencies setting.
  • Improved: "Word Autocomplete" setting has been renamed to "Text Suggestions". "Text Suggestions" feature has been improved.
  • New "Align Text Left" setting for the Text Suggestions.
  • Improved: If a word is not found, the Text Suggestions window is highlighted in color.
  • Improved: Blinking the "Text suggestions" window has been removed.
  • Improved: The Docking function now works faster.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard stores position for every screen resolution.
  • Improved: Five keys work like character keys: 0088=",;", 0089=".:", 008A="?!", 008B="-@", 008C="@-".
  • Improved: Now key combinations like Fn+1 work correctly with Ctrl, Alt and Shift control keys. For example: Fn+Alt+4 => Alt+F4.
  • Improved "Show the on-screen keyboard next to the text entry area" setting. If two monitors are connected and the text cursor is not defined, the keyboard will appear next to the mouse cursor.
  • Improved stability of the program on slow computers.
  • Improved some shortcut icons.
  • Improved: "Advanced keyboard settings" window changed by "Expert" window. All extended settings have been moved to Expert window.
  • Improved: "Repeat delay" and "Repeat rate" settings have been moved to the Expert window.
  • New expert settings have been added:
  • Highlight the keys on the on-screen keyboard when you lift your finger,
  • Show hieroglyphs for Asian languages on keys,
  • Temporarily hide the keyboard when a system window is visible in Windows 8 and above,
  • Temporarily hide the keyboard when the Start Menu is visible in Windows 10,
  • Hide the keyboard when you swipe it down,
  • Maximum number of lines in the Text Suggestions.
  • New Javascript functions have been added: "Move to center", "Capitalize the first letter".
  • Fixed problems when typing using a stylus in Fall Creator Update Windows 10.
  • Fixed an issue with the Text Suggestions window in WhatsApp software.
  • Fixed an issue with computer restart.
  • Lots of other fixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.5.0.0 (Feb 10, 2017)

  • Improved Windows 10 Compatibility
  • Improved: The Info window displays the Label from the action settings, if the label is not empty
  • Improved: The command line for the “Run program” action now supports all environment variables like %windir%, %ProgramFiles%, %USERPROFILE%, %APPDATA%, %TEMP%, etc
  • Improved Dutch language interface
  • Fixed issue with double letter entry when typing with the stylus or pen
  • Fixed issue with computer restart
  • Some other bugfixes and improvements

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.4.0.0 (Nov 13, 2015)

  • Improved Windows 10 Compatibility.
  • New “Swap keys” action has been added in the keyboard editor.
  • New keyboard types: UltraPhone, UMPCx2000, and UMPC_Numx2000.
  • Removed keyboard type: UltraPhone640.
  • New “Word Autocomplete: Add space after completed word” option has been added to the list of dependencies.
  • New: Slovenian interface language has been added.
  • Changed the order of words in the word autocomplete window based on the statistics.
  • Changed the icon on the Win key.
  • Improved the response rate when using the keyboard with the touchscreen.
  • Fixed: Microsoft Edge has been added to the list of web browsers.
  • Fixed: Alternate symbols for number keys didn't work correctly sometimes.
  • Fixed: The on-screen keyboard didn't disappear with the hide gesture sometimes.
  • Many other fixes and improvements have been made.
  • New extended options:
  • Hide the on-screen keyboard when a physical keyboard is present.
  • Prevent the mouse cursor from moving when you touch the on-screen keyboard in Windows 8 and above.
  • Block system keys and hotkeys like Alt+F4, Win, Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Alt+Del, etc.
  • Minimum height and Minimum width.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.3.2.0 (Apr 24, 2015)

  • New “Changes the position of the active window” and “Changes the size of the active window” options have been added. If the active window is under the keyboard, app moves it in view.
  • New ability to change icon for the on-screen keyboard in the system tray, the toolbar, the floating window, and floating icon. See new “Icon” field in “Theme” section.
  • New “Transparent background” options for the Floating Window and the Floating Icon have been added.
  • New “Three finger tap on your touchscreen: Show/Hide” option has been added. Note: Windows 8 and above.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard better displays some Arabic and Hebrew vowels.
  • New 12 flags for languages have been added.
  • Improved: Installed keyboards depend on the input languages.
  • New “Sort alphabetically” option for the word auto-complete feature has been added.
  • The word auto-complete feature has been improved.
  • New “Terminate the active program” action in “Window control” section has been added.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.2.2.0 (Dec 10, 2014)

  • New: The order of words in the word autocomplete window depends on the statistics accumulated by application. The application initially has predefined data on word frequency and word order for the most popular languages. These data are stored in the Common subfolder. When you type any text, the application memorizes the words that you use, so that later it can place the most frequently used ones in the beginning of the list. Which words are suggested also depends on the previously typed text.
  • New: The ability to set a label to an action assigned to a hotkey has been added.
  • Improved: The order of on-screen keyboard settings has been changed.
  • New: An option named "Hide the on-screen keyboard when typing on a physical keyboard" has been added. It works as follows: The on-screen keyboard disappears when the user presses a key on the physical keyboard. The on-screen keyboard appears again when the user touches the touchscreen, or calls the on-screen keyboard by pressing a hotkey or clicking the keyboard icon.
  • New "Trianlgles2" and "StandardLA" keyboards have been added.
  • New: "Confirm with key" buttons have been added for the word autocomplete windows.
  • New: Gestures support has been improved. Now the user can assign various actions to gestures.
  • New "Pinch or stretch to zoom when using a touchscreen" option has been added. To zoom in or out, touch the on-screen keyboard with two fingers, and then move the fingers toward each other (pinch) or away from each other (stretch).
  • New "Touch with two fingers to move" option has been added. To move the on-screen keyboard, touch it with two fingers, and then move in the same direction.
  • New: A volume control has been added in the "Sounds" section of the Options dialog box.
  • New command line parameters for the application have been added: /HELP and /?. They instruct the application to display the list of accepted command line parameters in a message box, and then exit.
  • Improved: "Show the on-screen keyboard when the text cursor is visible" option can work together with "Auto Hide" option now.
  • Improved: Text cursor position tracking has been enhanced.
  • Improved: The detection of password entry in the active field has been improved.
  • Improved: Compatibility with 64-bit versions of Windows has been improved. New files has been added.
  • Improved: Compatibility with Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 has been improved.
  • Improved: Touchscreen support has been improved.
  • Improved: When saved settings are loaded, the toolbar's state is restored.
  • Improved: An option to disable the Tablet PC Input Panel has been added for Windows 7.
  • Improved: The on-screen keyboard adjusts the animation speed on machines with limited graphics capability.
  • Improved: When the keyboard disappears from the screen, it releases the Shift, Alt, Ctrl, and Win keys.
  • Improved: The "Move the on-screen keyboard to a screen border" option works only when the on-screen keyboard appears. If the user moves the keyboard to any location on the screen, it will remain at that location until disappears.
  • Improved: If the Windows option Activate a window by hovering over it with the mouse is on, this option will be temporary disabled when the on-screen keyboard is visible.
  • Improved: Compatibility with Google Chrome and Opera has been improved. New extensions have been released.
  • Fixed: Some Arabic characters were displayed incorrectly.
  • Fixed: The "Draw a border around a key" option didn't work if the "Color" parameter was set. The "TouchScreenWin8" keyboard has been changed.
  • Fixed: On a UK keyboard, two keys were processed in one location.
  • Fixed: The problem with disappearing keyboard icon next to the text cursor has been solved.
  • Lots of other fixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.1.1.0 (Dec 12, 2013)

  • Improved DPI Scaling support.
  • Improved application icons.
  • New large icons have been added.
  • New keyboard type: TouchScreenWin8.
  • New option "Color" for keys has been added: Picture/Color...
  • New ability to set the font of the key label has been added.
  • Improved: Keyboard always provides visual feedback when you touch a key.
  • Improved: New versions of extensions for Firefox and Chrome have been released.
  • New command "MoveTo X,Y" has been added for JavaScript functions.
  • Improved: You can combine the calls in JavaScript functions: document.title = SavedTitle + " - HVKeyboard Name Mini - HVKeyboard MoveTo 100,10 - HVKeyboard Show";
  • Improved: The zoom of the keyboard changes when you change the keyboard type. The zoom depends on the screen resolution.
  • Fixed: Issue with saving labels of keys in Unicode.
  • Fixed: The bug that occurred when you touch one key with two fingers.
  • Fixed: Issue with incorrect text cursor detection in 64-bit systems.
  • Fixed: Sometimes a blank button appears in the taskbar.
  • Fixed: The repeat key settings don't work right when you touch the key with Korean language.
  • Fixed: Sometimes the keyboard appears briefly even though you launch the process with the /HIDEKEYBOARD command line parameter.
  • Fixed: Sometimes keys stay pressed when the PC wakes up from sleep mode.
  • General fixes and various minor improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 8.0.1.0 (Dec 18, 2012)

  • Lots of improvements for Windows 7 and Windows 8 touch-screen support.
  • Hot Virtual Keyboard has been tested to meet all of the technical requirements to be Windows 8 Compatible.
  • Improved: Section "Exceptions" has been replaced with new section "Dependencies". Hot Virtual Keyboard changes the settings depending on the currently active application.
  • New function "Show alternate characters or symbols" has been added. Hot Virtual Keyboard will show alternative characters when you press and hold a key. The selected character is typed when you release the key. The feature doesn't work when the "Enable key repeat" setting is on.
  • New: The word suggestion tool now processes the ' character in combinations like I'll, L'amour.
  • Improved: Setting "Show the toolbar in the taskbar" has been added for 64-bit systems.
  • Improved: Changed the keyboard icon.
  • New settings in the keyboard editing window have been added:
  • Change "Fit Width" regardless of the program settings,
  • Change "Lock Aspect Ratio" regardless of the program settings,
  • Always dock the virtual keyboard to the lower edge of the screen,
  • Always display characters and icons in the center of keys,
  • Always transparent keyboard background,
  • Fixed font size for all key labels (if empty, use the one from the program settings),
  • Dividing points - used when changing the keyboard size. The keyboard splits along the specified points, the keys slide in opposite directions.
  • Improved the Docking function for full-screen applications (IE in the kiosk mode) and Windows 8.
  • Improved: The default settings have been changed.
  • Improved: The keyboard editing window has been improved.
  • Improved: Color scheme "Black" has been slightly adjusted.
  • New: Option "Windows 8 Style" in the "Appearance" section - when enabled, rounded corners of windows and buttons are turned off.
  • New: Ability to change the assigned key combination in window "Keyboard Shortcuts Settings" has been added.
  • New: Ability to copy an action in window "Keyboard Shortcuts Settings" has been added.
  • New: Action "Word autocomplete on/off" has been added.
  • Improved: The size of word suggestion buttons changes depending on the keyboard font size.
  • New: Added special keyboard types for touch screens: TouchScreenLetters, TouchScreenFull.
  • New: Flag for Thai language has been added.
  • New: Slovak interface language has been added.
  • Fixed: The bug that occurred when switching the input language to extended layouts has been fixed.
  • Fixed: The incorrect positioning of characters in the Japanese Hiragana, Kana layout has been fixed.
  • Code optimization and various minor improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 7.1 (Nov 16, 2011)

  • New: Two keyboard types: SkinFlat, TwoSides2.
  • New: Support for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Traditional) layouts has been added.
  • New: "Exceptions" for Word Autocomplete function. Whenever any of the specified programs becomes active, Word Autocomplete turns off.
  • New: Command line parameters /TURNON and /TURNOFF have been added. Now you can turn on and off the program with a command line parameter.
  • New: Command line parameter /ACTION for launching actions has been added.
  • Improved: Monitoring of most-top windows (their overlap of the on-screen keyboard) has been added.
  • Improved: During macros editing, the ability to cut, copy, and paste selected lines has been added.
  • Improved: In macros it is possible to enter a delay time of up to 10 minutes.
  • Improved: The launch of several instances of the program with the command line parameter /M has been improved.
  • Improved: When AutoClick for the virtual keyboard is turned on, the same auto-click also works for the floating icons.
  • Fixed: When highlighting text in Internet Explorer, sometimes the on-screen keyboard disappeared.
  • Fixed: Issue with incorrect tooltip for option "Show a tip over a pressed character key" when Unicode used.
  • Some other bugfixes and improvements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 7.0.2.0 (May 27, 2011)

  • Added new keyboard types
  • Added new on-screen keyboard settings
  • Added new "Typing aid" parameters
  • Added an ability to control the keyboard from HTML in FireFox, Chrome and Opera
  • Added an ability to change key descriptions in the keyboard editing mode
  • Lots of other fixes and improvements

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 5.3.1.0 (Nov 17, 2010)

  • Added a toolbar for launching the on-screen keyboard.
  • Added a new parameter "Show the program toolbar in the taskbar".
  • Added new keyboard types: SkinWin7, SkinMulticolor, SkinWhite, SkinRound1, SkinRound2, SkinRound3, TwoSides.
  • Changed keyboard types: OneSide, OneSide2.
  • Added new options for assigning images to each key of the on-screen keyboard: separate images for different key states, a separate font color for each key state, "Draw a border around a key", "Resize with a key", "Fit by width and height".
  • Added a new parameter for the on-screen keyboard: "When I enter a password don't show which keys are tapped".
  • Enhanced the large icons on the multimedia keys of the on-screen keyboard.
  • Words entered by users are now recorded in UTF-8.
  • Added a new command line parameter /RESTORE.
  • Added large flag images (32x32) for the language bar and the on-screen keyboard.
  • Added the display of the flag and a "Show label" setting for the custom view of the language bar. The size of the flag depends on the size of the language bar (16x16 or 32x32).
  • Added an ability to launch several instances of the program using the /M command line parameter.
  • Added an ability to launch Microsoft's on-screen keyboard in the keyboard editing, hotkey configuration and icon management windows.
  • When working with the word autocomplete function enabled, "-" and "&" characters do not trigger automatic word completion.
  • Added the display of the keyboard layout when dead keys are pressed (for German, French and other languages).
  • The Office2003 theme has been replaced with the Aqua theme.
  • Added a new parameter in the "Keys" section: "Labels on system keys depend on the currently selected input language".
  • Added a new parameter in the "Keys" section: "Show the state of Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys".
  • Added an ability to configure the list of keyboards in the "Activate the next keyboard type" action settings.
  • Added an ability to assign a separate sound to each action.
  • Added an ability to remove the word directly from the autocompletion list by highlighting the unnecessary word and then pressing Delete key.
  • Added a new parameter for the word autocomplete function: "Do not show words with 1 character remaining".
  • Added a new parameter for the word autocomplete function: "Show as a set of buttons next to the on-screen keyboard".
  • Added new interface languages: Byelorussian, Croatian.
  • Fixed bugs that occurred in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with User Account Control (UAC) enabled.
  • Fixed the work of the command line parameter /COMMON.
  • Fixed a bug: The on-screen keyboard was displayed incorrectly before logging in on multi-monitor systems.
  • Fixed a bug: The on-screen keyboard was displayed incorrectly next to the text cursor on multi-monitor systems.
  • Fixed a bug: In some cases, the language bar docked next to the on-screen keyboard changed its location on the screen.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 5.1.1.0 (May 26, 2010)

  • Added new keyboard types: KioskSpecial, Triangles, WebKiosk.
  • Added a special Fn key for switching between number keys (1, 2, ...) and function keys (F1, F2, ...).
  • Changed keyboard types: MultimediaSmall, MultimediaSmall2, TabletPC, TabletPC2, Tight2.
  • The setting "Show text on the on-screen keyboard" has been added for the "Paste Text" action.
  • Added a new option "Show as background" for key pictures in the keyboard editor window.
  • Some other enhancements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 5.0.1.0 (Dec 17, 2009)

  • Added Windows 7 support. Added native support for Windows 7 multitouch. Touch input is available with 255 touch points. Added new keyboard types: MiniUnspaced, Standard3 (without NumPad), TouchGame1, TouchGame2, Tight1, Tight2. Added new parameters. Many other enhancements.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 4.2.5.0 (Jun 20, 2009)

  • Added an ability to make skins.
  • Added new skins.
  • An on-screen keyboard on the Windows logon screen has been improved.
  • Added new full screen keyboard types. etc.

New in Hot Virtual Keyboard 4.1.0.0 (Apr 22, 2009)

  • Added an ability to use multimedia keys for hotkeys.
  • Added new keyboard types: UltraPhones.
  • Added an ability to tune a hotkey message.
  • Added a new tag SCRIPT to the templates. With this tag you can perform various functions from your Java-scripts.