It's really easy to start with LuaMacros just make sure you install the necessary tools:
If you have clonned this repo (or downloaded it) and installed AHK you are kinda ready. But before everything unzip the downloaded luamacros.zip file to use LuaMacros.exe when unzipping, extract all files directly in lua folder don't create a new folder for extracted files, or later cut and paste files to lua folder.
You can just open the .zip file and copy everything (or cut with CTRL+X) inside and paste directly inside /lua/ folder then delete the downlaoded .zip file.
Go to this directory on your Windows installation: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.ahk
OR
- Go to
Usersfolder. - Then find your own user folder. (named as your username)
- Create a folder named
.ahkin your user folder.
Then create a new TXT file here named as keypresses.txt. You don't need to write anything inside just leave it empty.
This TXT file will be used by both your AHK scripts and LuaMacros to read keypresses from your secondary keyboard.
Now you need to launch LuaMacros. Navigate to lua folder inside of this repo (/lua/) then run the LuaMacros.exe. After you launch the LuaMacros click to printer like icon on the top left of the window. Then select the LuaMacros.lua file which is in the same directory as the LuaMacros.exe. This will load the Lua script, now you need to run this click to play icon to run the script, after you run it you need to press any key on the keyboard you want to use for AHK macros/scripts.
When you click any key on the desired keyboard you will see an ID which will be around 7-8 characters long, it might be directly shown you just like this: 0000AAA or it might be something like this: \\\\?\\HID#VID_3151&PID_3005&MI_00#9&3ABDDC5D&0&0000#{884B96C3-56EF-11D1-BC8C-00A0C91405DD} if you see the long version it's because script was not able to detect the ID directly and instead shows the full version of SystemId which means you need to find it manually.
But probably you will have the short basic version which is ready to copy and paste. Copy the selected keyboard ID and paste it to here:
clear()
local keyboardIdentifier = '0000AAA';
local yourKeyboard = '3ABDDC5D';Before everything close the LuaMacros.exe and exit it to avoid conflicts then replace the content/string in yourKeyboard variable and paste your own keyboard ID that you copied in LuaMacros.lua file (you can use text editor to launch that file) then save that file and close it.
Now follow the step 2 to complete the required setup.
You can already see the example AHK scripts I created in scripts folder, you can read the scripts and understand how your main file should start. luamacros_engine.ahk is the key file which shows you how your scripts should start, in macros.ahk file you can see how I get the keypresses from the txt file we have created before. You also need this to actually understand which key is pressed. And this is the last part that you need to make a change.
Find the path of your keypresses.txt file which should be in C:\Users\%USERNAME%\.ahk\keypresses.txt (you can copy paste this into file explorer) and you need to replace that %USERNAME% part with the actual username in your PC. You also need to change the same text in LuaMacros.lua file:
local file = io.open("C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\.ahk\\keypresses.txt", "w") -- replace me!!!to
local file = io.open("C:\\Users\\loeiks\\.ahk\\keypresses.txt", "w") -- replace me!!!After you change that path in both files you are ready.
If you want to launch LuaMacros.exe and your AHK scripts automatically when Windows starts follow this step. You will see another file in the lua folder which is LuaMacrosAutoRunner.ahk (yes an AHK script) required to automatically launch the LuaMacros.exe with LuaMacros.lua file, run it and then minimize the application. Open that AHK script in the editor you use and replace the file paths for the LuaMacros.exe and LuaMacros.lua you will see my paths first.
To find the paths select the LuaMacros.exe file and run CTRL+SHIFT+C which will copy the path of the file. Do the same for Lua script.
After you replaced the paths now run WindowsKey+R to launch Run on Windows then run this: shell:startup which will launch the folder of startup apps in Windows. While pressing ALT key drag the LuaMacrosAutoRunner.ahk script into that folder to create a shortcut for that AHK script.
In this way when you start Windows LuaMacros.exe will start just how you need it in minimized mode.
You can also manually launch any AHK script you need but if you also want to automatically launch the scripts you can press ALT key and while holding ALT key drag and drop the any AHK script file you want to the startup apps folder in Windows.
To launch startup apps folder press
WindowsKey+Ron Windows and launchRunthen run this command:shell:startup.
Now you are ready to create your own custom scripts/macros and use them with LuaMacros. You can see some example macros/examples to see how I handle it, my files are in scripts folder.