Easy way to log keypresses in Windows

At work I was prototyping using some hardware with special buttons that I wanted to respond to, but I didn’t know exactly what key presses those buttons were simulating.

Instead of resorting to writing my own little key listener tool, I found a great suggestion in this Stackoverflow post:

You could use AutoHotkey and KeyboardHook to see what keys are being pressed. You only need to create a script with this line

#InstallKeybdHook

Save the file with and “ahk” extension and run it. Then in the Systray do a right click in the proper icon and select open. In the menu select View->History…..press F5 to update. […]

This worked wonders - I was able to find out that the “special button” was just sending the keys Right Alt + Left Win + F12! I was even able to use AutoHotkey to re-bind this sequence to invoke my custom prototype!