Microsoft's PowerToys Keyboard Manager will allow custom hotkeys to launch apps and webs

Microsoft is reportedly upgrading its PowerToy's Keyboard Manager tool, enabling users to create custom hotkeys to launch applications or open websites. This adds to a recent feature that lets users set up custom text strings to be pasted using a hotkey.

The future update will offers a variety of options for users to set rules for opening applications, such as defining a launch argument or opening the app in minimized mode. In addition to launching apps, the Keyboard Manager will lets users link a specific URL to a hotkey, automatically opening the website in the selected browser when pressed (quite similar to what you can do with tools like Macro Deck or TouchPortal).

Microsoft has also demonstrated a visual revamp of the Keyboard Manager to incorporate these features and align better with the Fluent Design UI system. If you haven't tried Microsoft PowerToys yet, we recommend you to check it out, it brings hundreds of improvements to Windows in a single package and is completely free.