At this time, this is only a Windows 10/11 solution:
You can, but it will require creating and using a .bat file. The steps below will walk you through the process of creating a .bat file, adding a little bit of code, and showing you how to assign it to a button on your Quick Keys.
As a side note, you can add this to any button on your Pen Tablet, Pens, or Quick Keys.
This will also work for those of you who want to add an argument to a file you are opening. You can open a file using the Open/Run selection under Applcition in the settings panel, but you can not add an argument to that selection.
** The last example shows how to run a .exe file with a starting argument as a variant to using the .bat file.
Let's get started.
Our first teaks is to create a BAT file that we can then place our code in to open the URL or URLs we are wanting to open. [1] In the Windows search window, type Notepad. You will notice that I did not enter the entire work Notepad, and it still popped up. If you use NotePad++, that is a super utility and can be used here instead of NotePad, which comes with Windows 10/11. | |
Now we have an empty Notepad file open and are ready to place some code into the file. ** Do not save it yet. There is a specific file type we are going to save it as. | |
We are going to add the code that will open the web pages. [4] @echo off tells the operating system not to show and message on the screen. [5] Title this is what you are going to call your .bat file. It is not required but looks good. [6] For each website you want to open. You must start the line with a "start" space and then add the URL of the page you want to open. I'm opening four web pages. I'm not sure what that limit is, but be mindful of not opening too many. | |
Now we need to save the file and place it in a folder we can access with the Xencelabs Settings panel to assign it to a button. We'll also need to save it as a .bat file so that it can be run. [7] This shows the location of where the file will be saved to. I'm saving it to my Desktop. You can create a folder and save it to a location of your liking. [8] Drop this menu down and select "All files (*.*). This is important as we will need to save it as a .bat file. [9] You will need to name it, give it a name that you will recognize, and add the .bat at the end of it. [10] Click Save. The hard part of the process is done. | |
Now we need to assign a button on our Quick Keys (Pen or Tablet button) to run the .bat file. Open the Settings panel. You will notice that I have selected the Yellow "all other" globe to be used for this process. [11] Select Quick Keys from the left navigation column. [12] Click on the button you are wanting to use to activate the .bat file. I have chosen button #8. [13] Select Application from the menu selections. [14] Select Open/Run | |
[15] Click Browser - you will need to browse to the location of the .bat file. | |
[16] This shows the location of where I saved OpenOrchidWebPages.bat. [17] You will need to select the file. [18] Once you select it, it will appear in the File name window. [19] Click on Open. | |
[20] This shows you the path of the file you have selected. [21] This shows you the name. At this time, this is not changeable. The driver team is working on making this editable. [22] Click OK to save your selection. | |
[23] Now, when you press button #8 after you start your computer in the morning, the .bat file will run, and the websites will load. I like this because I start my day by opening five websites every day that I use for work. | |
You can make this as fancy or as plain as you would like. You can add the below code to open the URLs in MS Edge instead of the default browser. By default, the "start" statement will open the URL you have listed in using the default browser. You can change this by adding the code below. This will open the links in MS Edge. [24] Add "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application start msedge.exe" above the URLs you want to open, and no matter what your default browser is, the URLs will open in MS Edge. | |
You can also use the "start" command to open a .exe file, and you can add arguments to the program you are opening. [25] I'm starting Outlook, and I'm starting it in Safe mode. [26] You can see the path to where Outlook is located on my computer and list Outlook.exe with the switch /S to start it in safe mode. |