Odd behaviour with Matias Tactile Pro Windows 'driver'

[thegoldenmandenis]

Matias has a Windows 'driver' for their Matias pro keyboard, which is really just a script you can run that remaps some of the keys so they more closely match the location and function of keys on a standard Windows keyboard (the keyboard is primarily designed for Macs). I downloaded it to try with the Matias Mini Tactile Pro I've recently acquired, and it works quite well apart from one very odd problem...

As well as remapping the keys it should remap, it also remaps the #~ key to 3 if you're using a UK layout. If you switch to a US layout it instead remaps the " ' key to 3. I can't work out why it would do this and there doesn't seem to be any solution to it. It's a shame, because it makes the keyboard a lot easier to use, apart from this one problem. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here or how it could be fixed? There are no configuration options in the 'driver' itself.

[infodroid]

Did you install the Windows driver designed for the Matias Tactile Pro for use with the Matias Mini Tactile Pro? They are different products.

[thegoldenmandenis]

Yeah, I realise they're different products, but as all it does is remap keys I would have thought this behaviour is a bit odd. It is really strange that it works perfectly apart from remapping one extra key, which is a standard key and not some special hotkey or anything, to something pretty random!

[infodroid]

What about using a key remapping utility like SharpKeys or KeyTweak?

[thegoldenmandenis]

Unfortunately I was hoping to use it with a work PC, where the driver script works but those utilities can't be installed because I don't have administrator access.

[Laser]

Well, the best course of action seems to me to contact Matias.

There's also this, but I don't know if you can use the result (i.e. a customized kbd layout) without admin rights.

[thegoldenmandenis]

I worked out an ideal solution for this actually. I realised that the Matias driver is just a compiled autohotkey script. This was useful because it gave me a way of being able to know that a compiled autohotkey script would run on my work laptop without administrator access. So I just downloaded autohotkey and wrote a very simple remapping script, then compiled it. This is what I wrote in the end (the top part is just a standard header included by default in all autohotkey scripts:

Code: Select all

#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%  ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.

pgup::home
home::pgup
pgdn::end
end::pgdn
lwin::lalt
lalt::lwin
rwin::ralt
ralt::appskey

This also swaps the home/end keys with page up/page down, because I use home and end much more frequently so it's more convenient for me to have them instantly accessible without needing to use the fn key to access them. I'm quite glad that this situation forced me to install autohotkey and give it a try, because I think it's got lots of other useful features that could come in handy. I'm already thinking about possible alternative uses for the caps lock key!