Thank you very much indeed. That’s very kind of you, and much appreciated.

Absolutely. We’ve used this product every day for almost eighteen months now, purely as a productivity tool, and without taking advantage of any of the streaming features for which it was originally envisaged. It has become an indispensable part of our setup.

That’s very kind of you. Thank you very much indeed.

You are very welcome. Glad you found the content useful.

That's very kind of you @Chris Marsh. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much indeed. That is very kind of you. Glad you found the content useful.

Hi Scott. We really hope you enjoy your XL when it arrives, and we think you will. Almost two and a half years since publishing our first tutorial and our Stream Deck is still in daily use, which is quite something for a “non-essential” peripheral. You might also like some of the more recent videos published on our channel which use the Stream Deck in conjunction with Microsoft Office (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b5qpl7el2rjRoqs.html) and to trigger backup routines (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mc6FqZyfkuC0ipc.html) in addition to forthcoming tutorials featuring Windows’ system settings.

@@TechFixFlix Thanks for the reply! I have been a computer programmer since the early 90’s, getting into the field because of the possibilities of automating the busy work out of what we do. It looks like this gadget does that in spades. I got the large one, because the less you have to click two buttons to get what you want, the more you’ll have to do “in the heat of the moment” and the more you’ll have to remember configurations. While I started learning programming on the mainframe (command line), I quickly took to the visual interface of Windows (though Microsoft sucks at their implementation, I was never in an Apple centric office), because of the possibilities of clicking an icon to execute any macro (small program) you wanted, rather than having to type out the instructions each time. Now, as an end user, I am excited about the possibilities. I envision that I will use the first screen to point to different workflow folders, each of which will have my oft used use functions available at the push of a button. Ironically, I didn’t find this until recently, as I haven’t gotten into the streaming craze (maybe when I get more time?), but saw someone demonstrate how he used it from a home studio producing workflow. As a Jack-of-all-trades, I will have workflows for music production, “regular” computing (browsing, emails, documents, spreadsheets, etc.), photo editing (Lightroom and Photoshop), and eventually, video (stop motion). So, I wish products like this wouldn’t get pigeonholed for a particular use, though I know it’s hard to help people understand how this will improve their workflow without target marketing. I actually found many of the products by this company, like their lights and stands would be helpful to me in my different workflows. Again, excellent review and I wish you the best!

Nice to hear from you again Scott. We can certainly relate to being a Jack-of-all-trades, and we expect our Stream Deck to handle everything from document formatting, to media playback and toggling smart home devices, and often control actions which don’t necessarily link to what’s happening on screen. We’re in complete agreement about pigeonholing and targeted marketing. When we published our first video, we confused an awful lot of streamers who didn’t appreciate the quite narrow sense in which we used the Stream Deck, and we still haven’t ventured beyond the “System” functions into the realm of proper streaming, and nor will we. We see this device as akin to Apple’s “Touch Bar,” and we can only imagine how this would have been marketed had it been manufactured by Apple. From our perspective, there is massive potential for general user functionality that could have significant mass appeal, and this could be tapped into should Elgato wish to broaden their user base, particularly as this isn’t a very congested marketplace. We’re somewhat jealous of your XL, as we’re still using the fifteen button original. Through nesting functions, some of our commands are four layers down, so we don’t need to be convinced as to the value of additional buttons. Using the Stream Deck in the way we do currently appeals to a small subset of the user base, and there are a niche group who simply just “get it.” You are clearly one of those people, and we’re certain that you’ll find endless creative uses for the device. We really hope you enjoy it.

@@TechFixFlix Thanks again. If I find any novel uses for it that I haven’t seen on KZfaq, I’ll be sure to let you know. No need for a response.

Thank you very much indeed for your extremely kind words about the tutorials @salldean. Welcome to our community.

Thank you very much for your kind words about the video. You might also like some of the more recent videos published on our channel which use the Stream Deck in conjunction with Microsoft Office (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b5qpl7el2rjRoqs.html) and to trigger backup routines (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mc6FqZyfkuC0ipc.html) in addition to forthcoming tutorials featuring Windows’ system settings.

Thank you very much indeed. Glad you found the content useful.

Thank you very much indeed. That’s very kind.

Thank you very much for that Jonathan. It’s great to hear from someone else who is using the Stream Deck for something other than streaming, and glad you found the content useful. Given that this video will be two years old next month, and we’ve learned a lot about both how to use the Stream Deck and how to make better videos since then, we couldn’t agree more that it’s about time for version 2.0, and we intend to publish the follow-up later this month.

@@TechFixFlix That's good to hear; I'll keep a look out for the new video. Whilst I'm not into home automation, the detail on IFTTT linking was understood. Could you do something similar to explain how a streamdeck could run simple/intermediate macros ? Also, an explanation of how it could be helpful when working with Office documents ? I know everyone has different needs, but it's good to have examples that spark the imagination - I watched your video this morning, and realised I could quickly set up keys for folders, Paint, and Snipping Tool in order to standardise all my icons. I've only had it 24 hours, and already I'm lovin' it.

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you very much indeed. That’s much appreciated.

Thank you very much indeed. Glad you found it useful.

That’s fantastic @Andreas Steiner. Glad you found the content useful. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your comment. We have been extensively pursuing activities outside of the KZfaq platform for the past six weeks, and consequently we are only now catching up on feedback and questions. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

You are very welcome.

Thank you very much indeed @Alexander KSC. Whilst the Stream Deck is clearly designed to support streamers, and offers far more functionality for those looking to use it as intended, there’s also a very clear use case for those of us who are looking to streamline our general workflow, and we’re surprised that Elgato haven’t sought to market this aspect of the device more prominently, because it’s a brilliant tool with a diverse range of applications. Our Steam Deck remains in constant use nearly two years after being purchased, which is always a good sign. We’ve added some additional functions since publishing the video, and we’d certainly consider revisiting this for a follow-up. As we don’t want to repeat the same content, we’d only make the video if/when we have sufficient new material to make something which people will hopefully find useful, so watch this space for future developments. Thank you very much once again for taking interest in our projects.

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you very much indeed. We truly appreciate you taking the time to say that. Be assured there will be more content to follow.

You’re welcome.

Thank you very much indeed. That's very kind of you.

@@TechFixFlix Mate, listen I spend a lot of time reading through comments on various types of videos. You by FAR are the one of the only content makers I have seen that answers comments and questions thoroughly and are interested in outcomes of your suggestions. My hat's off to you 💯

Wow. That’s incredibly kind of you to say so, and it's very much the intention to support the content via the comments as much as possible, not only to assist people when following the tutorials, but also to help understand where they encounter difficulties and also provide feedback to (hopefully) make better videos in future. By way of return, it’s very rewarding to receive positivity from your comments, both because it’s quite rare, particularly in the tech arena where frustration is understandably the norm, and because it really makes the job of content creation and responding to comments worthwhile. So for that, thank you.

You are very welcome.

Wow @Coco's Cabana. It’s always amazingly gratifying when someone finds the video content useful, and is kind enough to put it into words. This is now quite an old video for us, and was only the fourteenth to be published on the channel back in 2018. We’d like to think we’ve improved our video-making somewhat since then, although many of the fundamentals of the Stream Deck remain unchanged almost four years later, and we’re still very much using ours now in the way that we did then. We hope you’ll enjoy using yours equally. Thank you so much for your kind words about the tutorial. Feedback like yours makes the whole task worthwhile.

@@TechFixFlix you are so welcome! I still feel as if the streamdeck , and ( I purchased a used older Palette gear/ monogram, to help me) their software seems too easy yet overwhelming, especially to a non gamer but wanting to stream AND go live. I found an amazing VA and he will not only edit my videos but he's IT guy as well. I told him to watch yall first AND my streamdeck is my first priority. Being old school, I guess I keep looking for a huge loud click button that says done or entered after every single button..lol. maybe like a typewriter...haha but please keep up the great work. Now if I can figure out how to save yall on like the top of my youtube info or save to my homescreen, BUT I think yall will become a NEW button right next to my chrome button lol...yes yall are amazing and isn't cool to still get positive feedback from old videos, tech is amazing!! Love yall !! Your new fan Caligirl fan !

Thanks for you ongoing support @Coco's Cabana, which is very much appreciated. Hope you have a great day!

Hi @Craig. Thank you very much for your kind words about the video. Thanks also for the feedback in relation to the “more elegant shutdown,” which is appreciated.

Good idea @Ivo. Although we haven’t used shortcuts for everything, we do have a dedicated directory for all of our Stream Deck scripts and batch files. A further advantage of this approach is that we can automate the backup of shortcuts and routines triggered by our Stream Deck.

You are very welcome.

Thank you very much for your kind words about the tutorial. At the time the video was originally published back in November 2018, the channel had one subscriber, so we’re delighted to have added two thousand more since then. We also published the follow-up to the Stream Deck tutorial last week at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b5qpl7el2rjRoqs.html The follow-up focuses on Microsoft Office, and we have a series of other Stream Deck content scheduled for release before the end of the year. In terms of icons to monitor C.P.U. or G.P.U., we’d hope this might be offered via a plugin of the type accessed via the “More Actions” button in the bottom right of the main Stream Deck software window. We can see a C.P.U. usage (not temperature) monitor, although nothing for G.P.U. at present. We’d imagine these would be popular requests and will probably be under development somewhere.

I've seen it done 1 of 2 ways. The 1st is by using a HWmonitor extension: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pr-HfLeHmcvHgnk.html. It's in German (which I kind of understand thankfully) but I don't particularly like this method since it requires HWmonitor to always be running. The 2nd method I saw in this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j7yThpNox7fZkp8.html. This definitely requires some manual coding and I suspect the person used Nvidia SMI but I can't be sure and the guy doesn't seem to be active anymore. I definitely prefer this method over the other

Thanks for the feedback, which is very much appreciated.

Thank you very much for your kind words about the video. Our top resource for icons in this project was icons8.com and you can use its search bar to find almost any computer icon in a variety of styles. Hope this helps.

Hi Michael, glad you enjoyed the video. You are absolutely correct about the profile size. At the time we made the video, we were clearly affected by either a bug or temporary glitch which was generating exported file sizes approaching 2GB. Whatever caused this was rectified within a month of the video being published, and our profile now weighs in at a little over 10MB, which is entirely acceptable.

Thank you very much. We appreciate that. We are still proud of this video, which was a real labour of love at the time it was made. Obviously we’re taking a device aimed at streamers and using it as a general input device, but that’s very clear from the title and description of the video, and expressed very early in the video itself. We’re still using our Stream Deck, and looking forward to the forthcoming XL version with 32 keys.

​@@TechFixFlix A lot of people don't get it, obviously. I plan to use it for everything but streaming and this video opened my eyes - thank you! This thing brings fun to everyday tasks. :) I'm definitely buying one after watching your video. You are making some really thorough and easy to digest content. Keep up with great work and I hope this channel will get some traction...fast!

Thank you for your kind words about the channel. It’s really nice that you would take the time to say that, and it is very much appreciated. As for the Stream Deck, it’s great fun and used in absolutely every session on the P.C., even if only exploiting a fraction of its overall capability, and there’s a joy in pressing a custom icon that you’ve designed yourself to run an app, load a file, turn on a light etc. We really hope you enjoy your purchase. We think you will.

@@DJovyland Exactly what I wrote in a forum for (tech) deals yesterday, since the unit was discounted to 99 euro @Amazon. I use the streamdeck for everything but streaming. I think Elgato misses out on a huge amount of potential customers by using that name.

@@TechFixFlix I love the new xl version, and although it might not be expensive, it costs way too much for me. But who knows? Next years black friday deal or so makes is more reachable. I was looking for your other videos about the stream deck, but you never got around to do them? I did learn a few new tricks. I don't have mine that long, but am hooked to find new uses. I use it in Cities Skylines, which I am playing heavily modded. And all those mods have their own commands to be used in game. There are so many that I really can't remember that. I had to go to the Steam Workshop a lot to find out what commands to use. It takes a while to get them in the deck, but after that all the mods are just a button away. I hope you will continue with new videos about the stream deck.

Hi @TC. Glad you found the tutorial useful. Yes, you’re absolutely correct that the Stream Deck can show different icons in response to the foreground application you’re running. Under Preferences > Profiles, you’ll find a list of your profiles and a dropdown list from which you can select the application with which you’d like a particular profile to appear, and clearly this would be in line with the way you’d like to use it. We specifically choose not to use this function, purely because we often use the Stream Deck to perform a task which is entirely different from what’s happening onscreen (for example controlling audio playback with the Stream Deck whilst typing in a word processor or turning on the lights with the Stream Deck whilst editing video onscreen). In this scenario, rather than contextual profile switching, we use nested directories, so our top level icons lead to more sub folders where necessary, giving us far more than fourteen options, potentially running to many hundreds or even thousands of options, depending upon how deep we’re prepared to take the recursive directory structure.

@@TechFixFlix Hadn't thought of the multi-tasking problem/angle. Makes sense. Is there a 'back button' facility on the SD that allows you to return to the previous folder? I'm thinking that if I'm in a sub-folder I can use a home button to get to the Primary deck to change lights/audio/etc then rather than navigate several folders to get back to where I was I could tap the back button until I get to where I was?

Hi again. Whenever you create and open a new folder, one of the fifteen new icons is automatically assigned as a back button, and pressing it takes you up a level. This means you always have a way to navigate backwards, although there are two things to note. Firstly, this means that any subfolder will have fourteen useable buttons, with the fifteenth automatically assigned to your back button. Secondly, if you create folders within folders within folders, there’s no mechanism to jump right back to the home screen, which means you need to reverse through one level of navigation at a time (when using a single deck setup). These are absolutely minor issues, and are entirely acceptable for the extra levels of functionality achievable through using multiple levels of directory structures.

@@TechFixFlix I think they've missed a trick by not having a return to surface feature. Still it sounds like an awesome piece of kit.

We’d certainly agree that it’s an awesome bit of kit. It’s well over two years since we bought ours, and it’s still in daily use, even though we’ve never taken advantage of any of the streaming operations, and are purely using its “System” functions. The possibilities for controlling your P.C. are purely limited by your imagination, and from your comments you absolutely seem like someone who will explore the device and exploit its full potential. We’re currently producing what we hope will be our fourth video about the device, and for a non-essential peripheral, we’d probably rate this as one of our all-time favourite control devices. We hope you enjoy yours.

Many thanks for your comments in relation to the audio. We really appreciate quite specific feedback of this type as it helps produce a better product for future videos. We identified the need for a pop filter ourselves when listening to playback, and this has been added to our setup, and present in all our videos since mid July. When we set up the app launcher shortcuts, we must admit that our ambition was purely to launch an application, and we didn’t really give consideration to maximising an existing instance. We’ve looked at the behaviour of Outlook, and can confirm that our experience exactly mirrors yours. With that in mind, we’ve been reading around the subject of command line entires which would either launch an app or maximise it should it already be running, and certainly can’t immediately see anything which would cater to this either/or environment. Of course, it has to be possible because this is exactly what happens with a mouse click. As we’re struggling with this one, we’ll throw it out to our brilliant and helpful community, who have already offered some great suggestions improving the shutdown command, and hopefully an inspired solution will be found.

@@TechFixFlix Hi Ive found a work around! There are a couple of plugins that work better for launching and maximising and they give consistent results (well they have so far!) to make it work so that clicking a button will initially launch the program but only launch it once you need the "advance Launcher" by BarRaider To maximise or even position the app with the same button click you need click "window mover " by the same developer. Both of these plugins can be found in the "more actions" tab in the bottom right corner of the stream deck app. You need to run both commands on a multi function button and then it will behave as youd expect it to if you clicked the shortcut on your desktop or taskbar

That’s super, thank you very much. We’ve not really explored the plugins section since launch, and the time has clearly come to have another look. Thanks for pointing us in that direction.

Absolutely. If you right click any blank tile on the Stream Deck, you have the option to “Create Multi Action.” This allows you to use any of the functions of the Stream Deck in combination, applying them in a sequence you define.

Hi there. Great question. As the “Text” field can be somewhat limiting, in terms of its formatting capabilities, you may well want to add the “Multi Action” and “Hotkey” functions into the mix. Let’s say that you want to enter some regular text, then some bold text, then return to regular text. We’d right click a tile on the Stream Deck, and select “Create Multi Action” from the menu. Now, we double click the multi action tile we’ve just created. Then, we drag a text function as our first action, and we type our first paragraph (or cut and paste text from your pre-prepared document). We type or paste up to the point where we need to make the text bold. Now, we drag in a system hotkey. We’re using Microsoft Word as an example here, and we’re looking for the keyboard shortcut which makes text bold, which is CTRL+B. So, where the Stream Deck field reads “click to assign,” we click, and the message “observing keystrokes” is displayed. We then press CTRL+B. Next, we drag in a text field, and this is the text that we are making bold. Again, we add our text. To make sure that the bold is removed, we then reverse the previous operation, dragging in another hotkey, which again is CTRL+B, but this time it has the effect of undoing the bold. Then, add another text field, and we will continue with regular text. That takes a little setting up, but, after that, it’s one button press to enter the text. It doesn’t stop there. Obviously, we need to find the appropriate formatting shortcuts for whatever software you’re using to enter your text. Again, renewed apologies if you’re not using Word (or, by extension Outlook, which is based upon Word’s engine). We picked it because its shortcuts are relatively universal. If you aren’t looking to make the text bold, here are some other formatting shortcuts which we use: CTRL+I (Italic) CTRL+U (Underline) Shift+F3 (Capitalisation Options) CTRL+SHIFT+L (Begin bullet point list, using predefined style) CTRL+SHIFT+N (Return to normal style) Googling whatever app you’re using plus “Keyboard Shortcuts” can yield somewhat of a treasure trove for Stream Deck users via the hotkey command. Hyperlinks should be automatically formatted for standard web content. For anything else, the keyboard shortcut CTRL+K will be your starting point. You could also use the Multi Action function to do what you’re doing already, i.e. open a document using the Open function, select all of its content using the hotkey CTRL+A, close the active window (Shift+F4), paste the content into the new window etc. The more you add to the chain, the more timings become an issue, and the more likely it is to fail. Having said all of that, our favourite method to achieve this remains to use Insert > Quick Parts from the main menu in Word and Outlook, because it allows us to quickly compose and format the response exactly as it will appear, and deploy it with a couple of clicks. We’ve also used Outlook Template files in conjunction with the Stream Deck to allow us to generate a full canned response with a single button press on the Stream Deck. There’s plenty of content here. Do get back to us if any of it isn’t clear or appropriate to your use case.

@@TechFixFlix Thanks a lot this was absolutely genius! I started experimenting with these ideas, and the "Multi-Action" worked great! M In case it helps, the best way I found to fix this was: For CRs with formatting but little to no hyperlinks - I used multi-action with the ideas you gave me (add text just before format > format hotkey > next text > ...) For CRs with lots of formatting and/or many links - I used your idea of opening a link and copying it all; however, in my case (using Google Docs), the program took a few seconds to load, so the other commands (selecting + copying all text) were being pressed before the actual doc opened, so what I did to fix it was that I used a "Multi Action Switch" instead, where the first half of the switch was to open the doc, and once it was opened, the second click (basically the 2nd part of the switch) would then do the hotkeys to select all, copy and close window (ctrl+a,c,w). Thank you for your super thorough response, you made me more aware of other possibilities I didn't think of before and although formatting, non character limited actions should be a thing that's inherently added to Stream Deck, (I'm not sure why it isn't), after your ideas and a bit of work, I can have exactly what I wanted. Thanks again!!

This is fantastic, and exactly the kind of use we had in mind for this tutorial. We’re delighted that you’ve put this into use in the way that you had in mind. Your multi-action switch was a fantastic bit of improvisation, and we definitely applaud you for that one. We’ve been experimenting with the “Delay” function (within the “Stream Deck” group), where you can input a delay in milliseconds as a standalone function, which, in your case, would give your file time to load, before continuing with the remaining commands. The key here is to get the timings as accurate as possible. If they’re too generous, you’ll be left waiting, but if they’re too eager, your file might not have loaded before the processing of the multi-action list resumes. If you’re happy with the multi action switch, then stick with it, but there may also be instances where inserting a delay within a standard multi action might be useful. We’re enjoying the direction you’re taking with this. Keep up the good work!

Always good to have new ideas for spare buttons @B C. We’ve now filled our fifteen (and created sub-directories) with additional functions, some of which we’ve featured in our follow-up tutorials, and some of which we’ll talk about in future videos. Good to see you giving this some thought, as the possible applications are numerous.

Hi @crojas. To the best of our knowledge, the current implementation of the Stream Deck software only allows for a two-key combination, so you’d need to look toward a workaround. The two most popular options are the SuperMacro plugin, found at apps.elgato.com/plugins/com.barraider.supermacro and AutoHotKey from www.autohotkey.com

This appears to be two problems rolled into one. Firstly, how do we control volume on an individual tab basis, when this functionality isn’t built into Chrome by default? Secondly, if we solve the first problem, how do we then map that control onto the Stream Deck? Turning to the first issue, we’re almost certainly going to be looking toward a third party browser plugin to achieve this, at least until such functionality might be incorporated by default into Chrome. The front runner here would appear to be Volume Master, found at: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/volume-master/jghecgabfgfdldnmbfkhmffcabddioke Assuming that you head down the third party plugin route, you’re then going to need to work out how to apply volume up and down commands to the Stream Deck, and whether you’re looking to use them in a particular browser tab or tabs on a fixed basis, or whether you’re simply looking to apply the commands to the active tab. It might be that you can solve the first problem quite easily via the plugin, but mapping that control to the Stream Deck might be less easily achievable.

There’s nothing more exciting than waiting for new kit to arrive, and we hope you enjoy using it. Our Stream Deck is still in daily use, approaching two years after purchase, and is well worth the money. As the Android app came out after we’d purchased our 15 button model, we didn’t ever get round to checking it out, but, we don’t seem to be able to find any reference to exporting profiles during our web search, so it looks as though you will indeed be starting afresh. In terms of documentation, we haven’t produced anything ourselves as yet, although this is a future project which we might well undertake. In the interim, you might want to look at the official Elgato Quick Start Guide, which you’ll find at images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91kacsFF-yS.pdf You’ll also receive the printed version with your purchase. More directly relevant to the actions featured in our tutorial is the summary of System Actions on the Elgato web site, which you’ll find at help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/articles/360028234471-Elgato-Stream-Deck-System-Actions.

@@TechFixFlix Thanks again

You’ll find all of the tutorials we have published at kzfaq.info To date, we have only published one tutorial about the Stream Deck.

Hi @J. Per. Nice to hear from you, and thank you for your kind words about the video. Here are the steps to take which will hopefully direct you to a Windows File or folder. 1 )..Open your Stream Deck software. 2 )..Open the “System” functions from the panel on the right. 3 )..Drag an “Open” function to a blank tile on the main Stream Deck Window. 4 )..Using Windows File Explorer, navigate to the file or folder you want to link to. 5 )..Press Shift and right click on the file or folder. 6 )..The act of pressing Shift adds extra options in the menu which appears. One of those options is “Copy as path.” Click that option. You have now copied the path to your clipboard. 7 )..Return to the Stream Deck software. 8 )..Your new “Open” tile has a field labelled “App/File.” Right click in that field. 9 )..Select the option to “Paste.” This will paste the path to the folder copied in Step 6. 10 )..Optionally, add a title to your function. 11 )..Optionally, add an icon to your function. Clicking the dropdown in the top right of the icon, and selecting “Create New Icon” will open the online “Key Creator” which will offer a number of possibilities. Alternatively, selecting “Set from File” will allow you to use downloaded images or those you have personally created. We hope this answers your question, but do get back to us if this isn’t what you need.

Thank you so much😊🙏 I didn't expect your complete and detailed response😅 This is a really big help😃 Looking forward on your future tutorials. Salute! 😊

You are very welcome.

Glad you’re finding the video useful. You’re right that folders can be more tricky than files, and there are two additional complications… The first complication is that the Stream Deck software uses backslashes where Windows uses forward slashes, so, taking our Downloads folder as an example, to access via File Explorer, we’d search for: C:\Users\tff\Downloads However, the exact same folder is launched on the Stream Deck via the path: C:/Users/tff/Downloads Furthermore, where you input in one format, the software may convert it to another. The second complication is that the Stream Deck also periodically struggles with network shares/folders, and a macro which worked in one version of the software might fail following an update. Our preferred method to open any folder is to: 1 )..Drag an “Open” function to a blank position on the Stream Deck. 2 )..Using File Explorer, navigate to inside the folder you wish to open. 3 )..Click inside the navigation bar at the top of the File Explorer window, which will change the folder location to a pathway. For example, our “Downloads” folder displays as: This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Users > TFF > Downloads but, clicking navigation bar changes this to: C:\Users\TFF\Downloads and we can simply copy and paste this pathway into the App/File field on the Stream Deck. Pushing the button should then open the directory, although the two complications mentioned above might come into play at this point. Hope this makes sense. If not, do get back in touch.

@@TechFixFlix Thanks I appreciate your help with this! I tried a local address (like directly on the C drive) and it opens the folder, however for any folders that are synchronized on the PC from DropBox it does not seem to be working, which is in line with the second complication you explain. Have you found any work around this ?

@@TechFixFlix Also to mention, I can open a specific file in within the synchronized DropBox folder , but its the folder path that it does not quite seem to understand or accept as a path

We’re currently running version 4.7.0.12981 of the Stream Deck software, which is the latest version at the time of this reply. This is purely for your reference, as we’ve seen folder behaviour vary a little between software versions. We have an existing path to our local Dropbox folder, which we’ve tested and can confirm that this is still working. By default, the link displays in the App/File dialog as: C:/Users/tff/Dropbox although clicking within the field amends this to… C:\Users\tff\Dropbox …exchanging forward slashes for backslashes as we mentioned in our earlier discussion. Prompted by your question, we tried a few more folders from within our Dropbox folder, namely: C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Apps C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Photos C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Screenshots All three of these worked, but one failed: C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Camera Uploads The obvious reason for the failure being that this path has two words separated by a space, whereas the others are single-word names. The solution here is to use quotation marks, just as we would within the filing system itself, so instead of: C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Camera Uploads …we enter: “C:\Users\tff\Dropbox\Camera Uploads” Adding quotation marks to the start and end of the path allows directory names containing spaces to be referenced. This is also applicable to local directories with names which are otherwise forbidden. If this still doesn’t resolve your issue, do get back in touch.

@@TechFixFlix Hope you are well! Sorry for delay in coming back on this one! Your suggestion of adding quotation marks has worked! Its great. Thank you for your time! Now my mission is to explore what other possibilities for automating some routine tasks with using Stream Deck are there. By the way at the moment I am using the app rather than the hardware with buttons.

Glad that you enjoyed the video, and we’d be honoured to chime in on a very interesting question. Assuming that you’re running Windows (although we appreciate macOS drivers exist), our first thought was to use Task Scheduler, using the launch of the task StreamDeck.exe as the triggering event. We could then, for example, trigger the launch of a second application as detailed in this article: superuser.com/questions/745318/how-to-start-a-program-when-another-one-is-started Alternatively, you could launch StreamDeck and a secondary task by creating a batch file which could include multiple additional tasks if you require them. We'd be happy to look into this further with you if you have a specific action in mind...

Hi @George Mickel, and thank you for the like and the subscription, both of which are very much appreciated. We can certainly replicate Page Up and Page Down functions on the Stream Deck, by: 1 )..Dragging a Hotkey function to any blank tile on the Stream Deck. 2 )..Clicking in the Hotkey field (which reads “Click to assign”). 3 )..Pressing “Page Up” on the keyboard. Note that, as an alternative, you can also click the downward pointing arrow to the right of the hotkey field then select “PgUp” from the menu which appears. Then repeat with a new blank tile, changing step 3 to Page Down (“PgDown” when using the menu). You could take this a step further, by scrolling a pre-defined number of pages with a single press by combining them in a Multi Action: 1 )..Right click a blank tile on the Stream Deck. 2 )..Select “Create Multi Action.” 3 )..Click to open the new Multi Action. 4 )..Drag a Hotkey function into your new Multi Action. 5 )..Click in the Hotkey field (which reads “Click to assign”). 6 )..Press Page Up/Page Down, or select “PgUp” / “PgDown” from the menu. 7 )..Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 for each additional press of the Page Up/Down button. To save labour, you can use the action you have already create to copy and paste multiple times. Let’s say that you want to scroll down five pages with a single button press, you can simply copy and paste your template action four times. You could set up buttons depending upon how far up or down you would like to move with one press, probably using matched page up/page down pairs.

@@TechFixFlix Thank you so much! Great help, I'm blown away. Cheers

You are very welcome.

We completely agree @Brian Vandy. We're still huge fans of the Stream Deck almost four years after our initial purchase, for exactly the reasons you have mentioned.

Hi @KingGreatnessKG. We can get you part of the way there, but there’s still an outstanding issue. The keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+ESC opens Task Manager (We could also use an Open Command with Taskmgr as the target). Task Manager opens by default at the “Processes” tab. We want the “Performance” tab to its right. The keyboard shortcut CTRL+TAB navigates to the next tab. We therefore need to create a multi action which combines these shortcuts. We do this by right clicking a blank button, and selecting “Create Multi Action.” Click to open the multi action and drag in two hotkey functions, assigning the first to CTRL+SHIFT+ESC and the second to CTRL+TAB. In theory, that should be that…but we did mention a problem. On our system, when the Task Manager window opens, it doesn’t seem to receive input focus, meaning that our second hotkey is never applied, leaving us frustratingly short of achieving this. If anyone can fill in the blank here, and tell us how to achieve input focus, we’d be grateful. There is a way to cheat, by having the “Performance” tab set as the default. To do this, open the Task Manager window, and go to Options > Set Default Tab > Performance. With Performance set as the default, the hotkey CTRL+SHIFT+ESCAPE would then take you directly to the Performance tab. Finally, and once again cheating, don’t forget that there’s a C.P.U. performance monitor Stream Deck button plugin available from Elgato via the plugin store. It regularly ranks as one of the most popular plugins. Hopefully something in here helps.

@@TechFixFlix thank you so much!

You’re very welcome.

The closest you’ll probably come to a software-only version of the Stream Deck would be using the mobile app, although that is controlled via a mobile device, rather than onscreen via a mouse. The Windows app which accompanies the hardware (1) requires the hardware to be physically attached and (2) is used to configure commands rather than execute them, so it doesn’t meet your requirements. You might find some useful functionality in apps like AutoHotkey (www.autohotkey.com) or Touch Portal (www.touch-portal.com).

@@TechFixFlix thanks for the reply - really helpful!! I'll check both links out.

You are very welcome.

Thank you very much indeed. You are very kind.

[We've reproduced this reply in the comments for our Microsoft Office video, but we're also posting the same reply here as it is also very much of relevance to this tutorial]. Great question…and we think we have an answer. First, drag an “Open” command into your Stream Deck window. In the App/File dialog, your syntax will be: “[Full path to the browser’s exe file]” [Full URL of the web site] Note that the path to the browser’s exe file is enclosed in inverted commas, whereas the web site URL is not. Here are some real-world examples (using default installation paths): "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" kzfaq.info "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" outlook.live.com/owa Hope this helps.

@@TechFixFlix Thank you very much! It works wonders! No other channel or person was able to answer this! You earned a subscriber!

Thank you very much indeed. That’s really appreciated.

There’s an article which you might find useful at stackoverflow.com/questions/27955511/make-chrome-open-on-second-monitor/27957436#27957436 In particular, note the example which we’ve quoted verbatim below: :: Left screen is 1024x768 "C:\chrome.exe" "www.example.com/?a=0&b=1" --window-position=0,0 --window-size=1024,768 --user-data-dir="C:\my-chrome1" :: Right screen is 1280x720 :: Now chrome.exe we need to open in the second screen then we do it as below: :: we might want to use --kiosk but combination of --kiosk and --window-position wont work so in that case we can use --app "C:\chrome.exe" --app="www.example.com/?a=0&b=1" --window-position=1025,0 --window-size=1280,720 --user-data-dir="C:\my-chrome2" So, from the perspective of the Stream Deck, we’re looking for a single command which we can trigger using the “Open” command. Whilst the example above uses a dual monitor setup, rather than your triple setup, the mechanism for a three monitor setup should simply follow the same pattern. Using this command as our base: "C:\chrome.exe" --app="www.example.com/?a=0&b=1" --window-position=1025,0 --window-size=1280,720 --user-data-dir="C:\my-chrome2" 1 )..Either keep "C:\chrome.exe," or amend it if you’ve installed Chrome to a different path. 2 )..Replace “www.example.com“ with the URL of the web site you want to access. 3 )..Amend the value for -window-position to whatever the horizontal resolution of your first monitor is, plus 1. i.e. If your first monitor is 1980x1020, your value here would be 1981. Presumably, if you were to target your third monitor, the value would be the horizontal resolution of your first monitor, plus the horizontal resolution of your second monitor, plus 1. One your command is complete, map it to a button on the Stream Deck and test it. In the interests of full disclosure, we haven’t tested this in a multi monitor setup, so we’re hoping this will work based on its logical appeal rather than actual testing. Hope his helps.

There's also a plugin by 'BarRaider' (very popular dev. of StreamDeck plugins) called "Windows Mover" that makes this process very easy to set up ;)

@Chinoman10 Thank you very much for that suggestion. Windows Mover seems like a very useful solution to the problem described, and we can see other potential uses for it. Your feedback is much appreciated.

Hi @NonsenseGUS. This sounds interesting. What type of files are you trying to close? Typically we’d look to the keyboard shortcut used by the application, then map that to a Stream Deck hotkey. Are you trying to achieve something specific?

@@TechFixFlix yes so for example i have a folder that hold pngs that i pull from in order to use. what i wanna do is open a folder and when im done with the folder i wanna press the same button and close that folder. but idk how to close a folder.

like i know how to open things and with advance launcher i can also open things and close programs/ apps but unlike the "open source" function advance launcher cant open folders nor close them and only "open source" function can only open folders

Hi @NonsenseGUS. This might not be exactly what you’re looking for, but we’d approach this with a view to absolute simplicity, and the easiest way to close a folder would be via the keyboard shortcut CTRL+W, which you could map to a hotkey to close the active folder. Alternatively, you can close an active application via ALT+F4. If you're looking for something more complicated, do get back in touch. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your comment. We have been extensively pursuing activities outside of the KZfaq platform for the past six weeks, and consequently we are only now catching up on feedback and questions. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

@@TechFixFlix thank you guys for getting back to me. i figured there isnt a way to have a button be dedicated to closing a folder. in the instance where i would have to map a shortcut to a button to close a folder i would first have to select the folder inorder to have it close as suppose to having the button close the folder with out me having selecting it.

Hi @Scheppy Doe. If you’re happy to change the global settings for your device (removing U.A.C. in all instances) check out our short video “Disable User Account Control And Windows Defender SmartScreen,” which you’ll find at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hbB5hZiLt520Yqc.html If you’re not looking to disable U.A.C. across the whole system, you might look to a solution which points toward a shortcut with elevated privileges, as described in each of the following articles: www.thewindowsclub.com/create-elevated-shortcut-run-programs-bypass-uac www.groovypost.com/howto/howto/make-administrator-shortcuts-bypass-windows-uac Equally, this can be achieved with single-line commands, as described at nodachisoft.com/common/en/article/en000107/ Alternatively, you might want to create a Multi Action in the Stream Deck Software and toggle U.A.C. off, then launch the app, then toggle back on again. See superuser.com/questions/227860/how-to-toggling-uac-on-off-quickly-eg-using-command-line-in-windows-7 for an example. Or you could point your Stream Deck button toward a batch file, as described at woshub.com/run-program-without-admin-password-and-bypass-uac-prompt/ Hopefully there will be a suitable solution from the suggestions above.

Thanks for the feedback, which is very much appreciated. We had hoped to show a more sophisticated shutdown method than the one used in the video, which isn’t a particularly elegant solution, but rather tries to use the functionality of the Stream Deck in a somewhat convoluted manner.

You can also use shutdown -s -f -t 00 for immediate shutdown without a message or use shutdown -r -f -t 00 for immediate reboot without using a message.

Thank you very much for that. At the time we made the video, we didn’t really have an elegant solution for shutdown, so we’re grateful for the suggestions we have received. Much appreciated.

That’s an interesting challenge, and two questions immediately come to mind here: 1 )..How are you dealing with your email? For example, you might be running a dedicated client programme like Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with the web service of the same name), or you might be visiting a web site in your browser. So, if you’re using a client, each one will have potentially different mechanisms for adding attachments. Similarly, if you’re using a browser, the methods available to you will differ between browsers of different types. If you are using a browser, the email service itself may be an issue, so Gmail may offer different possibilities than, for example, Yahoo! Mail. So you’re going to need to tailor a macro which takes into account the application and service which you use to access you mail. You’d then need to look to those keyboard shortcuts which are used within those apps and services to add attachments. Ideally, we’d be looking to trigger a “canned response” containing the attachments using a single button on the Stream Deck. 2 )..Are you always attaching the same documents, or will they be different every time? If they’re different, you’re still going to have to personally select them, which will reduce the value of any macro and still require you to do the work of selection. Using the same attachments is probably more suited to a macro.

@@TechFixFlix thx. Yes, I'm using outlook and it is a canned response with the same documents, which are pdfs.

We can offer partial assistance here, in that we can trigger a new mail with attachments. Where we’re struggling is to set this up as a reply. Here’s how we do it… 1 )..Run Outlook (Our test was performed using Outlook 2013). 2 )..Start a new mail and create a template for your reply, including any text, and add your .pdf attachments. 3 )..Once complete, head to File > Save As. 4 )..Give your template a distinctive name. We’ll call ours “Reply With PDF Attachments” 5 )..Use the “Save as type” dropdown, changing the type to “Outlook Template.” By default, this will save in C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates with a file extension of .oft So, we now have a file we can call upon, namely C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Reply With PDF Attachments.oft Now, we use the Stream Deck to open that template. 6 )..Drag the “Open” function from the “System” group to a spare tile on your Stream Deck. 7 )..Click the App/File box, and type: “C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Reply With PDF Attachments.oft” • Include quotation marks in the filepath. • Replace YOUR USER NAME with your Windows username, exactly as it appears at login. • You can replace “Reply With PDF Attachments” with a name of your choosing. 8 )..Add an icon and text to your button and test. As we mentioned this is only part of what you asked for, and you would need to copy across the recipients address, and most likely the content of their original message, unless anyone can perform something similar which can be inserted as a reply.

@@TechFixFlix thx u guys are the best. this is a bit more involved that i thought but will give it a try tonight and report back.

You’re very welcome, although this only really moves you a little bit closer to the outcome you’re looking for. If anyone has a way to achieve this as a reply rather than a new message, that would fully answer your question. Hope your test works.

For some reason, we’ve always tended to use the mouse to save via the menu, but you’re quite right that CTRL+S is a more efficient way of doing it, and we’ve probably used keyboard shortcuts a little more since making this video. Of course, there are many less familiar keyboard shortcuts which we might not always remember, and some of these can be very useful when programming the Stream Deck, so we’ve been scouring lists of shortcuts for various apps with a view to mapping them.

@@TechFixFlix True that, not all remember most, I do on occasion lol. Any way, thanks for the review I've ordered one!

Hope you enjoy it. We think you will.

@@TechFixFlix I've got mine to Flatten, then save, which has saved me a bit of hassle. Just for save isn't really worth it for me.

Yes, it’s probably overkill for something as simple as “Save,” which is very easily accomplished via CTRL+S, although, from a purely aesthetic perspective, it’s nice to have a visual control panel from which we can open, close, save, cut, paste, etc. It’s more for completeness or ease of use than an actual practical need, because the underlying key combinations are both easy to remember and simple to perform.

Hi @Nate C. We’re assuming that you’ve already prepared and saved your batch file (but, if not, get back to us and we’ll go through that process). Let’s say that you have a batch file called “My Batch File.bat” saved within your Documents folder. To run it, we’d simply drag an “Open” function to a blank tile on our Steam Deck, then in the App/File dialog, either navigate to your batch file, or type “C:/Users/[Your User Name]/Documents/My Batch File.bat” (and here you would replace [Your User Name] with the user name for your Windows account, and you would keep the quotation marks around the whole path). When you press your new Stream Deck button, your batch file will run. Depending upon what your batch file is doing, you may not see anything happening, because they are designed to run silently in the background. If you’re just starting out with this, we’d recommend something simple like having your batch file run an application, because you’ll see if your batch file has successfully processed because the application you’ve selected will run. If this isn’t quite the information you’re looking for, do get back in touch.

@@TechFixFlix Thank you so much! All I was missing was the quotation marks around the file path. I went to the length of turning it into an exe and then having it run using BarRaider's Advanced Launcher, which would only work when running as administrator. Who knew the solution was so simple. Thanks again!

That’s fantastic. Glad you got this working.

Thanks for the very comprehensive solution Louisa. That’s very much appreciated.

In our case, we right clicked a blank tile on the Stream Deck, then created a multi action in three parts: 1 )..Hotkey: Win+X (Windows Key + X) 2 )..Hotkey: U 3 )..Hotkey: U This is a far from elegant solution, and it simply emulates three key presses which call up the alternative Start Menu (similar to right clicking on the Start button), then select the “Shut Down” menu, then the “Shut Down” option from that menu. Each of these actions is visible to the user, as though you were manually pressing the buttons. It’s a reliable means of shutting down, but not a visually pleasing one, because you can see how the “magic” is being done. Our community have responded with some far better suggestions, which you’ll find in the comments. Here are a few: Max Benn suggests: Shutdown your PC running a script: shutdown /s /f /t 0 /s - shutdown /f - force /t xxx - xxx seconds Nyhuus suggests: For shutdown simply use: shutdown -s -t 5 -c "shutting down in 5 secs" Can also be -r instead of -s for reboot It’s a built-in program in Windows Peter Vachon suggests: You can also use shutdown -s -f -t 00 for immediate shutdown without a message or use shutdown -r -f -t 00 for immediate reboot without using a message Hope this helps.

@@TechFixFlix If you are sending only a single command, you can skip the batch file and do an open command. In the box just type "cmd /c " which would look like this: cmd /c shutdown /s /f /t 0

Much appreciated @bissquitt

@@TechFixFlix I have decided to use a multi action switch, for shut down (to avoid accidental shutdowns, Switch Action 1) Win + X, delay, U followed by Action 2) U to confirm shutdown

That’s a great use of the multi action switch @Photon Collector, providing a fail-safe against accidental shutdown. We’ve certainly experienced instances where we’ve inadvertently triggered unwanted actions using our Stream Deck, and this is a very sensible mechanism to counter that. Thanks for a very useful piece of feedback, much appreciated.

There’s definitely an element of fun to using the Stream Deck, and particularly so when you map a function which would normally require a significant number of key presses or mouse movements to achieve. It’s probably the most useful non-essential peripheral we’ve ever purchased, in the sense that we could make do with keyboard and mouse, but we still find reasons to use the Stream Deck instead, more than two and a half years after first purchasing it.

Hi Dean, After some quick testing, we definitely agree with you. You should simply be able to map hotkeys for left, right, up and down using the equivalent arrow keys, but this does not work in Kodi for us either. We can successfully map Esc and Enter, but obviously we’d need more than that to navigate in Kodi. If anyone can offer a solution to this (using the current versions of both the Stream Deck software and Kodi), we’d love to hear from you.

Good stuff. We’ve also made extensive use of batch files, which are ideal for mapping multiple actions to a single button. As you mention, they’re easily created in Notepad, and are saved using the File > Save As… function, then using the “Save as type” dropdown to select “All Files” and ending the filename with .bat to change the saved document type to a batch file. We’ve also been using batch files to apply renaming rules to our files, allowing a single button push on the Stream Deck to rename multiple files in accordance with predefined rules. We’ve been intending to produce a tutorial on this for some time…

Also: For the passwords you could store it encrypted and use the same encryption API to unencrypt it via the stream deck. That's a lot of work though, but it is possible. Great video btw, you've got yourself a new subscriber!

Hi @Timmy. Thank you very much for your kind words about the video, and thanks also for the subscription, which is always appreciated. If you’ve found this tutorial useful, you might also like some of the more recent content, in which we’ve returned to the subject of the Stream Deck. We’re grateful for your feedback in relation to the shutdown procedure, which is certainly a more elegant option than the one we featured in the video.

As you’ll appreciate, this tutorial is based largely around using a physical Stream Deck, but that doesn’t mean that much of the functionality can’t be replicated by other means. We’d break it down into two questions: 1 )..What do you want to trigger? Examples: Launch an app. Navigate to a Folder. Open a file. Open a web page. Insert text. Trigger a script. Run a macro. 2 )..How can you trigger it? Examples: Keyboard shortcut. File explorer shortcut. Mouse button. It’s then simply a matter of linking what you want to achieve with how you’d like to achieve it. For example, we’ve published two videos in which we map functions to additional mouse buttons, which you’ll find at kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bbRhmMyonN-UkWg.html and kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7WKjZOA1c-RoIk.html Once you’ve established the basic premise, you’re limited only by your imagination. We also briefly mention AutoHotkey in our video, which you’ll find at www.autohotkey.com All you need here is a keyboard and an idea as to what you’d like to achieve. Whilst the Stream Deck hardware is fantastic, it’s only a form of trigger, and doesn’t add any functionality which your computer doesn’t already possess. Without a Stream Deck, you’re looking for alternative ways to trigger events, and the key is to make use of what you already have in terms of keyboard and mouse.

@@TechFixFlix thx

We’re not sure why the video isn’t working for you, but obviously we’re disappointed because we’d like you to see the content we’ve created. As far as we are concerned: 1 )..The video is working for us. We tested it at 17:00 BST today (18th July, 2019) with no difficulties. 2 )..The video is working for other people, with our analytics showing 90 views in the past 48 hours, and a combined watch time of just under twelve hours. 3 )..There’s nothing unusual about this video which would prevent it from working, although it’s quite long at over thirty minutes. Nevertheless, it loads for us and it loads for others, we would guess that any problem is at your end.

That’s understood @Pinda Dhanoya. From reading around the topic, it’s apparent that the Stream Deck doesn’t work well with hubs, if indeed it works at all, and direct connection to the P.C. is very much the preferred way to go. Of course, if your machine has a limited number of U.S.B. ports, this may have consequences for your setup.

Thank you very much.