System for reconfiguring a keyboard configuration in response to an

Abstract

A computer system includes a computer having an event detecting interface for detecting when an event occurs. Based on the occurrence of the event, a keyboard assignment scheme is dynamically reconfigured to an appropriate configuration. The computer also includes a user interface for sensing when a key combination of at least one standard key and a non-standard key of a keyboard is depressed and a look-up table for storing a plurality of key combinations and one or more applications corresponding to each key combination of the active configuration. A non-standard key application control in the computer determines the application corresponding to the depressed key combination according to the active configuration. If the depressed key combination corresponds to one application, the non-standard key application control launches the application via an application program interface. If the depressed key combination corresponds to a plurality of separate applications, the user is presented with a pop-up list to select an application for launching. In addition, the user can define the available configurations by communicating with the non-standard key application control via user dialogs to add or edit configurations thereby selecting the applications launched when a key combination in the defined configuration is depressed.