Midi Mixer Shortcut

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Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Midi Mixer Shortcut

Had to reinstall to a new machine and now I am getting this error - shortcut Ctl-Alt-M already used.

Apparently this is a Windows 10 shortcut.
So I wondered what other people do.

Actually I don't really need this shortcut since I never use it.
And I can just remove it I guess.
But if this is a default for VMS and is also a Windows shortcut then perhaps VMS should use another in its default settings.

Anyway, what do others do?

thanks.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: Midi Mixer Shortcut

This is a list of other softwares using that shortcut:
https://defkey.com/what-means/ctrl-alt-m

It seems that Windows is not using it; al least on my system (it-it locale) it does nothing.

An user here found that an nVidia program is stealing that hotkey on his system, maybe it's similar to your case:
https://superuser.com/questions/1282799/what-is-preventing-ctrl-alt-m-fr...

Here an user suggests to close running processes one-by-one to find which one is using the hotkey (you could also try to close them two-by-two to speedup the task):
https://superuser.com/a/1134121

Sadly there's no easy way on Windows to detect which program attached to a given hotkey.
Someone was able to detect it using Spy++ (a developer utility bundled with VisualStudio), but that's not something a non-developer user is able to do:
https://superuser.com/a/1204019

Finally I suggest you to open VirtualMIDISynth configurator and remap Ctrl+Alt+M hotkey to another (free) combination of your choice ;)

Posts: 11
Joined: February 21, 2019 - 23:34
Re: Midi Mixer Shortcut

Thanks for your detailed reply. I had a little look around and tried a few things. Interesting list you provided. I do actually use a couple of the programs listed (Xyplorer and Reaper) but actually it turns out that neither of these actually caused the problem. In the end I had to go into task manager and shut down services since I had shut down all the apps and still the problem manifested. The culprit turned out to be Macrium Reflect which is actually not one of those listed. From their help file -  "Alternatively, the backup progress can be shown at any time by pressing the 'Hot Key' combination Ctr+Alt+M. If a backup isn't currently running then the status of the last backup run in the current Windows session will be show."

This is actually really amateur. You can only change it when the ReflectMonitor is running - and this only runs when a scheduled backup is taking place or you use the hotkey to to start it up. So if you have the hotkey turned off and don't do scheduled backups and then this little monitor never runs and so you can't ever change the hotkey back. Very badly done in my opinion. Also there is no way to turn off their background service that monitors for scheduled backups. If I shutdown the service then the conflict goes away - but I can't not start it as it comes back on Windows boot every time - no matter what I do.

Not a problem but annoying that Macrium can't implement the hotkey in a more sensible and manageable way. I'm actually a retired IT professional and this sort of thing makes me ambarrassed to be part of the profession - well, used to be. These small things are what turns a user off a product. Anyway - I'm good now. And my report here might help other Macrium users. Thanks.

Posts: 1972
Joined: March 25, 2012 - 01:19
Re: Midi Mixer Shortcut
Bryan Holden wrote:
If I shutdown the service then the conflict goes away - but I can't not start it as it comes back on Windows boot every time - no matter what I do.

I suppose you already tried to set the service as Manual or, better, as Disabled, do you?
If you've already tried and it comes back to Automatic then there could be some other service that re-enables it (kinda weird, anyway).

Bryan Holden wrote:
This is actually really amateur. You can only change it when the ReflectMonitor is running - and this only runs when a scheduled backup is taking place or you use the hotkey to to start it up.

VMS hotkey assignment is easier to change, so change VMS :)

Bryan Holden wrote:
my report here might help other Macrium users.

Of course it is, thanks for reporting your findings.