Have you ever wished you could control iTunes via system-wide hotkeys? Free iTunes add-on HKTunes lets you do exactly that. HKTunes runs in the background and will let you perform the standard player controls such as previous/next, pause/play and volume.
You can also use HKTunes to use the media-player keys on your keyboard, if you have them, to control iTunes, as many of these are designed for Windows Media Player and will not necessarily work with iTunes from the get-go.
Now that I have my iPhone it seems that I am also committed to using iTunes for the foreseeable future. One thing that I found to be strangely missing are global keyboard shortcuts to perform simple pause/play and next/back operations without bringing iTunes into focus (iTunes’ own native keyboard shortcuts only work when it is maximized and in focus). HKTunes is the small simple app that I found that lets me do this.
HKTunes has a tiny footprint in memory, taking up less than 4 megs. Which is terrific because iTunes add-ins, in my experience, always tend to use up more memory than they should (or maybe this has to do with the iTunes scripting engine itself?). Not so here.
The verdict: the only thing I would have liked is the option to hide HKTunes from the system tray altogether. Other than that it works great and does exactly what it sets out to do, and I love that it’s lightweight.
Now the next time someone talks to me at work while I am listening to my headphones, or a song comes up that I do not care to listen to I can quickly pause or skip without having to do the little dance of bringing iTunes into focus.
Version tested: 1.7
Compatibility: WinAll. Requires iTunes.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 564 megs).
