Help > How to stop a device with a hotkey

Global hotkeys. What is it and what for it is necessary?

Hotkeys (or keyboard shortcuts) are globally defined key combinations which allow the user to stop a device or return that device back to operation, using keyboard commands. Thus, using Hotkeys removes the need for mouse movement to perform a desired action. Users simply press the defined key combination to:

  • Stop a device
  • Reactivate a stopped, but not removed, device
  • Browse the content of a drive on a device
  • Stop all displayable drives

This provides an ideal solution for those who spend much of their time working with the keyboard, such as programmers or technical writers. For many people, it is more convenient and quicker to stop devices using keyboard commands, because it lets them make those choices without taking their hands off the keyboard.

A Hotkey is a combination of a modifier key (Ctrl, Alt, Ctrl Alt, Winkey and so on) and main key ("A" "B", "1", "F5" and so on). Hotkey examples: "Winkey S, Ctrl Alt A, Alt Shift F5, etc.
Using hotkeys, comfortable work
USB Safely Remove gives 2 handy ways of ejecting a device with a hot-key:
  1. Displaying the stop menu with a hot-key (default)
    You can call the stop menu by pressing a hotkey (Alt+Shift+S by default). If there is more than one device in the menu, you can choose the required device with the "Up"\"Down" keys and press the "Enter" key to stop the selected device.
    Would you like to browse a device drive using the keyboard? To do it call the menu with a hotkey, select the device and press "Ctrl+B".
  2. "Stop immediately" technology.
    When you are calling the stop menu with a hotkey, if there is only one device in the menu it can be stopped automatically without displaying the stop menu. To activate this behavior go to the program options -> "Global Hotkeys" tab and enable the "Stop immediately" check box.
  3. "Stop-All".
    Specify a hotkey to quickly stop all devices which are displayed in the stop menu.

USB Safely Remove also allows the assignment of separate hotkeys to enable stop\return back for individual devices. This may be useful if you have a device that needs to be stopped much more often than your other devices.
Useful tips on hotkeys
  • In order to close the stop menu that is called by a hotkey, just press "ESC" button!
  • To change or add a hotkey to call the menu or for "Stop immediately", proceed to the program options -> "Global hotkeys" tab and enable there "Use Stop Menu Hot Key" option (If it hasn't been enabled yet) as well as setup key combination in the drop down lists below.
  • To assign a hotkey to stop a certain device, call the Device properties dialog and at the "Common" tab enable "Use separated global hotkey for stopping the device" check box and choose a key combination for stopping the device below. The same hotkey you can use to activate back stopped but not removed device yet.
  • To change or add a hotkey to stop all displayable devices proceed to the program options -> "Global hotkeys" tab and enable there "Use "Stop All" Hot Key" option as well as setup key combination in the drop down lists below.
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