Open Specific Settings via Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows 10/11

I’ve recently written a guide showing the steps to create desktop shortcuts for specific Settings pages. After reading it, one reader emailed me asking whether it is possible to open a specific Settings page with a keyboard shortcut. He had already tried the “Shortcut key” option in the shortcut properties, but it was unreliable.

Thankfully, yes, you can do it. Even though the native Windows option is unreliable and straight-up doesn’t work in some situations, you can use AutoHotkey to open any Settings page with a keyboard shortcut. All you have to do is copy and paste the small script I’ve given below. Unlike the Windows method, it works every time. In fact, this is the method I use to open the “Windows Update” page in the Settings app with the keyboard shortcut “Win + Alt + U”.

Let’s get started and assign keyboard shortcuts to open specific Settings in Windows 11 and 10.

Before You Start

• The steps below have been tested to work in Windows 11 and Windows 10.
• Please download AutoHotkey from the official website. Once downloaded, double-click it and follow the on-screen instructions to install it (requires admin rights). After installing, follow the steps below.
• To open a specific Settings page, you need its specific URI command. I’ve given a list of URI commands for the most popular Settings pages below. Simply pick the ones you want to use.

Quick Navigation:

• URI Command list
• Steps to open specific Settings pages with keyboard shortcuts

Command List to Open Specific Settings Page

Below is the list of commands that open specific pages in the Settings app. Pick the ones you want to open with a keyboard shortcut and use them in the script given in the next section.

Open a Specific Setting with Keyboard Shortcut

Open the Start menu by clicking the Start button on the taskbar, search for “Notepad“, and click “Open” on the right panel.

In the Notepad window, copy and paste the following script. It opens the Windows Update page when you press “Windows + Alt + U”. We need to customize it so that you can use the keyboard shortcut and open the settings of your choice.

; Win + Alt + U (Change these keys if you want)
#!u::Run "ms-settings:windowsupdate" ;Opens Windows Update (change it if you want)

In the script above, the symbols “#!u” represent the key combination. You can customize it using the key reference below:

• # represents the Windows key
• ^ represents the Ctrl key
• + represents the Shift key
• ! represents the Alt key

Based on the references above, if you want to use “Ctrl + Windows + Shift + D” to open the Display settings page, you need to modify the script like this:

;  Ctrl + Windows + Shift + D
^#+D::Run "ms-settings:display"

If you want, you can assign different keyboard shortcuts to open different Settings pages. To do this, simply repeat the code in the same file, like this:

; Win + Alt + U opens Windows Update
#!u::Run "ms-settings:windowsupdate"
​
;  Ctrl + Windows + Shift + D opens Display
^#+D::Run "ms-settings:display"
​
; Win + Alt + B opens Bluetooth
#!b::Run "ms-settings:bluetooth"

Now, press the “Ctrl + S” shortcut or click the “File” > “Save” option. In the “Save” window, do the following:

1. Go to a folder where you want to save the file.
2. Type a name ending with .ahk (e.g., SettingsHotkey.ahk) in the “File name” field.
3. Select “All files” from the “Save as type” dropdown menu.
4. Click “Save“.

Once the script file is saved, open the File Explorer (Windows key + E), open the saved folder, and double-click the script file.

The above action runs the script file, and you will see a green ‘H’ icon in the taskbar (check the overflow menu, if it doesn’t appear). As long as the script is running, pressing the assigned keyboard shortcut opens the Settings page instantly.

There is one more step to make sure this script works every time. As of now, the script stops running when you restart your computer. To use the keyboard shortcuts, you need to rerun the script. Rather than doing it manually every time, you can simply add the script to the Windows Startup folder. Here’s how.

1. Hold down the Alt key on your keyboard, then drag and drop the script file into the same folder. This instantly creates a shortcut file.
2. Press “Windows key + R” to open Run.
3. Type “shell:startup” and click “OK“.
4. Cut (Ctrl + X) the shortcut you just created and paste (Ctrl + V) it in the Startup folder.

For more detailed steps, check this guide: Steps to run the AutoHotkey script at Windows startup. It shows both the startup folder and task scheduler methods in detail with screenshots.

That is it. With that, you can now open any settings page with a keyboard shortcut. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll help.