electron/docs/api/global-shortcut.md

globalShortcut

Detect keyboard events when the application does not have keyboard focus.

The globalShortcut module can register/unregister a global keyboard shortcut with the operating system so that you can customize the operations for various shortcuts.

Note: The shortcut is global; it will work even if the app does not have the keyboard focus. You should not use this module until the ready event of the app module is emitted.

const electron = require('electron');
const { app, globalShortcut } = electron;

app.on('ready', () => {
  // Register a 'CommandOrControl+X' shortcut listener.
  const ret = globalShortcut.register('CommandOrControl+X', function() {
    console.log('CommandOrControl+X is pressed');
  });

  if (!ret) {
    console.log('registration failed');
  }

  // Check whether a shortcut is registered.
  console.log(globalShortcut.isRegistered('CommandOrControl+X'));
});

app.on('will-quit', () => {
  // Unregister a shortcut.
  globalShortcut.unregister('CommandOrControl+X');

  // Unregister all shortcuts.
  globalShortcut.unregisterAll();
});

Methods

The globalShortcut module has the following methods:

globalShortcut.register(accelerator, callback)

• accelerator Accelerator
• callback Function

Registers a global shortcut of accelerator. The callback is called when the registered shortcut is pressed by the user.

When the accelerator is already taken by other applications, this call will silently fail. This behavior is intended by operating systems, since they don't want applications to fight for global shortcuts.

globalShortcut.isRegistered(accelerator)

• accelerator Accelerator

Returns whether this application has registered accelerator.

When the accelerator is already taken by other applications, this call will still return false. This behavior is intended by operating systems, since they don't want applications to fight for global shortcuts.

globalShortcut.unregister(accelerator)

• accelerator Accelerator

Unregisters the global shortcut of accelerator.

globalShortcut.unregisterAll()

Unregisters all of the global shortcuts.