A hotkey does not fire

A key never runs an action by itself — it fires a scenario through a button slot. That chain is described in the "Control Panel" guide, section "Hotkeys"; without it the list below does not make sense.

Start at the top of the settings of the Panel: Buttons tile — the gear on its header. The block there names which of the two failures you have, and they are cured differently. That tile was called "Control Buttons" before; it is the same one.

Not a single key works, anywhere

The block says: "Hotkeys cannot be read on this computer, so none of them fire — with or without the helper. This usually means a missing Windows component; reinstalling strAImer over the current version fixes it."

Rule this one out first. Nothing is wrong with your slots or your scenarios — the app cannot ask Windows whether a key is held down at all, so every key is dead, in games and out of them alike. Two things cause it:

• The system libraries are missing. A Windows that has never had a game, a driver or a developer tool on it does not carry them. Any install of 0.7.0 or later brings its own copy, so this only bites machines set up from an older build.
• The part that reads key state was removed from the install. Antivirus software does this now and then: watching whether a key is down looks like a keylogger to it.

Both are cured the same way — install strAImer again over the current version. There is no need to uninstall first, and your settings, your panel layout and your connected accounts are untouched. If antivirus was the cause, add strAImer to its exclusions before you reinstall, or the same file will disappear again.

The block is only drawn when strAImer itself is running as an ordinary application. If you start it as administrator yourself, there is no block and no warning — judge by the symptom instead: not one key firing anywhere is this case.

Only games ignore the key

The block says: "The helper is on but not responding. Hotkeys work everywhere except games running as administrator."

Windows does not let an ordinary application see keystrokes while an elevated window is in focus. The helper exists for exactly that: press Turn on in the same block, and Windows will ask for administrator rights once. Confirmed on real games.

A copied or restored install shows a different line: "The helper is on in your settings, but it has not been set up on this computer yet. Turn it on to finish — Windows will ask for administrator rights once." Your settings travelled to the new machine, the Windows task behind the helper did not. One press of Turn on finishes the job. This is the usual answer to "the key worked yesterday and now it does not" after moving computers.

What to check next

1. Is there a scenario for that slot, and is it on? Also check the group it belongs to — a disabled group silences its scenarios. And the Scenarios module itself must be on.
2. Is strAImer running? Minimised is fine; closed is not.
3. Was the combination recognised? The recorded key turns red, and its tooltip reads "Could not recognize the combination". Which keys can be recorded at all is listed in the "Control Panel" guide.
4. Modifiers must match exactly. A bare key will not fire while Ctrl or Shift is held — a common surprise in games.

Clicking a button gives an error

• Module is disabled — turn the module back on in Module Catalog.
• Access denied or Unknown module action — the button is pointing at something the module does not offer. Worth a support request.