Keystone

Keystone is a key remapper and hotkey manager. Change what any key, shortcut or mouse button does - everywhere or only in a chosen program - and make your own hotkeys that open programs, folders and websites or run commands. You set it all up on a picture of the keyboard: click a key, press the key it should become. No script to write and no key names to learn.

What you can change

A key into another key or shortcut: Caps Lock into Esc, Right Alt into Ctrl+C.
A key switched off: Insert, Caps Lock, the Windows key.
Tap-or-hold: one thing when tapped, another when held. Caps Lock tapped is Esc, held is Ctrl. The timing is adjustable.
A layer: while one key is held, other keys take a second meaning. Hold Space and I, J, K, L are the arrow keys.
Shortcuts, mouse buttons including the side buttons, the scroll wheel with a modifier held, a key double-tapped, a key held down.
Hotkeys that do things: open a program, file, folder or web address; run a command line; play, pause, next, volume and brightness; minimise, maximise, close, move a window to the next monitor or keep it on top; lock the PC; type a fixed text; play a sequence of key presses with delays.
Each rule applies everywhere, only in the programs you choose, or everywhere except them. It can also depend on the window's title, or apply only while a game or video fills the screen.

Made to be easy to get right

A picture of your keyboard, full-size or laptop, with a mouse beside it. Remapped keys are highlighted and show what they do now. Layers are separate views of the same keyboard.
"Press the key" everywhere a key is asked for.
A plain list of all rules with on/off switches, search and drag-to-reorder.
Warnings before you save: two rules on the same key, a rule that hides a shortcut Windows or the chosen program uses, and anything that would leave you with no way to type a letter, Enter, Esc or a modifier key.
A key tester that shows exactly which physical key or button Windows sees and what Keystone turns it into. Good for checking a rule, and for diagnosing a keyboard.
Ready-made recipes: Caps Lock as Esc and Ctrl, an arrow-key layer, swap Ctrl and Alt, Windows key off in full-screen apps, mouse side buttons as copy and paste.
Profiles such as Default, Coding, Gaming or Left-handed, switched from the icon near the clock, by a shortcut, or automatically when a chosen program is in front. Import and export them as files.
Rules belong to the physical key, so they stay right when you change keyboard language. Key names on screen follow the language in use.

You cannot lock yourself out

A risky change works like changing screen resolution: it applies, and "Keep these changes?" undoes it after 15 seconds unless you click Keep with the mouse.
An emergency combination Keystone can never remap: hold both Shift keys and press Esc three times, and all remapping switches off at once.
"Keystone (start with remapping off)" in the Start menu, for repairing a bad profile.
A pause shortcut and a pause switch on the icon near the clock. The icon shows clearly when Keystone is paused or off.
If Keystone is ever closed or crashes, every key is normal again at once, with no modifier left stuck down.

Your keys stay yours

To change what a key does, Keystone has to see every key you press. It is not a keylogger and never behaves like one.
Each key press is looked at in memory to decide whether a rule applies, and then forgotten. Key presses are never written to disk, never logged, never sent anywhere and never put in an error report.
The only thing recorded is a number: how often each rule fired ("this remap fired 312 times this week"). You can switch that off.
No cloud, no sync, no telemetry. The only times Keystone uses the internet are to check its licence and to look for updates.

Permanent remaps, if you want them

For a simple key-to-key swap that must work at the sign-in screen, in administrator windows and in games, Keystone can write it into Windows' own keyboard map instead.
That needs administrator rights (Windows asks; Keystone never works around it) and a restart to take effect.
Keystone records what was there before, and "Remove permanent remaps" puts it back exactly.

Good to know

Ctrl+Alt+Del and Win+L cannot be changed: Windows keeps them for itself.
The Fn key on most laptops is invisible to software and cannot be remapped.
Remaps do not apply inside programs running as administrator unless Keystone is run as administrator too.
Some games with anti-cheat block or object to remappers. Pause Keystone for those.
A tap-or-hold key acts when it is released rather than when it is pressed. That is how a tap is told from a hold.
It installs for your user account only and never asks for administrator rights. No Windows service, no driver.
Free to try for 14 days with every feature. After that Keystone needs a licence to keep working: without one it stops watching the keyboard and mouse altogether, every key does what Windows intends, and it opens only a screen that asks for a licence key. Your profiles are kept, you can still export them, and you can still remove permanent remaps.

One-time purchase for one PC. Includes every version released in the following 12 months; the version you have keeps working after that.

What you can change

A key into another key or shortcut: Caps Lock into Esc, Right Alt into Ctrl+C.
A key switched off: Insert, Caps Lock, the Windows key.
Tap-or-hold: one thing when tapped, another when held. Caps Lock tapped is Esc, held is Ctrl. The timing is adjustable.
A layer: while one key is held, other keys take a second meaning. Hold Space and I, J, K, L are the arrow keys.
Shortcuts, mouse buttons including the side buttons, the scroll wheel with a modifier held, a key double-tapped, a key held down.
Hotkeys that do things: open a program, file, folder or web address; run a command line; play, pause, next, volume and brightness; minimise, maximise, close, move a window to the next monitor or keep it on top; lock the PC; type a fixed text; play a sequence of key presses with delays.
Each rule applies everywhere, only in the programs you choose, or everywhere except them. It can also depend on the window's title, or apply only while a game or video fills the screen.

Made to be easy to get right

A picture of your keyboard, full-size or laptop, with a mouse beside it. Remapped keys are highlighted and show what they do now. Layers are separate views of the same keyboard.
"Press the key" everywhere a key is asked for.
A plain list of all rules with on/off switches, search and drag-to-reorder.
Warnings before you save: two rules on the same key, a rule that hides a shortcut Windows or the chosen program uses, and anything that would leave you with no way to type a letter, Enter, Esc or a modifier key.
A key tester that shows exactly which physical key or button Windows sees and what Keystone turns it into. Good for checking a rule, and for diagnosing a keyboard.
Ready-made recipes: Caps Lock as Esc and Ctrl, an arrow-key layer, swap Ctrl and Alt, Windows key off in full-screen apps, mouse side buttons as copy and paste.
Profiles such as Default, Coding, Gaming or Left-handed, switched from the icon near the clock, by a shortcut, or automatically when a chosen program is in front. Import and export them as files.
Rules belong to the physical key, so they stay right when you change keyboard language. Key names on screen follow the language in use.

You cannot lock yourself out

A risky change works like changing screen resolution: it applies, and "Keep these changes?" undoes it after 15 seconds unless you click Keep with the mouse.
An emergency combination Keystone can never remap: hold both Shift keys and press Esc three times, and all remapping switches off at once.
"Keystone (start with remapping off)" in the Start menu, for repairing a bad profile.
A pause shortcut and a pause switch on the icon near the clock. The icon shows clearly when Keystone is paused or off.
If Keystone is ever closed or crashes, every key is normal again at once, with no modifier left stuck down.

Your keys stay yours

To change what a key does, Keystone has to see every key you press. It is not a keylogger and never behaves like one.
Each key press is looked at in memory to decide whether a rule applies, and then forgotten. Key presses are never written to disk, never logged, never sent anywhere and never put in an error report.
The only thing recorded is a number: how often each rule fired ("this remap fired 312 times this week"). You can switch that off.
No cloud, no sync, no telemetry. The only times Keystone uses the internet are to check its licence and to look for updates.

Permanent remaps, if you want them

For a simple key-to-key swap that must work at the sign-in screen, in administrator windows and in games, Keystone can write it into Windows' own keyboard map instead.
That needs administrator rights (Windows asks; Keystone never works around it) and a restart to take effect.
Keystone records what was there before, and "Remove permanent remaps" puts it back exactly.

Good to know

Ctrl+Alt+Del and Win+L cannot be changed: Windows keeps them for itself.
The Fn key on most laptops is invisible to software and cannot be remapped.
Remaps do not apply inside programs running as administrator unless Keystone is run as administrator too.
Some games with anti-cheat block or object to remappers. Pause Keystone for those.
A tap-or-hold key acts when it is released rather than when it is pressed. That is how a tap is told from a hold.
It installs for your user account only and never asks for administrator rights. No Windows service, no driver.
Free to try for 14 days with every feature. After that Keystone needs a licence to keep working: without one it stops watching the keyboard and mouse altogether, every key does what Windows intends, and it opens only a screen that asks for a licence key. Your profiles are kept, you can still export them, and you can still remove permanent remaps.

One-time purchase for one PC. Includes every version released in the following 12 months; the version you have keeps working after that.

Change what any key, shortcut or mouse button does. No script needed.

What you can change

Made to be easy to get right

You cannot lock yourself out

Your keys stay yours

Permanent remaps, if you want them

Good to know

A closer look.

Need somethinglike this built?

Keystone

Change what any key, shortcut or mouse button does. No script needed.

What you can change

Made to be easy to get right

You cannot lock yourself out

Your keys stay yours

Permanent remaps, if you want them

Good to know

A closer look.

Need somethinglike this built?