Patent ID: 7757185

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of controlling hotkeys, the method comprising: storing association data and enablement data in a status table, the association data associating a first set of hotkeys with a first application program and a second set of hotkeys with a second application program in a computing system that runs two or more application programs and that defines the first set of hotkeys and the second set of hotkeys, and the enablement data indicating an enabled or disabled status of the sets of hotkeys; monitoring, with an operating system process that is independent of each of the two or more application programs, system state of the computing system to determine if the first application or the second application is a foreground application; and enabling, from the operating system process, the first set of hotkeys if the first application is the foreground application and disabling the first set of hotkeys if the first application is not the foreground application, and enabling, from the operating system process, the second set of hotkeys if the second application is the foreground application and disabling the second set of hotkeys if the second application is not the foreground application, wherein enabling or disabling a set of hotkeys includes updating the enablement data stored in the status table.