Support

Product: Macro Recorder Key for Windows (Stream Deck plugin for Windows) · Provider: GRAMSHIFT (Tokyo, Japan)

Ideas and bug reports

Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. Ideas for new features and bug reports are welcome, and every message is read; we do not guarantee a reply time. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, what the key showed, and a screenshot of the key's settings page (its Status line says what the plugin saw). Please do not send a profile that contains a recording of private typing.

Get started

In the Stream Deck app, find Macro Recorder Key for Windows in the action list and drag Macro onto a key. It shows REC and press to record.
Open the program you want to automate, then press the Stream Deck key. The key turns red and counts your inputs and the seconds.
Do the task with your keyboard and mouse, then press the Stream Deck key again. The key says SAVED, then PLAY with the number of steps and the length.
Press the key to play it back. Press it again, or use your mouse or keyboard, to stop it.
To record again, hold the key for 1 second and release it. If the new recording has no input, the old one is kept.

A Stop Macro key stops whatever records or plays. Only one macro records or plays at a time; while one plays, a press of either key (any Macro key or the Stop Macro key) stops it.

What is recorded

Key presses and releases (the key code and the scan code, so the same physical keys are pressed), mouse clicks (left, right, middle and the two side buttons) with their position on the screen, the mouse wheel, and mouse movement if you select Mouse movement in the settings. Without it, the pointer goes straight to each click.
The time between inputs, and the program each one went to (to check it when playing).
Not recorded: input that other programs send (an on-screen keyboard, another macro tool, a Stream Deck Hotkey action), and the Stream Deck keys themselves, which are not keyboard input.
A recording stops automatically after 5,000 inputs or 10 minutes, and when the PC goes to sleep. What was recorded until then is kept.

Settings

Setting	What it does
Name	The word at the top of the key (up to 16 characters).
Record	Mouse movement (off unless selected) and the mouse wheel (on unless cleared). Takes effect for the next recording.
Waits	As recorded with a Speed of 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 4x or No waits; or The same after every step (50 ms to 1 second). With the same wait, recorded mouse movement is not played. A double-click needs the clicks close together: use As recorded for it.
Repeat	Once, 2 to 100 times, or Until stopped. Between two rounds it waits as long as you waited between your last input and the press that stopped the recording.
Position	Screen: every click goes where it was recorded. Window: clicks that were inside the window where recording started follow that window if it has moved; before playing, the plugin brings a window of that program to the front. Other clicks stay where they were. If no window of that program is open, the key says `NO WINDOW` and nothing is sent.
Check	On unless cleared. Before each click, the window at that point must belong to the same program as when it was recorded; before each key, the same program must be in front. If not, the macro stops before that step (`STOPPED` / `other window`). This catches a dialog that did not open in time or a window that moved.
Look	Classic, Neon, Ring or Solid.

Safety while a macro plays

Moving the mouse by more than 3 pixels, or pressing a key, a mouse button or the wheel, stops the macro (you took over). Smaller movement is allowed, so that a mouse lying on the desk does not stop it. If your mouse stops macros on its own, please tell us.
When a macro stops (it finished, you pressed a key of the plugin, you took over, Check stopped it, Windows did not pass an input on, the PC slept) it lets go of the keys and mouse buttons it pressed. When the plugin itself ends, its small recorder process notices and lets go of them before it exits.
The plugin reads the keyboard and mouse only while a macro records or plays.

Limits

Programs that run as administrator. Windows does not let a normal program send input to a program that runs as administrator, so a macro cannot type into it, and a recording may not see input to such a window. When Windows does not pass an input on and the plugin notices (each input it sends is checked), the key says NOT SENT and the macro stops.
Keyboard layout and input method (IME). Keys are played as keys, not as text. If the keyboard layout or the input method (for example Japanese IME on or off) is different from when you recorded, the same keys can type different characters. Switch to the same state before playing.
Screen changes. Clicks are positions on the screen. If the display scale, resolution or monitor layout changes, record again. If a click is outside every monitor, the key says STOPPED / off screen and nothing is sent.
Several windows of one program. The plugin finds a window by its program, so with Position Window it may bring a different window of that program to the front and click there. Check also compares the program (its file name), not the window, so two windows of the same program, two File Explorer windows, or two Store apps (which run in the same ApplicationFrameHost.exe) look the same to it. Keep just one window of the program open while the macro plays.
The lock screen and the sign-in screen do not take input from programs.
This plugin is made for repeated work in desktop programs, such as forms, reports and file handling. Use it only where automation is allowed by the program or service you use.

Privacy

A recording is saved in the key's settings in your Stream Deck profile on your PC, not encrypted, and is not sent anywhere. It contains what you typed while recording, so do not type passwords or other secrets while recording, and remember that an exported profile includes its recordings. Use Delete recording in the key's settings to remove one. Full details: Privacy Policy.

Troubleshooting

The key shows	What it means
`BUSY`	Another key is recording. Stop that recording first.
`NOTHING`	The recording had no input (or only input from other programs). The previous recording, if any, is kept.
`STOPPED` / `you took over`	The mouse or keyboard was used while it played.
`STOPPED` / `other window`	Another program was where the next step would go. Slow the macro down, open the program first, or clear Check.
`STOPPED` / `not in front`	With Position Window, Windows did not let the plugin bring the window to the front. Click the window once, then press the key.
`NO WINDOW`	With Position Window, no window of the program where recording started is open (or it is minimized).
`NOT SENT`	Windows did not pass an input on, for example while a program that runs as administrator or the lock screen is in front.
`FAILED` / `not allowed`	Windows did not let the plugin watch the keyboard and mouse. A macro does not play without that.
`FAILED` / `helper stopped`	The recorder process of the plugin did not answer and was ended. Press the key to start it again.

Compatibility

Tested on Windows 11. Windows 10 is supported by the Stream Deck app but has not been checked by us.