Guide | Make Extension Keyboard Shortcuts Work [Windows 10 & 11]

nomadic

Keyboard shortcuts used by extensions don't currently work in Vivaldi, and it has caused considerable frustration among users, but there is a nice workaround using a program called Microsoft PowerToys.

Easy solution for when there are no keyboard shortcut conflicts with other programs

--
Before going into the solution involving downloading another program, it is worth mentioning that in some situations, there is an easy fix that can be done just using Vivaldi.

Setting the keyboard shortcut to Global instead of the default In Vivaldi will get the extension's shortcut working again, but it can conflict with other programs if they make use of the same shortcut (go to the next section of this guide for if you have a conflicting shortcut).

You can change this by going to vivaldi://extensions/ (Ctrl + Shift + E).

Expand the hamburger menu in the top left corner of the page
Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the side menu
Scroll to the section with the keyboard shortcuts for the extension you are trying to fix
Change the relevant keyboard shortcuts to Global

Example image of setting

Then, as long as the keyboard shortcut isn't used by any other programs, the extension's shortcuts should be working again!

Solution for when there are keyboard shortcut conflicts

--
If you have the same extension installed in 2 browsers at the same time, setting the shortcut to Global with Vivaldi can cause issues. In this case, we need to be a bit tricky to come up with a workaround.

You can remap the shortcut you want to use to send a different combo of keys when Vivaldi is running and have the extension respond to that set of keys instead of the ones you actually pressed. Bit complex to type out, but not too difficult to implement. Enter the nifty little set of utilities called Microsoft PowerToys.

The revival of the legacy program by the same name, Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of utilities that allows users to modify how their Windows computer works. Some of my favorites that I use almost every day are Color Picker, FancyZones, File Explorer add-ons, and what we will use for this workaround, Keyboard Manager.

Configure the extension keyboard shortcut to an uncommonly used combo and set it to global

Like the simple solution from the section above you need to start by going to vivaldi://extensions/ (Ctrl + Shift + E).

Expand the hamburger menu in the top left corner of the page
Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the side menu
Scroll to the section with the keyboard shortcuts for the extension you are trying to fix
Then you need to set the shortcut by using the pencil icon to a combination that you don't use for any other program (shortcuts starting with Alt + Shift are a good choice). Remember, this is not an actual shortcut you will be pressing on your keyboard, so it doesn't need to be something easy to execute or something you need to remember after this setup.
Change the relevant keyboard shortcuts to Global

Example image of setting

Installing PowerToys:

Because PowerToys is open-source, the best way to install it is by going to their GitHub page.

Go to the Releases page at: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/releases/
Scroll to the Assets section of the current release, which should be at the top of the page, and download the PowerToysSetup-[VERSION_NUMBER]-x64.exe
Install the EXE and set PowerToys to run at startup

Configuring the PowerToys utility Keyboard Manager

Launch PowerToys (it can be launched from the system tray when it is running)
Go to the left menu item labeled Keyboard Manager
Enable the utility if it isn't already enabled
Select the Remap a shortcut option
Press the + button under the Shortcut label
Select the Type button and press the key combo you want to actually press to activate the function of the extension
Then under the Mapped To label enter the key combo you setup on the extensions page in Vivaldi
If you want both left and right modifier keys to work for the combo, you can click on the input that displays the key and scroll up to find the key option without the (left) or (right) next to it
Finally, under the Target App label, type invivaldi

Example image of settings

If the keyboard shortcut doesn't work right away after the setup, try restarting Vivaldi. Then after that, the keyboard shortcuts for your extensions should work!

Hopefully the Vivaldi devs eventually figure out a way to get extension shortcuts working without the global option, but for now I hope this workaround helps you out. It also might be a good opportunity to discover some of the awesome utilities that PowerToys provides.

* If you are on Linux or MacOS, I am sure there is an equivalent way to remap a keyboard shortcut, so this guide isn't totally useless for you. The same idea applies.

Sparrows

I tried this, even when set to global the keyboard short-cut doesn't work including after restarting Vivaldi.

nomadic

@sparrows Hmm, just tried it again in a virtual machine and it still worked.

Can you make sure that PowerToys is still running in the system tray on the taskbar?

You could also try restarting your computer. If it still isn't working, could you take a screenshot of the bookmark keyboard shortcut settings and the PowerToys remap settings and share them here?

That would help me determine if it is properly setup.

Sparrows

My version of PowerToys doesn't have any keyboard short cut mappings and the keyboard short-cut which I'm using isn't associated from what I know with any program I run in the background. I've restarted Vivaldi twice and the keyboard short-cut doesn't work.

nomadic

@sparrows Maybe your keyboard shortcut is the same as a default Vivaldi shortcut. What shortcut are you trying to use?

My version of PowerToys doesn't have any keyboard short cut mappings

It was definitely something they added after the initial release (looks like maybe around v0.20.0). Make sure you have updated to the current version v0.51.1

Sparrows

The keyboard short-cut I'm trying to use is CTRL+Y. I also updated PowerToys, unfortunately that didn't help to get the keyboard short-cut to work.

nomadic

@sparrows So it looks like Ctrl + Y can't be used because it is already set to a Vivaldi command that doesn't appear to be user configurable.

I tried setting a Vivaldi keyboard shortcut to it and got the message that it was already assigned to the Redo command.

I couldn't find it in settings, so it looks like it can't be changed normally, but I am surprised PowerToys didn't work for you.

Here are some settings I used to allow Ctrl + Y to work:

tutanchamun

@nomadic said in Guide | Make Extension Keyboard Shortcuts Work [Windows 10 & 11]:

If you are on Linux or MacOS, I am sure there is an equivalent way to remap a keyboard shortcut

Fyi, on macOS i can confirm BetterTouchTool also works to accomplish the same thing;

You just create a Keyboard Shortcut for the Vivaldi app and record the shortcut. Then add an action to it to Send Keyboard Shortcut which executes the Keyboard shortcut you set for the Vivaldi extension...

webtax

thanks for the workaround, seems to be working
wondering if there is anything to do if have more than one vivaldi instance

caseybarx

In vivaldi://extensions/ there is no option to select global fo any extension. "In Vivaldi" is greyed out.