I constantly switch windows while playing and find the alt-tab keybind cumbersome. May I use AutoHotKey or some similar program to rebind “alt-tab” to another key, for example, g? In other words, when I press “g” in game, AHK would send to Windows “Alt-Tab.” I’d presumably leave “g” unbound in wow.
To the best of my knowledge, Windows has no function to rebind alt-tab.
Blizzard isn’t going to be able to give you a green light for something like that.
Personally, I wouldn’t. If you’re using it for multiboxing, then definitely don’t (again, just my opinion).
I would definitely recommend against using any sort of software known to be used to facilitate multiboxing. Blizzard is specifically looking for that sort of stuff now.
If you have a gaming keyboard with programmable keys, you could program one of those to be your ALT-TAB key.
Key rebinding would not result in account action.
I don’t believe that there would be a difference between using AHK versus a mouse or keyboard with programmable keys. Blizzard isn’t going to action you just for software such as AHK running on your system - that’s tantamount to hearsay. They’ll only take action against you if there is proof of a rule having been broken.
It’ll be best not to say “Blizzard won’t action for X, Y or Z” as Blizzard can and will change the rules as they see fit and take action that they deem action worthy.
I’m sorry, but that’s FUD - plain and simple.
Blizzard’s scope begins and ends with what happens in respect of their games.
You can create & use a macro that opens your music player of choice and chooses a song to begin playing according to specified criteria, you can use broadcasting software in other games where it is permitted, and you can rebind the way you switch between windows in, well, Windows.
I think that the mere use of AHK could raise eyebrows at blizzard. Would it automatically result in an account action, no I doubt it. But these days, multiboxing is also tightly monitored. Using AHK while multiboxing I would think is not a very good idea, even to rebind a key.
Using it to rebind a hotkey when you aren’t multiboxing is probably okay, but there’s no way to guarantee it won’t cause any issues.
I’m just curious, wouldn’t you still be using software from the keyboard to do this, and wouldn’t creating a keybind that emulates two key presses in one be problematic? I am not a Windows user, nor do I use a gaming keyboard, so excuse my ignorance if this makes more sense for others!
I also agree that I would not use AHK while playing given the recent crackdown. It’s not worth losing the account for it. Anything that rebinds two key presses into one would be a red flag for me. Maybe there is a safe way to re-bind the ALT and TAB keys separately and closer to each other and easier to hit?
Just to let you know, Blizzard as a program built into the game called “Warden” that mentors the actions during the time the game is being played. Namely when any programs running in the background and such.
Yes, Warden is well-known.
edit: I wouldn’t be surprised if accounts can get flagged when certain software is found by Warden. However Blizzard’s staff aren’t so unprofessional as to ban over that - at most, it would put you in a list of accounts to be looked at some time. It is insulting to suggest they would skip the process of determining whether a rule has been broken and skip straight to banning the person.
This sounds like an opinion. A factually erroneous one.
Blizzard’s scope is (at a minimum) everything executing on the computer when WoW is running. That’s been true since Warden was first deployed. It’s true when Blizzard dismantled Glider bot software in court as well as by technical measures. It’s true of any anticheat software they have now.
If there’s a process in the system, or a file in storage, which matches a prohibited program, anticheat will notify a GM to investigate, which most likely will result in suspension.
AHK appears to be firmly in the “prohibited” list, judging by the complaints in the Support forums. “I’m not using it for input broadcasting” doesn’t look like a workable defense; the presence of the software on a system running WoW seems to trigger an unrebuttable presumption that it’s being used to support botting or multibox input broadcasting.
It isn’t.
I have worked in the industry & I have read my agreements with Blizzard (may I ask whether you have?).
Looking at their Anti-cheating Agreement shows;
To address those;
Moving onto the End User License Agreement, we have;
To address those;
You are misconstruing my use of the word ‘scope’. The scope of their interest is limited to what you are doing in their games and how it is being achieved. They don’t care whether you switch between windows by Alt Tabbing, asking Cortana, or whatever other method.
First, they aren’t GMs.
Second, they don’t implement punishments without a finding of a rule being violated.
Third, for someone who chides others over their “opinions”, I’ve yet to see you substantiate your claim that general purpose utilities à la AutoHotKey result in an anticheat application notifying a “GM” to punish the person. I have substantiated my position, and respectfully, it is now your time to do the same. Perhaps you would care to begin by explaining why they would have staff manually review something, if they’re taking the anticheat at its word that the software was found, and the software being found is alone sufficient for a punishment.
That is a very poor idea to say. You don’t speak for Blizzard. They don’t like AHK used while their games are running - or anything that facilitates multiboxing.
Using Windows functions for Alt-tab is fine. Using AHK at all, is dicey. It is not a risk I would take.
Umm…you really really really should not speak for Blizzard here. Yes, they can ban based on Warden flags alone if they want, and have.
Consent to Monitor. WHILE RUNNING, THE PLATFORM (INCLUDING A GAME) MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER, CONSOLE, OR MOBILE DEVICE’S MEMORY FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING EITHER CONCURRENTLY WITH A GAME OR OUT OF PROCESS. AN “UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM” AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PROHIBITED BY SECTION 1.C. ABOVE. IN THE EVENT THAT THE PLATFORM DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, (a) THE PLATFORM MAY COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE; AND/OR (b) BLIZZARD MAY EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER. Additionally, certain Games include a tool that will allow your computer system to forward information to Blizzard in the event that the Game crashes, including system and driver data, and by agreeing hereto you consent to Blizzard receiving and/or using this data.
Blizzard does not go into details on how the Hacks team works or makes decisions. So, all you have is your opinion and guesses.
Depending on what software a person uses and what Warden detects there can be a whole range of results. Some things are going to be flagged as banned because they already designated X software as a violation. Clean and simple. Others will require additional flags to determine how it was used.
Neither you nor I know which those are going to be. The best advice is to tell players to avoid known flags like AHK.
Using autohotkey to streamline multiboxing would be considered a violation of their rules.
Please note, however, that use of all software or hardware mechanisms used to mirror commands to multiple World of Warcraft accounts at the same time, or to automate or streamline multiboxing in any way may result in account penalties.
That’s why I recommended NOT using it as it absolutely can get you into trouble. We’ve seen plenty of threads from players (like ourselves) who were using it to multibox and ended up with account actions.
Are we talking about Glider (first raised by Sniperorc, above) or AutoHotKey (mentioned by OP) ?
I have acknowledged already that Warden monitors other programs running on a person’s computer. I certainly dispute the notion that having a generic utility installed will result in a ban.
If the use of scripting languages such as AutoHotKey and Python in ways that don’t interact with any of Blizzard’s games, processes, or software resulted in bans then I would have been banned myself - and very likely been taking legal action over the matter.
Respectfully, I’m not sure whether anyone has disputed that?
We are talking about somebody Alt Tabbing, which unlike multiboxing in WoW, isn’t related to Blizzard’s games.
We are taking about AHK in particular. Many people have gotten suspended or banned for it.
Use a different program (mouse,keyboard, Windows) to handle Alt-Tab. AHK is specifically on their list as far as we players can tell from the reports here.
Stay here long enough and you will see. It REALLY is bad advice to suggest anyone use AHK at all while WoW is running. Or any Blizzard game really.
EDIT:
Found a thread with Blue (Vrak) replies talking about having AHK up while running WoW, even if not used when WoW is running. He won’t give a definitive answer (as expected) but strongly suggests not doing it.
No key rebindng would not.
An exterior program to do so however?
One of the ban wabes handed out after the MB change seemed to have a common link. AHK. I say seemed because of course Blizz never confirmed what was detected. It was the common element however.
Here is the thing, this is what Blizzard will see is both WoW (multiple times) and AHK on your list of running programs reported to Warden. They have no way to know how you are using AHK just that it’s specifically a program used to facilitate broadcasting keystrokes and therefore falls under the ban of said software. There is no way for them to know what you are doing with AHK so just like the MVP said, I would not risk it.
I wonder if this was overlooked…
1 keypress = one action not 1 keypress = 2 actions which the op was doing. Using AHK to macro two key presses at once would raise alarms.
Just to add to this: Alt+tab is two actions. It requires two presses to run the command. Squishing this to one, and the use of AHK on top of that, would be considered ‘streamlining’. There have been other such threads for other versions of this idea: using a pedal to alt-tab (no); using mouse scroll up or down (no). You either need to alt-tab, or manually click, to move focus to the next window.
There has even been suggestions that having AHK running in the background, even if not used for WoW, is not a good idea.
Blizzard will not give a definitive answer, but they have strongly recommended against it. Streamlining is bannable.