How can I enable multimedia keys of an Apple keyboard under Windows?

I am using Windows XP, with an Apple aluminum keyboard (the full one). It has multimedia keys at the top, and those work just great under Linux, regardless of the multimedia player I use. But I can't seem to get them working under Windows with, say, Winamp.

I would want to be able to do simple things as previous, skip next, play/pause/stop and volume control.

Thanks :-)

Enabling Buttons on Apple Keyboard in Windows:

I recently picked up, and am liking, the new “wafer thin” aluminum keyboard from Apple. Its very small, I like the key action and it’s very solid considering it’s size and thickness. But, I use it on Windows, and there’s no driver available other than the standard keyboard one, so the extra keys like media controls aren’t enabled. I came across a freeware macro program called AutoHotKey that works very nicely, and wrote up a few little scripts for it. You can download AutoHotKey and run the scripts yourself, or you can download the compiled version here and just pop it into your Startup folder.

There's no need for AutoHotKey or random tray tools – the Boot Camp driver meant for dual-booting on a Mac actually works just fine on PC hardware using Apple peripherals, too!

Just grab the latest version of the Boot Camp Support Software (5.1.5722 at the time of writing), and extract it somewhere. If the only thing you care about is the keyboard driver, copy out the BootCamp.msi and AppleKeyboardInstaller64.exe files to a separate directory. Then, from an administrator shell, just run

msiexec /i BootCamp.msi

The installer may throw some errors (presumably because the other drivers it wants to install aren't there), but the keyboard driver will end up installed. Just reboot and use the media keys to your heart's content!

I've been looking for the same thing and found a convenient little tray tool that does just that: http://uxsoft.cz/projects/applewirelesskeyboard/

• Maps iTunes keys to media bindings
• Maps volume keys to volume control
• Displays OSX media action overlays

Despite the name it works flawlessly on the wired version of the Apple Keyboard

Install AutoHotkey and create a script on your Desktop named something like apple_keyboard_media_keys_fix.ahk with the following contents:

F7::Send {Media_Prev}
F8::Send {Media_Play_Pause}
F9::Send {Media_Next}
F10::send {volume_mute}
F11::send {volume_down}
F12::send {volume_up}

Then double click on the script to run it. Now your Apple keyboard media keys work to control your Windows media applications!