I’m wondering why the F12 button automatically opens up Groove Music. Is there any way I can change what this opens? It has a framework logo on it, so I assume I can, I just don’t know how.
2 Likes
As for why:
4 Likes
The real question is why Groove Music is Microsoft’s default media application in stock Windows 10. I had never even heard of the application, let alone used it.
16 Likes
@nrp You’ve got that right! I’m just going to set Spotify to the default media player and keep that function in there. As far as I know, Groove Music is just part of Windows 10 bloatware lol, just more stuff for the garbage can.
It launched Windows Media player for me. Installed VLC and now it launches that so I assume it defaults to whatever has file association with a video file.
1 Like
How do you do this on Windows? I can’t find any option to set the default media player anywhere.
They must have changed this on Windows 11. Now the “default apps” settings page only lets you choose which apps open specific file extensions/link URLs, there’s no longer an option for just “music player”.
Funnily enough, it seems like Windows 11 will just choose whichever .exe file you have set to open .mp3 files!
I set it to open .mp3 files with VSCode by default and now hitting F12 opens VSCode 
1 Like
I remapped it to open this website. I thought it fitting that the FrameWork button opens the FrameWork community help site. 
I may remap it to “What is my ip address” later, as I use that to determine my VPN status.
1 Like
I don’t know which OS you’re using (probably Windows), but on Linux, I just use systemctl -q is-active openvpn@* && echo -n "🔑" || echo -n "" and put that in my little bar at the top. The beauty of Linux 
I use Windows 11 right now, but will be returning to Linux when things stabilize for the FrameWork laptop.
I don’t use openVPN, it is too slow. I use WireGuard. I do have an indicator for when the tunnel is “active” however, since WireGuard is UDP, there is no way to know that it is working for sure unless there is some sort of active check. I use “what is my IP address” to not only check to see if the tunnel is working, but to also check to make sure that IPv4 and IPv6 are both working as well.
On Linux, I use nmcli to bring the tunnel up and down, and a shell script with the results of “ip a | grep wg[012]” giving the icon a show/don’t show status.
I also use a shell script to automagically pick which tunnel I use depending on location.
So on Linux VPN turns into a single click the same button to turn on or off, and tunnel selection happens behind the scene.
1 Like
Ah, I see. Yeah, I sort of assume that if the VPN service is active, then it’s connected (and if it’s not, that will become apparent if I try to open a website, since the VPN will have failed to establish a connection and that will prevent DNS resolution from working).
Ooh, nice! Yeah, I generally select one server to connect to by default and I only change it if absolutely necessary.
I host my own VPN. I do not use a service. So my VPN endpoint IP address changes if I am at home vs out and about (Private IP while at home, vs public while out and about). I use VPN at home to allow me to tunnel IPv6 into a part of my network where I don’t normally get it.
My purpose for VPN is to protect my equipment from random coffee shop and hotel WiFi networks.
I know this is an old thread, but seeing as it’s still a highly viewed topic and that I was unsatisfied with the solution of “just get windows power toys” to solve the f12 button issue on my DIY Framework w/ Win 11, I decided to post the solution here:
-
Open “Registry Editor”
-
Navigate to this part of the directory: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\16”
The reason for this is because AppKey 16 is linked to the Framework f12 button, currently it’s default behavior is opening the default media player. -
Right-Click in the 16 AppKey folder and select “New” → “String Value”
Name this value “ShellExecute” -
Right-Click and press “Modify…” and in the “Value Data” field insert “https://frame.work/”
-
Click “OK” and then test out the key, it should launch your default browser and take you to the Framework Website.
A more general and thorough guide to this part of the windows registry can be found here:
Change What App Keys Do for the Keyboard in Windows 10, 8 and 7
13 Likes
Thank you, that was helpful!
There is a different option without the Registry:
Go in the file explorer to:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Framework
Right click on the Link (.url) and left klick “Properties”
Go to the tab “Safety” and give full access to the “User”.
Than you go one tab to the left to “Web document” and you can chage the link (URL:) to whatever you want. By default it is: Framework | Framework Laptop 13, now with AMD and Intel options, and
(I hope, my translation of the system language is correct…my system is in German).
sounds fun. It jumped to Framework | Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are now open on my framework 13 with my own win11.