Accelerator keys need attention

[NotepadPlusUser]

I took a risk and installed the Beta version 4.4.189, and all seems well, even with Windows 11. Thank you.

I read 1064 and associated posts, then set 'Search' to require Tab, and accelerator keys to require Alt. Both settings seem very sensible. Again, thank you.

But all is not well with the accelerator keys, which are important to me because the mouse can hurt my wrist. I thought it would be constructive to post five recommendations for sorting things out. I am using Windows 7 Style, on a 64-bit desktop with Windows 11 Pro, V10.0.22621.1413.

1. ACCELERATOR KEYS

• I have 2 + 1 = 3 items that begin with W and have no accelerator key.
  --- When none is preceded by &, Alt+W cycles through all three.
  --- If I put & at the front of one item, then Alt+W opens it immediately.
  --- If I put & at the front of two items, then Alt+W cycles through all three, not just two.
• Far worse, I have one left panel item beginning with X — no accelerator key — and Alt+X doesn't just select it, but opens it. This inconsistency could be disastrous — must I visually search for items with X-accelerator before pressing Alt+X?
• This is all too complicated. Was this behaviour really intended?
  RECOMMENDATION 1:
  (a) If one item has a W-accelerator key, Alt+W should open it immediately.
  (b) If two or more items have W-accelerator key, Alt+W should cycle just through them. It should not cycle through items that only begin with W.
  (c) If no item has a W-accelerator key, Alt+W can then cycle through all items that begin with W and have no accelerator key — selecting, not opening, the item if there is only one.

2. UNDERLINING ACCELERATOR KEYS

• In the left panel, a label 'Windows &Version', is displayed as 'Windows &Version', with the & showing and no underlining. This is not standard practice, and is ugly.
• In the right panel, the accelerator key is underlined after pressing and releasing Alt.
  RECOMMENDATION 2:
  (a) In both left and right panels, any accelerator key should be underlined, as is standard.

3. TOO MANY STEPS TO SEE AND THEN USE THE ACCELERATOR KEYS

• If in the right panel I have forgotten that the accelerator key is say R, it is a nuisance:
  --- Press Win —> Press Alt —> Release Alt —> Press Alt+R
  RECOMMENDATION 3:
  (a) Display acccelerator-key underlining in both panels immediately on launch of Open-Shell.

4. USE LEFT ALT AND RIGHT ALT TO DISTINGUISH THE ACCELERATORS IN LEFT AND RIGHT PANELS

• I do not like the two panels mixed up in my mind. The left panel tends to be software. The right panel tends to be Windows commands and tools, and directory trees.
  RECOMMENDATION 4:
  (a) Make the accelerator keys in the two panels independent of each other by using Left Alt for left-panel accelerators, and Right Alt for right-panel accelerators. (That would also allows 52 different items to have letter accelerator keys.)

5. A PROBLEM WITH THE ACCELERATOR KEY P

• I set &Programs and Features to have accelerator key P, because no other item in the left or right panels seems to have accelerator key P.
• Result: Win —> Alt+P cycled through all items in both panels beginning with P, finally landing on &Programs and features.
• No other accelerator key behaves like this.
• Reason: This seems to be because of 'All Programs', because when I removed the & from Programs and features, pressing Alt+P triggered the display of all the programs in the Start Menu.
• I have changed the label to Pro&grams and Features, which is less intuitive.
  RECOMMENDATION 5:
  (a) This also seems unintended, associated with the absence of underlining, and the inability to remove or change the accelerator key of 'All Programs'. It is also related to Problem 1.
  (b) At the very least, underline P in 'All Programs' permanently.

I realise that I may be misunderstanding the situation with these accelerator keys, but after fiddling about quite a bit, and reading some of the GitHub Issues posts, I still reckon that it is confused, accident-prone, restricted, and difficult to use.

Please take these comments as constructive, and very appreciative and respectful. Open-Shell has been, for a long time, very important to the way I use my desktop. Now that Windows 11 has blocked the editing of the Win+X menu, it is a relief that Open-Shell can put a large number of common Windows tools on the right panel.