autohotkey does not exist in current keyboard layout - solution examples

Question

I have written a python script for my co-workers, and then created an autohotkey script to run it every time someone presses Ctrl+LShift+Y. Looks something like this:

^+y::Run helper.py

The python script is fine, but the ahk script doesn't work on all the computers. Sometimes it works fine, and sometimes you get this error:

^+y does not exist in current keyboard layout

Now, searching the web this seems to be a problem with multi-language keyboards (we're using both Hebrew and English), because different languages means a different layouts (I guess?). I also found someone explaining that to solve this you need to use scan codes instead of the usual ^ and + and so on (I'd link to it but I cannot seem to find it now).

This all vaguely makes sense to me on a theoretical level, but when I want to realize it with actual code, I don't really know what to do. To me it seems as if this topic is hardly discussed (with the few exceptions being lacking in examples or hard to understand), so I'd love an answer that would include the following:

1. some simple way of determining the scan code for a key. This should preferably be a pythonic solution (and just out of curiosity, I'd love to know how to do this with linux as well). This is probably the easier part (but I think is an inherent part of a complete answer).

2. This is the important part: examples of how you implement that scan code in an autohotkey script, including edge-cases (if there are any).

Answer 1

Question 1

As you want to use the key with autohotkey, it makes sense to use autohotkey detect the key in the first place. Obviously this method works only on windows where autohotkey is running.

Write a Autohotkey script with this line and run it.

#InstallKeybdHook

Press the key you want to examine.

Open the script menu by right clicking the icon of the script in the right lower corner of your screen.

Select OPEN, then from the Menu "View / Key history and script info"

There is a line for each keypress.

First column is the VK (Virtual key) code, next is the scancode.

For example for CAPSLOCK the VK is 14 and the Scancode 03a

Question 2:

#InstallKeybdHook
VK14::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return

OR

#InstallKeybdHook
SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed capslock!
return

both work.

Note that you can combine two keys into a hotkey by combining them with & (but not 3)

#InstallKeybdHook
RShift & SC03a::
msgbox, you pressed Rshift capslock!
return

You can modify a Scancode with + and ^

#InstallKeybdHook
^+SC02C::
msgbox, you pressed Ctrl Shift and Y(maybe)!
return

Further info about this is on the page "List of Keys, Mouse Buttons, and Joystick Controls" of the autohotkey help file that comes with the default installation.