ThinkPad Button

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Accessibm.png

The Access IBM Button is a button situated in the upper left corner of the keyboard on modern ThinkPads. It is intended to be a means of quick access to help and support. Technically it is nothing else than a button that can be configured to launch a certain piece of software.

On earlier models this button is labelled "ThinkPad", Lenovo relabelled it again as "ThinkVantage" in the newest models.

Linux support

Under Linux, the IBM ThinkPad(tm) special keys can be enabled using tpb.

I.e., to make pressing the Access IBM Button launch ntpctl, add the following line /etc/tpbrc file:

THINKPAD    /usr/bin/X11/xterm -T ntpctl -e ntpctl

To make pressing the Access IBM Button launch the ThinkWiki homepage, add the following line:

THINKPAD    /usr/bin/firefox http://www.thinkwiki.org

See the tpb page and the ThinkPad special keys HOWTO for more information.


Windows support (2000 or XP)

If you want to customize the program that is launched when the Access IBM button is pressed while the machine is running Windows (2000 or XP) you can change the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\8001

Here are the default values:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\TPHOTKEY\8001]
"File"="C:\\Program Files\\IBM\\Access IBM\\\\aibm.exe"
"DispName"="Access IBM"

Related Links


Models featuring this Technology