About "Object Hotkey", I understand how it works. First, the Windows key does not work for it.
Before you can use the Win or Menu keys, you have to identify them to XWP. Go to 'System Setup->Keyboard->Function Keys', right-click, then select "New function key". Once they're registered, you can use them as Object Hotkeys but only as a stand-alone key, not a modifier like Shift/Ctrl/Alt.
And when I try to create a combination for it like "Shift+1" or "Ctrl+1" for a folder program object on the desktop, the key combination does not do anything. I was expecting it to open the object (open the folder or launch a program), but it does not work for me.
I tested this on several objects and it WFM. *Except*... you can't use "Shift 1" or Shift-anything because that generates a usable character. On an English keyboard, Shift-1 would turn the exclamation point (!) into a hotkey!
In OS/2 is set as a character key because of the keyboard driver? or because how XWP is coded?
I _think_ it's due to Presentation Manager. As I mentioned, when PM sends a character message to an app, it sets bit flags indicating whether Shift/Ctrl/Alt are down. They're stored in a 16-bit field along with 13 other flags, so there is no room to add another flag, even if IBM had wanted to. The 'Win95Key' utility is able to work around this because it doesn't pay attention to the flags and instead reads the keyboard's physical state to see what key(s) are currently pressed. That's OK for a specialized util but impractical for the average app.