I can think of a couple of approaches that might be helpful -- I'm
sure there are others:

1.  Dedicate one of the old computers to be on and playing all the time,
with a switch that turns the speakers on and off.  Not very
energy-efficient, but pretty simple.

2.  Dedicate one of the computers an a switched power bar or outlet,
with AUTOEXEC.BAT written to launch a media player and play the CD.  I
don't know the precise command, but I'm fairly certain there is one.

3.  Check out one of the "multimedia" keyboards on the market -- these
generally add keys for play, stop, rewind etc, presumably interpreted by
a driver that comes with the keyboard.  You may be able to wire one or
more of these keys to an easier switch, or to rig a simple mechanical
gadget to press the Play key....  This probably comes closest to what
you had in mind.

4.  When my wife could no longer see the controls on her CD player, I
found that Radio Shack sells a CD/radio boombox with osimple over-size
controls that's (supposedly) intended for laborers on a job site to be
able to work it without taking off their gloves.  It's bulky and a bit
expensive ($200?), and we added some coloued duct tape to label the
various controls, but it has worked pretty well.

  Supposedly Fisher-Price used to make a CD player with a few big
colorful controls, but I wasn't able to find one available -- and since
it was already discontinued, I don't expect you could count on finding
one now.

  I hope you're able to find a solution that meets your mother's needs.

David Gillett



-------- Original Message --------
From: Phillip Williams <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, July 01, 2013 8:56 pm
To: [log in to unmask]

Greetings,

 Is there a simple external physical switch that can be assigned in
windows to perform a task (such as play/pause an open audio file)? Or
would it have to have accompanying software such as gaming software
that allows you to assign actions to keys? Maybe within the media
player software itself?


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