---
layout: component
title: "Keyboard"
description: "Instructions how to simulate key presses with Home Assistant."
date: 2015-01-24 14:39
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
ha_category: Automation
---


The `keyboard` component simulates key presses on the host machine. It currently offers the following Buttons as a Service (BaaS):

 * `keyboard/volume_up`
 * `keyboard/volume_down`
 * `keyboard/volume_mute`
 * `keyboard/media_play_pause`
 * `keyboard/media_next_track`
 * `keyboard/media_prev_track`

To load this component, add the following lines to your `configuration.yaml`:

```yaml
keyboard:
```

## {% linkable_title Dependencies %}

You may need to install platform-specific [dependencies for PyUserInput](https://github.com/SavinaRoja/PyUserInput#dependencies) in order to use the keyboard component. In most cases this can be done by running:

```bash
$ pip3 install [package name]
```

#### {% linkable_title Windows %}

x64 Windows users may have trouble installing pywin through pip. Using an [executable installer](http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/files/pywin32/) should work around this issue.

[Similar installers](http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pyhook) (unofficial) for pyhook have been ported to python 3.4 and should help with x64 pip issues with pyhook.
