While immersing yourself in a computer game, the last thing you want is to accidentally press a key on the keyboard. This doesn’t just apply to games, of course; there are many other things that can be ruined by pressing a single key or even multiple keys. Pressing a shortcut consisting of multiple buttons like “Ctrl + Alt + Delete” while working on the computer leads to displaying the quick settings screen on Windows, and pressing “Alt + F4” forcibly closes the program, and so on. It is evident that pressing some keys accidentally can lead to major issues, and we should use these keys carefully from the beginning. Hence, the need to disable a specific key on the computer keyboard or a certain keyboard shortcut arises. Fortunately, we can easily solve this problem with the help of Microsoft’s Keyboard Manager tool. Let’s explain how starting from the following lines.
Disabling a Key or Shortcut on the Keyboard Temporarily
First: Installing Microsoft PowerToys Program
In this explanation, we will rely on the Keyboard Manager tool available within the PowerToys program. In case you’re not aware, this official program from Microsoft brings a set of useful assistant tools to increase productivity or add more customization to the user interface. Therefore, in the world of computers, we consider it one of Microsoft’s best tools for improving the way we use Windows daily. Through this program’s tools, you can perform many tasks like quickly launching programs, editing the Hosts file, knowing what prevents the deletion or editing of the file, in addition to extracting any text from images.
Keyboard Manager is not a new tool, as we have previously highlighted in an article on changing keyboard functions, where it has very diverse uses. All you need to do to get started is to install PowerToys on your device either through the Microsoft Store or by downloading the EXE file from the Microsoft website manually. Then run the program and select the Keyboard Manager tool from the side menu, make sure to enable the tool by activating the “Enable Keyboard Manager” button as shown in the attached image below.
Second: How to Disable a Specific Key on the Keyboard
In the Keyboard Manager page inside the PowerToys program, click on “Remap a key” under the Keys section to display a window, then click on “Add key remapping” to create a new entry. Press the Select button and press the key you want to disable so that the tool automatically recognizes it. Then go to the “To send” section and select the Disable option from the drop-down menu, and finally, press “OK” at the top right. If you receive a warning message that the selected button will be disabled, click on “Continue anyway,” and the button we chose on the keyboard will be aimless; no matter how much you press it, there will be no response on the screen as if it no longer exists.
Third: How to Disable a Keyboard Shortcut in Windows
What we explained above was for disabling individual keys, as for disabling shortcuts that require pressing a group of keys together, after entering the “Keyboard Manager” settings in the program, we will click on “Remap a shortcut” under the Shortcuts section. Then we press “Add shortcut remapping” from the window that appears. Once again, click on Select, then press the shortcut keys you want to disable until the tool automatically recognizes them, then choose Disable from the drop-down menu under “To send” and finish by clicking on “OK.”
Fourthly: How to Re-enable Disabled Buttons or Shortcuts?
If you miss the function of a key or shortcut, you can easily re-enable them by following the same steps; open the “Microsoft PowerToys” program, then go to Keyboard Manager settings and from there to Keys if you want to reactivate the function of a specific key or Shortcuts if we are talking about reactivating the shortcuts. All we will do in either section is to click on the trash can icon on the right in front of the item we disabled, then click on “OK.”
It is worth mentioning that the “Microsoft PowerToys” tool or program from Microsoft is full of other features, and its function is not limited to just disabling or enabling buttons and shortcuts. For example, you can use the program to operate the mouse and keyboard on multiple computers at the same time, and we have discussed this in detail in a previous article.
