The vast majority of users have no problems with the functions of certain keys and shortcuts out of the box, but there's always that conflict between two programs or that key in a strange position that we keep pressing by accident. The Windows key is one of the main “offenders”, so to speak, causing all sorts of errors and difficulties. If you want to know how to disable the Windows key easily, the first step is to download a copy of the open source program SharpKeys.
Although I would like to begin this article with a story… I actually have some bad news to share: My IBM Model M keyboard from 1993 gave up. Eight keys stopped working in the middle of a Control session (obviously, they gave me a beating), and a preliminary cleaning of the contacts didn't help. The failure has been identified, but its repair is tedious and needs a good battle plan.
Until that happens, I have to write with a Logitech keyboard that doesn't feel very good. Besides undoing a decade of muscle memory, I'm fighting with inverted accents, and the damn right-side Windows key. Instead of pressing AltGr+2 to write the at sign, I keep pressing Win+W, which activates Windows Whiteboard… and it's driving me crazy. Although there are group policies that let me disable Whiteboard, I'm going to follow a much more practical and useful route for most users, which is to disable the Windows key. Want to know more?
How to disable the Windows key with SharpKeys
- Download the latest version of SharpKeys from its GitHub profile. The portable version is more than enough, and its developer also recommends it for use on ARM chips.
- Double-click the executable. The SharpKeys interface doesn't offer much detail at first, but here you need to click the Add button again.
- The program opens a new window with two columns. SharpKeys is compatible with remapping, meaning it also allows us to modify the behavior of a key. However, today my goal is to disable the right-side Windows key.
- Click the Type Key button in the left column and press the key to disable. In my case, the exact identification is Right Windows E5_0C. After pressing OK, the Windows key is selected in the left column, but you need to leave the Turn Key Off 00_00 option checked on the right.
- When you press OK, the new rule appears registered in the SharpKeys interface. Click Write to Registry, and restart the computer to confirm the changes. Logging off completely also works, but it's safer to restart.
- If you want to undo this operation in the future, you only need to delete the entry with SharpKeys, save the change in the Registry, and restart.
Personally, I hope that disabling the Windows key helps me a bit in the long adaptation process ahead, but by providing remapping support, SharpKeys is a much more valuable tool than it seems, and it will help you customize your keyboard function without too many surprises.
Official site and download: Click here.
