bblanchon / disable-windows-keys

A tiny application that disables the Windows keys of your keyboard. Very useful in games!

Disable Windows Keys

The simplest way to disable the Windows keys!

You're playing your favorite game, but suddenly you're back in the Windows desktop because you accidentally pressed the Windows keys? 😭

It happened to me all the time when playing Overcooked! 2; that's why I created this app. It's very simple and works with any game (Fortnite, Overwatch, WoW, Dota 2, CSGO, etc.).

How to disable Windows keys?

There are other ways to disable the Windows keys on your keyboard:

• Edit the scancode map on the registry
• Change the Group Policy
• Remap keys with SharpKeys
• Write a script for AutoHotKey
• Download a shady utility from an untrusted source

This app offers a straightforward and reliable alternative to disable Windows keys.

How to use this app?

It could not be easier:

• Open the app to disable the Windows keys.
• Close the app to re-enable them.

It's so simple my mom could use it! 👵

Features

• Dead simple
• Doesn't try to be smart
• No fancy or useless feature
• Tiny footprint
• Works on Windows 7, 8, and 10
• Self-contained, nothing else to download
• Perfect for games
• Translated in several languages
• Signed binary files for more security
• Source code available

How to download?

You can get this app for free by compiling it from the source code.

Alternatively, you can purchase the binary version for just 1€.
The executable is signed with my personal certificate, so you know it hasn't been tampered.

disable-windows-keys's Issues

Purchased this app thinking that it will disalbe Alt+ Shift shortcut while gaming

Hello,

Basically, the title. When I started playing, I immediately realised that your program only disables Win key shortcuts, so it is of no help to me.

Maybe you got any tips how to disable Alt+ Shift while in-game ONLY? Would love an automatic solution, if that is possible. I have no knowledge of programming, so I am not really able to compile/ write something myself.

Thanks.

wont build on windows 11

hi there.. thank you for this nifty little application
unfortunately i'm not able to build it on windows 11 dev build

do you have any suggestions ?
thx in advance

Pin to tray and allow the meta key through?

Hey, tossed you a dollar for this great effort, altho it doesn't really do what I want.

I spend a lot of time on a Macbook laptop (and sometimes Linux desktop) and I want to be able to use the "meta" or super key (command in mac, windows key on windows, etc) in my IDE (usually on WSL) without tossing up that pesky start menu. I'm trying to keep my keyboard shortcuts synchronized across platforms and I'm pretty much successful so far.

In VSCode, I'm finding that my meta key isn't triggering the keyboard shortcut when I have this enabled.

Also, by the way, I find the lighting up when it's activated is more distracting than helpful, but that's addressed by the throwing it in the system tray - also called the notifications area.

For now, I'll just live with the possibility of the start menu jumping up - fortunately it happens on keyup when I don't press the associated key, not on a keydown. So only when I actually screw up pressing the shortcut. I already changed the Group Policy which fixes everything except for the Start Menu popping up.

At some point maybe I'll try messing around with the registry but reluctant to muck around with it quite yet

uhhhh

"You can get this app for free by compiling it from the source code" yeah, that'd be simple, if I knew how.

Hi! Just a question. Is it possible to disable just left win key but leave the right one working?