Disable Win+S Key on Windows 8.1?
How can the Windows + S keyboard shortcut be disabled on Windows 8.1?
I had Win+S mapped to take a screen capture in Windows 8 using Evernote. (not using Windows built-in PrintScr to capture the entire screen):
After the update, Win+S always brings up the Search panel:
A solution using RegEdit would be fine. I just need it disabled so that other capture programs, such as Evernote and Greenshot can use it (as before, pre-Win 8.1).
You can disable preassigned Windows shortcuts with a registry Hack. Just start a new plaintext file with the content:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"DisabledHotkeys"=hex(2):53,00,00,00
and save it as something like disableWinS.reg. Run the created reg file by double-clicking and confirm the prompt to add the key to your registry. Then restart your machine and Win+S is happy to be assigned by Evernote!
PS: 53,00,00,00 is just hex code for S. If other keys are required, just check a ASCII Code chart
(source: http://forum.voidtools.com/viewtopic.php?p=8942#p8942)
Win+S used to give you OneNote screen capture; now it goes to Win8.1 search. However Win+Shift+S still goes to onenote.
Using AutoHotkey you can reclaim keys that even the DisabledHotkeys registry setting won't restore. For example, this AutoHotKey script will remap Win-Z to Shift-Ctrl-Z. Configure your program to respond to Shift-Ctrl-Z and it won't know the difference.
#Z::Send,^+Z
In Windows 8.1, Win + PrtScrn is the key for screen capture.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/take-screen-capture-print-screen#take-screen-capture-print-screen=windows-8
I can think of a couple of ways to keep Win + S to be quiet.
- May not be for everyone. Autohotkey can be used to map any key to anything. Win + S can be mapped to do nothing. I am not elaborating since you might not be interested in this.
- A dummy .bat file can be created and Win + S can be used as the shortcut key. Some instructions can be found here. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4999-shortcuts-assign-keyboard-shortcut-windows-8-a.html. Basically create a donothing.bat in the desktop and assign Win + S as its shortcut key.