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Windows Forum / Windows XP / Customization / October 2008How do I disable CTRL+W in Internet Explorer?
I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. I don't ever want to use it. When I press it by mistake it sometimes results in loss of whatever I've been working on, with no warning, and no recovery. Naturally, I want to disable this annoying shortcut. How can I do this? I've searched and cannot find anything that tells me how to do this (it even took a while before I found a reference to the CTRL+W shortcut!). Thanks in advance for any ideas. > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W?  SignatureShenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W? You can certainly ask, although I'm only partially puzzled as to why you do - I can only assume that you believe that this is unlikely. It's not only not unlikely, it's actually quite a distinct possibility, if you're using the Dvorak keyboard layout: CTRL+W is right next to CTRL+V. Hence my desire to disable this potentially destructive shortcut. > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. Shenan Stanley wrote: > How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W? > You can certainly ask, although I'm only partially puzzled as to > why you do - I can only assume that you believe that this is [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Hence my desire to disable this potentially destructive shortcut. The Dvorak layout usage is uncommon - at least in my experience. It may well be different where you are located or by preference but yes - you have pinpointed my confusion. QWERTY layout causes it to be less often an accidental press, as CTRL+Q and CTRL+E aren't really used all that much I would presume. ;-) Thank you for indulging my curiosity and broadening my thought processes on the matter. SignatureShenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:36:20 -0600 from Shenan Stanley <newshelper@gmail.com>: > QWERTY layout causes it to be less often an accidental press, as > CTRL+Q and CTRL+E aren't really used all that much I would presume. Two types of accidents (or more): (1) pressing a key you didn't mean to press, and (2) pressing a key you *did* mean to press, but making a mistake about the desired action. SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ "If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/ Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:15:34 -0600 from Shenan Stanley <newshelper@gmail.com>: > > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W? Isn't it obvious? "I'm done with this window now, so I'll Ctrl-W to get rid of it. Whoops! the focus was somewhere other than I thought, so I got rid of a window I want to keep instead of one I wanted to get rid of." And there's also "I'm done with this window now, so I'll Ctrl-W to get rid of it. Whoops! I just realized I still needed that window after all." SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ "If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/ Pendant wrote: > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. Shenan Stanley wrote: > How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W? > Isn't it obvious? "I'm done with this window now, so I'll Ctrl-W to > get rid of it. Whoops! the focus was somewhere other than I [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > get rid of it. Whoops! I just realized I still needed that window > after all." If you read the answer given by the OP to my query - I think you will find that is not the case. Here it is... Pendant wrote: > You can certainly ask, although I'm only partially puzzled as to > why you do - I can only assume that you believe that this is [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Hence my desire to disable this potentially destructive shortcut. Even peaked my interest in trying a few new keyboards. hah SignatureShenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:56:40 -0600 from Shenan Stanley <newshelper@gmail.com>: > Shenan Stanley wrote: > > How do you - might I ask - accidentally press CTRL+W? [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > If you read the answer given by the OP to my query - I think you will find > that is not the case. I was answering for myself, not for someone else. Those are the principal ways *I* hit Ctrl-W by mistake. I guess it wasn't obvious, though. :-) SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ "If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/ Having raised the issue for other reasons, Stan has highlighted that my query also has other relevance. A user interface should not have a feature such as this that is potentially destructive, with no recovery. Or at the very least if it is included, it should be possible to disable it. > Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:56:40 -0600 from Shenan Stanley > <newshelper@gmail.com>: [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > > I guess it wasn't obvious, though. :-) Mon, 4 Feb 2008 06:43:04 -0800 from Pendant <Pendant@discussions.microsoft.com>: > A user interface should not have a feature such as this that is potentially > destructive, with no recovery. One of the nice features of the Multizilla add-in to Mozilla: "reopen closed tabs". SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com A: Maybe because some people are too annoyed by top posting. Q: Why do I not get an answer to my question(s)? A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this. Doctor: Don't do it. --- Leonard Grey Errare humanum est > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > (it even took a while before I found a reference to the CTRL+W > shortcut!). Looking around - I have found an inordinate number of references to the CTRL+W One google search for it will bring up MANY hits) - but disabling it... List of the shortcuts in Windows XP/etc: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/2503b91d-d780-4c80-8f08-2f48 878dc5661033.mspx I found how to disable all of the new "EXTRA" shortcut keys in Vista: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-winx-shortcut-keys-on-windo ws-vista/ Maybe someone else will come up with something. SignatureShenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. Spend the time you're using to persue this little detail instead for improving your typing accuracy and you'll find yourself miles ahead of the game. You're in for a long and bumpy ride if something that simple bothers you that much, that often, etc. etc.. SignatureRegards, Twayne OO0 is a GREAT MS Office replacement www.openoffice.org Please respond to the newsgroup, not to my e-mail, so that all may benefit. I do not always respond to newsgroup e-mails. "In for a long and bumpy ride"? I've been on it ever since computers were invented. This problem situation does not arise very often, it's true. When it DOES happen, sod's law says that it will be disastrous. The time taken to 'pursue this little detail' is far less costly than the time it can take to compose a single time-sensitive email (for instance). I believe that it makes perfect sense to try to discover a solution to such a situation; finding one will not only enable me to avoid a needless irritation, it will also enable me to assist others who are in the same boat. Thinks: why is it that whenever someone points out that something is flawed, there are always many people who delight in claiming that it isn't? > > I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > > [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > the game. You're in for a long and bumpy ride if something that simple > bothers you that much, that often, etc. etc.. >I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Thanks in advance for any ideas. To actually answer your question...Search for "key mapper" on google. Among others it will lead you to sharewareconnection.com which lists many (some reviewed) mappers. One that is listed there that may be what you need is http://www.easysofts.com.cn/en/, but I can't be positive from the description, however you can ask them. At least this will point you in the right direction. Take the usual precautions when downloading and installing shareware. I believe that this will allow you to disable CTRL-W on a Windows level (not just IE), but perhaps that is what you meant by "I don't *ever* want to use it." > >I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > just IE), but perhaps that is what you meant by "I don't *ever* want to use > it." Many thanks for the suggestion. I'm aware that there are keyboard layout configuration tools - Microsoft itself offers one, although I couldn't get that to work (and I asked on here why not, and got nowhere with that). All the others I've seen so far require the purchase of the tool (to access mappings such as this) as well as time to learn a new tool for a single purpose. If that is the only answer, it's a pity; a lot of effort to cure a trivial annoyance that arguably shouldn't be there in the first place. >>> I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. >>> [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > If that is the only answer, it's a pity; a lot of effort to cure a > trivial annoyance that arguably shouldn't be there in the first place. Yes it is a lot of effort for a trivial annoyance; that's why I recommended becoming more accuate with your typing. It's easy to do and only take practice. That will help counter the other similar situations you'll encounter too. SignatureRegards, Twayne OO0 is a GREAT MS Office replacement www.openoffice.org Please respond to the newsgroup, not to my e-mail, so that all may benefit. I do not always respond to newsgroup e-mails. > > >I never use CTRL+W to close all windows. > > > [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > If that is the only answer, it's a pity; a lot of effort to cure a trivial > annoyance that arguably shouldn't be there in the first place. BTW: you don't have to use ctl-v to paste: you can use shift-ins key or even mouse to avoid the problem Dear Pendan. I have had exactly the same problem. This morning I spent several hours updating a wiki page at work, and went to paste in some text, but hit Ctrl+W instead of Ctrl+V. IE closed without any confirmation dialogue. How disheartening. For those who don't know about this issue, the W and V keys are neighbours on the Dvorak keyboard layout. And that's just asking for trouble when programs don't confirm the closure of a window. So this happens to me every few months. I usually use Firefox, which at will ask to confirm a window closing, but my employer forces me to use Internet Explorer for some tasks on our intranet. Needless to say, I lost all of my work. After some research, it seems that Windows XP does not let you change or disable shortcut keys, unlike Mac OS X, which does. I found the solution to be to download a free open-source tool called HotKeyBind. I have set Ctrl+W to toggle the Windows XP Mute feature. That's nice and benign. As HotKeyBind will automatically start when I log in, I should be protected from now on. You can download HotKeyBind here: - http://sourceforge.net/projects/hotkeybind/ And as for those who suggest that we simply learn to type more accurately, they are missing the point. I am a very fast and accurate Dvorak typist, but if you take your hand away from the keyboard, there will always be a chance that you might not put it back in the correct place, even with the alignment bumps on the U and H keys (F and J for Dvorak). As I wrote, this problem hits me every few months. This time it hurt so much that I actively sought out a solution that works for me. Pendan, I hope this helps you. It's more of a work-around, but it seems to be the best solution. Microsoft usually bends over backwards to be all things for all people, but in this case they appear to have thought that no-one would ever want to change a shortcut key. Stephen. |
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