HOW TO: Disable a Custom Shortcut Key with a System Policy Setting in Office XP (309131)

SUMMARY

This step-by-step guide describes how to fully disable a shortcut key. Many Office XP commands have corresponding shortcut key assignments. If you disable a menu command and a toolbar button through a policy, a user can still run a command by using the shortcut key. To make the option completely unavailable, you must also disable the shortcut key.

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Disabling a Custom Shortcut Key with a System Policy Setting

In Office XP, disabling the predefined (built-in) or custom shortcut key for a command requires that you know how to enter the shortcut key ID into the Policy Editor. You can disable any custom shortcut key by using the System Policy Editor, even if the item is not listed in the policy template.

To disable a custom shortcut key with a policy, follow these steps:

1. Start the System Policy Editor. Double-click the policy profile you want to modify.
2. Expand the Office program by clicking the plus sign (+) or double-clicking the name of the program that contains the custom shortcut key you want to disable.
3. Expand the Disable items in user interface node. Expand the Custom node.
4. Click to select the Disable shortcut keys check box.
5. In the Settings for Disable shortcut keys section, click Show.
6. In the Show Contents box, click Add.
7. In the Add Item box, type the key and modifier values for the shortcut key. Use the following syntax:

   key,modifier

   For example, to disable the shortcut key ALT+K, type 75,16

If you create this policy and place it on your domain controller, the log on process for a user automatically enforces the settings in the policy file. It adds the following subkey to the registry: The subkey has the following values where x is an integer.

When Excel starts, it examines this registry setting and checks to see if a value is present. If the entry is 77,12, it turns off the custom shortcut key (in this case CTRL+SHIFT+M); if the value is later changed to 0 (zero), it turns on the shortcut key. Note that you can use any value name in this registry key and supply an appropriate shortcut key combination to turn off the shortcut key.

This is a unique registry entry because it is a list of KeyModx entries. The x is an integer that is incremented by 1 for each entry in the list. Examples of KeyModx entries in the registry are: back to the top