Turn off Windows Key hotkeys
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Policy overview

Key metadata and intent for this policy.

User
Category
Windows Components > File Explorer
Supported on
At least Windows Server 2003

Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2003, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista

Turn off Windows Key hotkeys. Keyboards with a Windows key provide users with shortcuts to common shell features. For example, pressing the keyboard sequence Windows+R opens the Run dialog box; pressing Windows+E starts File Explorer. By using this setting, you can disable these Windows Key hotkeys. If you enable this setting, the Windows Key hotkeys are unavailable. If you disable or do not configure this setting, the Windows Key hotkeys are available.

Internal name
NoWindowsHotKeys
Policy ID
86bb1f143f43
Elements
0

Registry values

How enabled and disabled states update the registry.

ScopeRegistry locationTypeEnabled valueDisabled valueCopy
User
Path
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value name
NoWinKeys
REG_DWORD
HKCU
1
HKCU
0
Registry location
Type REG_DWORD · User
Path
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value name
NoWinKeys
Hive
HKCU
Enabled value
1
Disabled value
0

Policy elements

Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.

This policy has no additional user input fields.