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I recently learned that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Windows+L on Windows opens LinkedIn in your default web browser.

Why does this happen? What application catches the keyboard shortcut? I want to turn it off.

Suchipi
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2 Answers2

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This appears to be a duplicate of How to disable Office key keyboard shortcut opening Office app?, but deserves more explanation:

Explicating the Issue

skip to end for a somewhat impractical work-around.

Interesting! I thought that might be browser dependent, but it's not; evidently it's baked into Windows (as tested on version 22H2, build 19045.3693)!

With Firefox, my default browser open, I also opened Brave browser. While Brave was focused, pressing CtrlAltShiftWindowsL sets focus to Firefox (i.e., the default browser) and opens LinkedIn.

Nastier, using CtrlAltShiftWindows [hereafter referred to as combo]+W opens MS account, combo+T opens MS Teams, and just combo keys opens the following: https://www.microsoft365.com/?from=OfficeKey . N.B. note the URL query string: ?from=OfficeKey. Others I've found: combo+Y -> Yammer, combo+O -> Outlook, combo+D -> OneDrive, and, as Tom Lehrer said, "There may be many others but they haven't been discavahd."

A Somewhat Impractical Workaround

Using Clavier+, a keyboard shortcut/macro utility similar to AutoHotkey, I was able to set the unused key combo+Q to open another application. (Setting it directly to combo+L could not be done, because attempting to enter that shortcut instead opened a browser to LinkedIn.)

The .ini file was edited, replacing Q with L. However, after restarting Clavier+, I found Windows intercepted that key combo, opening LinkedIn, before Clavier+.

However, I then used Russinovich's Process Explorer to

  • Close all open instances of Explorer.exe,
  • Restart Clavier+,
  • And then run a new instance of Explorer.

Voila! Combo+L now opens an alternate application. There are some drawbacks to this approach, though.

  • It required killing and restarting multiple applications after Windows is up and running -- not just at the start of boot.
  • It broke User Access Control: There is no UAC dialog when starting an app as Administrator; the app runs immediately.
  • Items that should have been in the Taskbar disappeared.

Executive Summary

Windows 10, at least for v. 22H2, b. 19045.3693,has baked-in keyboard shortcuts to proprietary Microsoft products such as Office and to MS subsidiaries, such as LinkedIn. These are embedded at such a low level in the Windows OS that it is difficult to intercept or bypass them.

If someone would try that workaround with AutoHotkey or an alternative, please comment below or edit this excessively long "answer".

There might be a workaround by Anthony Heddings, but one would have to download the C++ code and compile it (my guess is that the executable is not distributed because it might be identified as malware by Windows Defender ;-), and install it as directed.

sigh Now to log off Windows and back on to get it working "normally"...
DrMoishe Pippik
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I have a very easy solution to your problem - open up your keyboard and defeat idiotic Windows key by severing a PCB trace leading to it. Alternatively, if you are afraid to mess with PCB, then defeat the key itself by taking it apart and removing the contacts. I never asked for a vendor-specific key (even though I am a Windows user and not a Linux fanboy) and there is zero reasons to use such key. With Win key defeated, the combo won't work and therefore none of these silly shortcuts will work too.

Regus Pregus
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