Disable Narrator shortcut key in Windows

Question

I've install Windows 8 on a BootCamp macbook air The problem is that the command key located differently from the winkey in a normal keyboard, therefor, I keep clicking Winkey+Enter which starts the narrator (which is really annoying!)

Is there a way to disable this shortcut?

Answer 1

I have not tried it personally but here's what I found.

1. Navigate to %systemroot%\System32
2. In this folder a file called Narrator.exe is to be found
3. Right click the file and choose Properties
4. Choose the Security tab and press Advanced
5. In the top of the window press Change to change the Owner permissions
6. In the text field write your username and press OK to all the dialogs

Now you should be able to change the permissions of the file, this is where we remove all the permissions from your user and change the owner back to SYSTESM; this way your user will not be able to start the Narrator.

1. Right-click the Narrator file again and choose Properties and Security
2. Press Advanced
3. Now that you are the owner you can change permissions for other users. Choose your own user and press Edit
4. Remove the Read & Execute and Read permissions and press OK
5. Now press Change in the top under Owner and write system in the text field
6. Press OK to all dialogs

Source

Answer 2

If you're familiar with editing the Windows registry, you can use the solution described here:

• Launch regedit.exe and navigate to: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
• Create a key with the name Narrator.exe
• Inside the key, create a new String value called Debugger, and set its value to %1

This won't be changed by Windows updates, and can be easily reverted by just deleting the key.

If you don't use any Windows Assistive Technology features, you may also want to create a registry key for AtBroker.exe with an identifical string to prevent it to be launched as a rogue process in the background every time you accidently use the Narrator shortcut.

Answer 3

Pressing the Capslock and the Esc keys at the same time brings up a window that allows you to Exit the Narrator.

Answer 4

UPDATE 2022

Windows 10 and Windows 11 have dedicated settings just for that.

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Windows 11

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Windows 10

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So now it is super easy to turn this Narrator hotkey off.

Answer 5

You could use AutoHotkey to disable the Win + Enter key combination with the following script :

#Enter:: return

With AutoHotkey you could also map this key combination to any other key combination or action.

If you wish to disable the Win key itself, see this registry hack :
How to disable the keyboard Windows key.

If you wish to disable all Win + ?? key combinations, this registry hack does that:
Disable Win+X Shortcut Keys on Windows 7 or Vista.

Answer 6

This probably only works in Windows 10, but the shortcut is really easy to disable now.

Open Narrator (Go to Control Panel > Ease of Access Center > Start Narrator, or use the annoying shortcut), select the Narrator window (it runs in the background), go to General settings and disable shortcut key, click save, and click exit narrator.

Answer 7

There is a way to disable shortcuts which start with Win in a windows registry.

1. Create text file with the following content

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
   "DisabledHotkeys"=hex(2):0D,00,00,00
   

2. Change file's extension to "reg"

3. Run it by double click

As you can see, it creates a registry field "DisabledHotKeys", with a value of a key we want to disable. In our case it's a 0D in hex or 13 in dec or "carriage return" symbol. Win key shouldn't be specified here because it's implied.

For example, if you want to disable Win + R, Win + D and Win + Home then the value of "DisabledHotKeys" should be "RD$". ("$" symbol has an ascii-code equals to a keycode of Home button)

Answer 8

This is one post that comes up when users search for how to disable Narrator in Windows 10.

This was annoying me today. The provided solutions weren't satisfactory for me. Especially setting the debuger setting. I did a 30 second search for Narrator in the registry and very luckily found this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam\WinEnterLaunchEnabled

Setting it to 0 disables the shortcut for the current user, so not in the login screen.

Save this as a .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam]
"WinEnterLaunchEnabled"=dword:00000000

This key doesn't seem to be present in Windows 8.1, so looks like it's only a Windows 10 addition.

Hope this helps someone though.

Answer 9

I installed a simple little script program that allows you to snap windows to the edges of screens or to other monitors. By default, I think - I've had this program running for a long while on windows, it takes over the same shortcut key. I installed it on my win8 machine and it seems to have done the trick and taken over the same shortcut used by narrator. I realize win8 has good support for snapping windows around, but I like this shortcut to do it because that's what I'm used to and it has the nice side effect of preventing narrator from starting. You can also do more advanced window placement, but I find I just throw things back and forth to other monitors.

In any case, it's worth a try. I just set windowpad to run on startup so it's always active.

lifehacker link to windowpad article

Answer 10

I did the following in my Windows 8 PC to enable and disable narrator,

To enable,

Win + enter

To disable,

Win + alt + enter 

It will bring the narrator screen. Click exit on it.

Answer 11

I don't know if it works on Windows 8 or not but it works on Windows Vista/7 very well. Press the Win+U key which will open the Ease of access center or you can open it through Control Panel as well.

Now click on the option Use the computer without a display and another window will popup

And unchecked the option Turn on Narrator and click Apply button to apply this settings. Now when you press the Win+Enter narrator won't be start.