As with any application, the Chrome browser has built-in keyboard shortcuts that make it easy to perform certain frequent actions such as opening a new tab, moving between tabs, opening the History page, etc.
Though the built-in Chrome key bindings are quite useful, there might be situations where you might want to disable Chrome keyboard shortcuts.
There may be any number of reasons to disable keyboard shortcuts in the Chrome browser, like, the Chrome keyboard shortcuts might be interfering with other applications or web services that use the same shortcuts as Google Chrome. In that case, you cannot interact with that web service using those keyboard shortcuts.
For example, my writing app uses “Ctrl + Number” to change heading levels. However, the same shortcut is used by Chrome to select a tab in order. As you can guess, I cannot use the same keyboard shortcut in that web tool.
If you are ever in these kinds of situations, you can simply disable Chrome keyboard shortcuts that you don’t use. Let me show you how.
Table of contents:
How to disable Chrome keyboard shortcuts
As you’d expect, Google Chrome doesn’t have an option that lets you disable the key bindings you don’t need. The good thing is, Chrome has an extension for everything. This case is no different.
I will show two extensions to disable Chrome keyboard shortcuts. You can use either of them to get the job done. The good thing is, you can pick and choose which keyboard shortcut to disable in Chrome. For instance, I only disabled the “Control + Number” keyboard shortcuts.
1. Using Shortkeys Extensions
- Install the Shortkeys extension in Chrome.
- Click on the extension icon.
- Select the “Options” option from the list.
- Type the shortcut you want to disable in the “Keyboard shortcut” field.
- Select “Do Nothing” from the “Behavior” dropdown.
- Click the “Add” button.
- Add other shortcuts you want to disable.
- Click the “Save” button.
- Relaunch the browser.
- With that, you’ve disabled Chrome keyboard shortcuts.
Shortkeys extension link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/shortkeys-custom-keyboard/logpjaacgmcbpdkdchjiaagddngobkck
Steps with more details:
First, open the Chrome browser if it is not already opened. Next, use the above link to go to the Shortkeys extension page. Click the “Add to Chrome” button to install the extension. If you see a prompt, click on the “Ok” or “Add Extension” button.
After installing, click on the Extensions icon next to the address bar and then click on the Shortkeys extension. From the list of options, select the “Options” option.
The above action will open the extension’s settings page. Here, type the shortcut you want to disable in the “Keyboard shortcut” field, select the “Do Nothing” action from the “Behavior” dropdown menu and then click on the “Add” button.
The shortcut will be added to the disabled list as soon as you click the Add button. Click on the “Save” button to save changes.
Finally, close the options page and restart the Chrome browser. From now on, the Chrome keyboard shortcuts are disabled.
Using Disable Keyboard Shortcuts Extension
The aptly named ‘Disable Keyboard Shortcuts’ Chrome extension lets you disable any Chrome keyboard shortcut you don’t want to use.
- Install the Disable Keyboard Shortcuts extension in Chrome.
- Type “chrome:\\extensions\shortcuts” in the address bar.
- Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard.
- Click the “Edit” icon next to the shortcut field.
- Place the cursor in the blank field.
- Press the shortcut key you want to disable.
- Select “In Chrome” from the second dropdown menu.
- Settings are saved automatically.
- Relaunch the Chrome browser.
- With that, you’ve disabled Chrome keyboard shortcuts.
Disable keyboard shortcuts extension link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-keyboard-shortcut/aidbmcboeighgdnilpdljbedbbiocphj?hl=en
Quickly disabling Chrome keyboard shortcuts — Conclusion
As you can see, it is rather easy to disable Chrome keyboard shortcuts. No matter which extension you use, it will work perfectly and get the job done. One thing to keep in mind is that the second extension I showed will completely disable the shortcut. If you want the shortcut to perform some other action, use the first extension, and don’t forget to select the appropriate option while configuring the extension.
As good as it is, this method is not foolproof, and there might be times when the extension may fail to intercept and disable the shortcut. It almost never happens, but there is a chance.
If you want to be sure, you can try AutoHotKey with a custom script that can capture and restrict keyboard shortcuts before they can ever reach Google Chrome.
Of course, working with AutoHotKey requires you to get your hands dirty with scripting and new programming language but trust me, it is very easy to grasp and infinitely useful.
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That is all. It is that simple to disable keyboard shortcuts in the Chrome browser.
I hope this simple and easy Chrome how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
If you like this article, do check out how to rename Chrome tabs and how to limit Google Chrome cache, so it doesn’t consume too much hard drive space.
