- 1 year ago
How to turn off default windows hotkeys using python?
To turn off default Windows hotkeys using Python, you can utilize the ctypes
module to call into the Windows API and modify the system's keyboard hook. Here's an example of how you can achieve this:
pythonimport ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes
user32 = ctypes.WinDLL('user32')
# Constants for keyboard hook events
WH_KEYBOARD_LL = 13
WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100
WM_KEYUP = 0x0101
# Keyboard callback function
def keyboard_hook(nCode, wParam, lParam):
# Suppress hotkeys by returning a non-zero value
if wParam == WM_KEYDOWN or wParam == WM_KEYUP:
return 1
return user32.CallNextHookEx(None, nCode, wParam, lParam)
# Set the keyboard hook
keyboard_proc = ctypes.CFUNCTYPE(wintypes.LPARAM, wintypes.WPARAM, wintypes.LPARAM)(keyboard_hook)
keyboard_hook_id = user32.SetWindowsHookExA(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, keyboard_proc, None, 0)
# Message loop to keep the hook active
msg = wintypes.MSG()
while user32.GetMessageA(ctypes.byref(msg), None, 0, 0) != 0:
user32.TranslateMessage(ctypes.byref(msg))
user32.DispatchMessageA(ctypes.byref(msg))
# Remove the hook when done
user32.UnhookWindowsHookEx(keyboard_hook_id)
This script sets up a low-level keyboard hook using the SetWindowsHookExA
function from the Windows API. The keyboard_hook
function acts as the callback for the hook and suppresses hotkey events by returning a non-zero value. The script enters a message loop to keep the hook active and calls GetMessageA
, TranslateMessage
, and DispatchMessageA
to handle keyboard messages. Finally, it removes the hook using UnhookWindowsHookEx
when the script is terminated.
Keep in mind that modifying system behavior, such as disabling default hotkeys, can have unintended consequences and may affect the user experience. Additionally, this code needs to be executed with administrative privileges to modify system-wide keyboard hooks.