DevTopics

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

That’s how I feel after Windows Help and Support hijacked the Ctrl+Shift+H global keyboard shortcut.  The problem is that many of my programs already use the Ctrl+Shift+H keyboard shortcut for other purposes.  And my macro and voice recognition programs rely on that specific shortcut.  If I cannot remove the Ctrl+Shift+H shortcut from Windows Help and Support, I’ll have to re-program all my other programs, a major inconvenience for a feature I did not request.

For example, I spend all day in Microsoft Visual Studio writing software for Windows.  Visual Studio uses Ctrl+Shift+H for the “Replace in Files” function, which I use frequently:

But now when I press Ctrl+Shift+H in Visual Studio (or any other program), Windows Vista Help and Support appears.  Frankly, Windows is not being helpful nor supportive.  But since Windows help is here even though I didn’t want it, I enter “keyboard shortcuts.”  There are plenty of good articles on Windows keyboard shortcuts and how to make or change them.  But I couldn’t find how to remove the Ctrl+Shift+H shortcut from Windows Help and Support.

So who’s the culprit?  This happened automatically and without my permission sometime in the past few days.  It appears my PC underwent a Windows Update during that time, so perhaps that’s it.  I cannot be sure. 

The lesson here for programmers is obvious:  Sometimes even the most benign software change can have a large impact on your users.

Please comment if you know how to remove the Ctrl+Shift+H keyboard shortcut from Windows Help and Support.