Hotkey in use by explorer.exe

Hi there, im in need of assistance. Not sure when or how did it happen, but hotkey SHIFT+R is used by explorer.exe apparently, according to "hotkeydetective" program. I also DLed a some "hotkey explorer" program and it shows hotkey as used. Anyway, i came across this when i was renaming some files on PC. I searched the web, used the search here, but i just cant find a solution. I want to disable this Hotkey(dont know what is used for anyway, as it does nothing), as im used to press shift+ letter if i want to cap it, but now i cant for R. Checked every running program on my PC for any hotkeys, exited one by one to see if anything changed, but no. unning latest w11.
Im hoping for a solution.

Hi, @redbirdSI and welcome the Eleven Forum (11F).

I just checked and SHIFT + R works fine for me, taking me to the first item starting with "r" in Explorer. I'm also on a build slightly ahead of you, 22621.2215, but I doubt that makes a difference.

Do you receive an error message when trying to use it, or does it actually do anything, like load an application? It is possible that a shortcut has been assigned a quick-start shortcut as such:



But this would be obvious because whatever app is being assigned to SHIFT + R should start every time you try to use that key combination.

Also, though I doubt this is the case, won't hurt to check your ASUS-specific apps (if you have any installed for your motherboard or GPU) to see if they might have been assigned that shortcut. Also check things like CPU controllers (MSI afterburner, etc.) as well as gaming software that can be used to take screenshots.

Hi, and thanks for the welcome and a reply.
I havent touched any hotkeys in any app recently, for screenshots i use prtscr on desktop and f12 in games. Not sure when did this happen. It does absolutely nothing, i cant cap a r even as im writing this. Im attaching a screenshot. I just cant figure it out. I never assigned any hotkey to any app as your suggestion above. Although i have ASUS mobo, i dont have any of their bloatware whatsoever. No afterburner, only rivatuner as i only need an overlay, and i checked that earlier. Not sure anymore. I swear to god i was able to cap a r with a shift before.

Then go through all the programs you're recently installed until you find the one that is making use of that key combination, as it's not a default Windows key combination for anything, so it's gotta be some 3rd party thing.

Also check for programs that were updated recently, as it could be a program you've had for a while, but a recent update added in a new feature that uses that key combination, and they enabled it by default (bad practice for any software developer to do something like that, but it does happen).

Also have a look at this article to try resetting Keyboard settings to default using the modern settings.

Let’s take an example to make it clear. I have only English (India) installed, and it is my primary language. If I want to reset my keyboard to default settings, I will have to add another language – say English (United States) and move it to the top of the list, using the Move up link. This will change my keyboard layout.

Next, I will have to move English (India) back to the top. This will change my keyboard layout to match this language setting. I can then delete English (United States).

Click to expand...

From here,

Ack - I didn't consider keyboard software too, like my old logitech had programmable keys, and my current SteelSeries does as well.

So many things to look for, sorry redbird.

If an app is interfering, you can find which one using clean boot.
When in clean boot, open explorer to C:
Shift+R should highlight 'Recovery' (Recovery is the first folder in C: starting with the letter R

If you want to disable explorer hotkeys

Thanks for all the replies and help. Anyway, it is solved. It wasnt a 3rd party app actually, but xbox game bar. I know i fiddled some with it a time ago, and i guess i had this hotkey in there for record, but never used it and then forgot about it. Oh well. Weird tho that hotkey is used globally, not in games only or when you open xbox game bar. On that note, i think windows devs should make hotkey management/explorer or something in the future for issue like i had. Just a suggestion.

redbirdSI said:

i think windows devs should make hotkey management/explorer or something in the future for issue like i had. Just a suggestion.

Click to expand...

You'll need to use the Feedback app to suggest it.


All the best,
Denis

redbirdSI said:

Thanks for all the replies and help. Anyway, it is solved. It wasnt a 3rd party app actually, but xbox game bar. I know i fiddled some with it a time ago, and i guess i had this hotkey in there for record, but never used it and then forgot about it. Oh well. Weird tho that hotkey is used globally, not in games only or when you open xbox game bar. On that note, i think windows devs should make hotkey management/explorer or something in the future for issue like i had. Just a suggestion.

Click to expand...

I had a feeling it was something like that. That's why I wrote that last part in my first reply lol. Because I've actually done the same thing in the past with other software.

johnlgalt said:

Also check things like CPU controllers (MSI afterburner, etc.) as well as gaming software that can be used to take screenshots.

Click to expand...

To be fair, though, even though this is a Microsoft app from the Microsoft store, they kinda expect you to remember these things.

If you create an issue with the feedback group, link us to it here - I'll gladly upvote it as I think your idea has merit, and to be honest, I'm actually surprised Windows has never had this sort of thing baked in in the first place.