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Disable user interface items and shortcut keys in Office 2010

 

Applies to: Office 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2012-01-27

Banner stating end of support date for Office 2010 with link to more info

You can disable user interface (UI) items and keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Office 2010 by using Group Policy.

To use Group Policy to disable UI items and shortcut keys, you must have the appropriate control IDs and virtual key codes. These are provided, along with how-to instructions, in this article.

In this article:

  • Using Group Policy to disable UI items and keyboard shortcuts

  • Disabling commands by using control IDs

  • Disabling keyboard shortcuts by using virtual key codes

  • Disabling predefined user interface items and keyboard shortcuts

Before performing any of the procedures in this article, make sure that you have installed the Office 2010 Administrative Templates. For more information about how to download and install the Administrative Templates, see Load Office 2010 Administrative Templates to a GPO in Use Group Policy to enforce Office 2010 settings.

Using Group Policy to disable UI items and keyboard shortcuts

You can use Group Policy settings to disable commands and menu items for Office 2010 applications by specifying the toolbar control ID (TCID) for the Office 2010 controls. You can also disable keyboard shortcuts by setting the Custom | Disable shortcut keys policy setting and adding the virtual key code and modifier for the shortcut. A virtual key code is a hardware-independent number that uniquely identifies a key on the keyboard. A modifier is the value for a modifier key, such as ALT, CONTROL, or SHIFT.

The Custom | Disable commands and Disable shortcut keys policy settings are available for the following Office 2010 applications:

  • Microsoft Access 2010

  • Microsoft Excel 2010

  • Microsoft Outlook 2010

  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

  • Microsoft Project 2010

  • Microsoft Visio 2010

  • Microsoft Word 2010

The Custom | Disable commands policy settings are also available for the following Office 2010 applications:

  • Microsoft InfoPath 2010

  • Microsoft Publisher 2010

  • Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

Policy settings for the Office 2010 applications are accessed under the User Configuration\Administrative Templates node in Group Policy Object Editor. To disable user interface items and shortcut keys, administrators can enable one of the following policy settings under the Disable items in User Interface\Custom node for an Office 2010 application:

  • Disable commands   Allows you to specify the control ID for the command that you want to disable. If you disable a TCID, that TCID is disabled everywhere the toolbar control is used. To disable a tab, you can disable the controls on the tab. For more information, see Disabling commands by using control IDs later in this article.

  • Disable shortcut keys   Allows you to specify the virtual key code and modifier (as key,modifier) for the keyboard shortcut you want to disable. Key is the value of a key (for example, K) in Windows, and modifier is the value of either a modifier key (such as ALT) or a combination of modifier keys in Windows. For more information, see Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes later in this article.

Policy settings are also available for disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys for the Office 2010 applications. For more information, see Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys later in this article.

Disabling commands by using control IDs

You must first obtain the control IDs for the Office 2010 application controls that you want to disable by using the custom Disable commands policy setting. For information about how to download files that list the control IDs for built-in controls in all applications that use the Office 2010 Office Fluent UI, see Office 2010 Help Files: Office Fluent User Interface Control Identifiers (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=181052).

For information about how to use Group Policy Object Editor from the Group Policy Management Console Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in, see Group Policy management tools in Group Policy overview for Office 2010.

To disable commands by using control IDs

  1. Verify that you have the necessary security permissions for the GPO: either Edit settings or Edit settings, delete, and modify security. For more information about permissions that are needed to manage Group Policy, see “Delegating administration of Group Policy” in the Group Policy Planning and Deployment Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182208).

  2. In the Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Excel 2010).

  3. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Custom, double-click Disable commands, and then click Enabled.

  4. Click Show. In the Show Contents dialog box, click Add, enter the control ID for the command that you want to disable in the Add Item dialog box, and then click OK.

    For example, to disable the Check for Updates button in Excel (assuming you had previously added this command to the Excel Quick Access Toolbar), you would enter 9340 (the control ID for the CheckForUpdates control).

  5. Click OK. In the Disable commands policy Properties page, click OK.

Disabling shortcut keys by using virtual key codes

The Disable shortcut keys policy setting under the Disable items in user interface\Predefined node includes several built-in shortcut keys that are listed by name. For example, you can disable CTRL+K, the shortcut for the Hyperlink command (Insert tab, Links group). For more information, see Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys later in this article.

To disable other shortcut keys, you set the Disable shortcut keys policy setting under the Disable items in User Interface\Custom node and add the virtual key code and modifier for the user interface item that you want to disable. Key is the numeric value for a key (such as V) in Windows. Modifier is the value of either a modifier key such as CONTROL, or a combination of modifier keys in Windows.

The following resources provide information about Office 2010 combination shortcut keys, function keys, and other common shortcut keys, together with descriptions of their functionality. You need the shortcut key information to use the Custom | Disable shortcut keys policy settings.

The following table provides information about keys and modifiers.

Key or modifier Value (decimal)

ALT

16

CONTROL

8

SHIFT

4

A

65

B

66

C

67

D

68

E

69

F

70

G

71

H

72

I

73

J

74

K

75

L

76

M

77

N

78

O

79

P

80

Q

81

R

82

S

83

T

84

U

85

V

86

W

87

X

88

Y

89

Z

90

The following table lists the values for the function keys used by the system.

Function key Value (decimal)

F1

112

F2

113

F3

114

F4

115

F5

116

F6

117

F7

118

F8

119

F9

120

F10

121

F11

122

F12

123

For a more comprehensive list of symbolic constant names, hexadecimal values, and mouse or keyboard equivalents for the virtual-key codes used by the system, see Virtual-Key Codes (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182271).

To disable shortcut keys (Custom)

  1. Verify that you have the necessary security permissions for the GPO: either Edit settings or Edit settings, delete, and modify security. For more information about permissions that are needed to manage Group Policy, see “Delegating administration of Group Policy” in the Group Policy Planning and Deployment Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182208).

  2. In the Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Excel 2010).

  3. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Custom, click Disable shortcut keys, and then click Enabled.

  4. Click Show. In the Show Contents dialog box, click Add. In the Add Item dialog box, enter the values for the keyboard shortcut you want to disable as key,modifier, and then click OK.

    For example, to disable the shortcut keys ALT+F11 in Excel (which opens the Microsoft Visual Basic Editor, where you can create a macro), enter 122,16 in the Add Item dialog box (where F11 key = 122 and modifier = 16).

    Note

    If there are multiple modifier keys for the keyboard shortcut, add the values of the modifier keys together to determine the modifier value to enter in Group Policy Object Editor console. For example, for the ALT+SHIFT combination, you would use the sum of their assigned values, 16+4 = 20.

  5. Click OK. In the Disable shortcut keys policy Properties page, click OK

Disabling predefined user interface items and shortcut keys

Policy settings are also available to disable predefined user interface items and shortcut keys for the Office 2010 applications. These predefined policy settings for the Office 2010 applications are available in User Configuration\Administrative Templates\<application name>, under the Disable items in user interface\Predefined node of Group Policy Object Editor. Policy settings for disabling user interface items are available for the following applications:

  • Access 2010

  • Excel 2010

  • PowerPoint 2010

  • Word 2010

  • SharePoint Designer 2010

  • Publisher 2010

  • Visio 2010

To disable predefined commands

  1. Verify that you have the necessary security permissions for the GPO: either Edit settings or Edit settings, delete, and modify security. For more information about permissions that are needed to manage Group Policy, see “Delegating administration of Group Policy” in the Group Policy Planning and Deployment Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182208).

  2. In Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Excel 2010).

  3. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Predefined, double-click Disable commands, click Enabled, select the commands that you want to disable, and then click OK.

To disable predefined shortcut keys

  1. Verify that you have the necessary security permissions for the GPO: either Edit settings or Edit settings, delete, and modify security. For more information about permissions that are needed to manage Group Policy, see “Delegating administration of Group Policy” in the Group Policy Planning and Deployment Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=182208).

  2. In Group Policy Object Editor console, expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand the application for which you want to disable commands (for example, double-click Microsoft Excel 2010).

  3. Click Disable items in User Interface, click Predefined, double-click Disable shortcut keys, click Enabled, select the shortcut keys that you want to disable, and then click OK.