Google Chrome & Firefox have a ton of built in keyboard shortcuts that are usually quite handy. Ctrl + T opens a new tab, Ctrl + D bookmarks a page, and (our favorite) Ctrl + Shift + T restores closed tabs. With their extensive list of shortcuts, you might find yourself accidentally activating some of them while typing. If this is something that happens often, you might consider disabling those trouble causing shortcuts. Unfortunately neither browser supports this functionality out of the box, but there are some great extensions / add-ons that make it easy to disable keyboard shortcuts.
How to Disable Keyboard Shortcuts in Google Chrome
In Google Chrome, open the Disable keyboard shortcuts page on the extension store and add the extension to Chrome (Add to Chrome button).
Copy and paste the below into the address bar at the top of Chrome (and hit Enter) to configure the extension and start disabling shortcuts.
chrome://extensions/shortcuts
Scroll down to the Disable keyboard shortcuts extension and click one of the Type a shortcut fields.
Perform the shortcut key combination you wish to disable (for example, hit Ctrl + D on your keyboard after selecting one of the fields).
The below is an example where the Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut has been disabled.
How to Disable Keyboard Shortcuts in Firefox
In Firefox, open the Shortkeys add-ons page and add the extension to Firefox (Add to Firefox button).
Note: Shortkeys has some small limitations on certain key combinations and system pages. Read more about this on the Shortkeys add-ons page before installing.
Click the Menu icon in the upper right corner of Firefox and then select Add-ons.
Alternatively, copy the below and paste it into the address bar (and hit Enter).
about:addons
Click the 3 dots next to the Shortkeys extension and select Options.
Type out the shortcut combination in the Shortcut field that you wish to disable (Ctrl+D for example). Create a label for the shortcut if you’d like, and set the Behavior to Do nothing (located at the bottom of the menu that appears when you click the Behavior field).
In the example below, the Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut will be disabled. Don’t forget to save your shortcuts!
Final Thoughts
That’s it! Any shortcut combination you add to these fields will no longer activate when pressed.
Happy typing!
You can remove these extensions at any time by navigating to chrome://extensions/ in Google Chrome or about:addons in Firefox.
