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How do I disable the On-screen Keyboard in Windows XP?

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  • 2
    permanently or just now?
    – Jeff F.
    Apr 30, 2012 at 15:21
  • I'd like to disable it permanently
    – Ben McCann
    Apr 30, 2012 at 15:45

2 Answers 2

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You should be able to disable it using the Win-U shortcut to bring up the 'Utility Manager', select the on-screen keyboard, and uncheck Start automatically when I log in.

EDIT :
To block OSK.EXE from running, you could find it (%WINDIR%\System32\OSK.EXE), go to Properties | Security, and change the permissions on it to remove the Read and Execute permission from users that you wish to block from using it.

As an alternative, if you wish to block it on a domain, you could use a group policy to do so.

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  • But can't a user still start it manually?
    – Shinrai
    Apr 30, 2012 at 16:55
  • That would require clarification from the OP, since he could have meant that he didn't want the OSK to show up every time the machine boots when he said "permanently", as opposed to uninstalling that feature so it could never ever be used.
    – Bon Gart
    Apr 30, 2012 at 17:53
  • It was already unchecked. The keyboard pops up from time-to-time still, so a way to unintstall it would be nice if possible.
    – Ben McCann
    Apr 30, 2012 at 21:20
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Just open up the command prompt and try navigate to the system32 folder of your window as:

c:\Users\username>cd\
c:\>cd windows
c:\windows>cd system32
c:\windows\system32>takeown /f osk.exe //success here represents you now have admin rights to change its permission
c:\windows\system32>cacls osk.exe /e /c /d %username% // this will deny it from every user

Now remove every entry at startup by opening msconfig.exe and also from Registry editor by looking and googling.

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