Skype for Business - Disable "ESC" Keyboard Shortcut

Question

Someone asked this question already but regarding CTRL+ENTER shortcut or CTRL+SHIFT+ENTERer (post Disable control+enter when typing a message in Lync). This is a follow up on that question.

In Skype for Business (was: lync), is it possible to stop the ESC key from closing a conversation or a tab in the conversation?

I assume there is a similar method as shown in the linked question, but I don't have the key value to use for ESC. Does anyone have it?

Answer 1

I could not find the value for ESC key to put in the DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes, too. I think that the method of using following AutoHotKey serves as a reference.

Disable Escape key in Office Communicator 2007 https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/lync/en-US/f59f12e4-3073-444d-8084-31766cab4756/disable-escape-key-in-office-communicator-2007?forum=ocsclients

The script code:

; stop the stupid ESC closing behavour of the IM windows
#IfWinActive ahk_class LyncConversationWindowClass
Escape::return
#IfWinActive

Answer 2

I could disable the escape key behavior via the registry key, when using SfB 16.0 x64. [Note that this doesn't seem to work if you're using Skype for Business Basic]

Under HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Lync\DisabledShortcutKeysCheckBoxes:

• String Name: Escape (or whatever you want)
• String Value: 27,0

The downside is that Esc is now disabled throughout the entire SfB app. For example, if you open a menu via Alt+F, you cannot hit Esc to close it, like you could before. IMO, it's worth it.

---

Extra info: The other post you linked revealed the format of the string value, which appears to be:

KeyCodeDec,Modifiers

KeyCodeDec seems to map to this list of virtual keys when converted to decimal values.

With some experimentation, I've found that the modifiers are:

• 4 for Shift
• 8 for Ctrl
• 16 for Alt

You can disable pretty much any key, it seems. 70,16 is Alt+F, 67,0 will prevent you from typing c in your chats, but will still allow Shift+C.

Answer 3

Updated Autohotkey script for Skype. This prevents escape key from closing the chat.

; stop the stupid ESC closing behavour of the IM windows
#IfWinActive ahk_class LyncTabFrameHostWindowClass
Escape::return
#IfWinActive

In AutoHotKey, if you right-click the taskbar icon and select "Window Spy", then click the Skype window, it will show you the akh_class name.