disable windows key/key combinations

[dZeus]

I'm getting tired of my display getting garbled up when I accidently press alt-tab while running a fullscreen opengl application... I desperately need a way to start a certain ap with some keys/key combinations disabled, like alt-tab, windows key, etc.

I've found something in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, but it's a bit too permanent for my liking

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q181/3/48.ASP?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0&qry=disable%20windows%20key&rnk=13&src=DHCS_MSPSS_gn_SRCH&SPR=WIN2000

I remember 'doswinky' from the Win95 kernel toys doing this, but I need the equivalent for Win2k

[Wombat]

You should be able to create a shortcut, and then in the shortcut's properties you can set which key combos windows will ignore.

[dZeus]

can't find anything like that in the shortcut properties

[isochar]

The windows key is one of the most useful tools for a power user. Install something like winkey to increase the effectiveness.

[dZeus]

...

[isochar]

I suppose that's a question for me to clarify where to download winkey?

Winkey

If not, you're probably asking how is the Windows key so good a tool? Well, it already has a bunch of default shorcuts that are nice, as seen here:

Knowledge Base Link

Combine them with the customized shortcuts of Winkey, and you'll find that you can do everything so much faster with a keyboard rather than a mouse.

[dZeus]

I know you meant well, but if you read my post the thing you suggested is about the opposite of what I want

[isochar]

I'll keep a lookout for it!

[Tempest]

I may not have an answer to your question, but I suppose all ideas are welcome?
Xteq X-Setup includes options for both of these tasks. They reside in "Hardware-Keyboard-Enable Windows Keys" and "Appearance-Interface-Cool Switch". If you could find out what registry keys X-Setup alters to disable these features, you could make simple .REG files, one for disabling the keys and another one for enabling them. So double-clicking a .REG file would turn keys off, and double-clicking another .REG file would turn them back on.
There are some problems... You don't know which registry keys are altered (although you could probably find it out by using a registry monitoring utility such as System Internals' RegMon). Another problem is that according to X-Setup, disabling "cool switching" (Alt+Tab) has no effect if you're using Internet Explorer 4 or later (which you probably are).

[dZeus]

yup... I know that I can disable the scancode for the windows key completely, but that's not what I want.

I want all the keys still to function properly, but just that I can make a shortcut to start a certain program, which disables certain 'shortcuts' when the shortcut/program is run.

example:
shortcut to quake3, with alt-tab and windows key disabled. Alt and tab will still work in q3a, but with the difference that it won't taskswitch (and thus corrupt the display) when I press both alt and tab at the same time.

This used to be possible in Win9x (doswinky?) or at least the thing that wombat is suggesting (it's not in the default shortcut properties at least in win98), and I need to be able to do the same in Win2k

[TnT]

Sorry to get off topic dZeus...

But I think I'll cry when my NEC 101-key keyboard dies. It's lasted 6 years of hell, so hopefully it can withstand a little bit more beating