Disable Menu Acceleration

A small Windows system tray utility that stops the Alt key from grabbing focus into the window menu (and the "menu-show" behaviour that goes with it), so you can switch the keyboard layout with Alt-based hotkeys without the focus shooting off to some menu.

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Why

On Windows, pressing (or releasing) Alt can yank input focus into the window's own menu / ribbon / system menu. This is especially annoying when you switch keyboard layouts with a combination that includes Alt, e.g. Alt+Shift or Shift+Alt:

• the menu pops up or grabs focus;
• mistype the order (Shift+Alt instead of Alt+Shift) and focus is gone;
• the very next keystroke gets eaten by the menu instead of reaching your app.

This utility hooks the keyboard, neutralises that Alt behaviour, and lets you rebind the language switch to whichever Alt/Shift/Ctrl combination you like.

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Features

• Neutralise Alt - swallows the Alt-driven focus-grab / menu-show by emitting a fake Alt release (0xEA), so Windows never snatches the menu.
• Custom language-switch hotkeys - trigger "next keyboard layout" with your own combos instead of relying on the system default.
• Grouped, per-hand hotkeys - pick Left or Right Alt / Shift / Ctrl:
  • Alt + Shift, Shift + Alt
  • Shift + Shift, Ctrl + Shift, Shift + Ctrl
  • Alt + Space
• Order-independent - because Alt is neutralised, the combo works no matter the press order (Shift+Alt == Alt+Shift), focus stays put.
• Per-hotkey enable/disable - toggle individual combos or the whole hook from the tray menu.
• Dark/light aware - follows the system theme; no visible window, lives in the tray.

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Usage

Run the executable. A tray icon appears; right-click to open the menu:

1. Pick a hotkey group and mark the Left/Right variant you want.
2. Checked options are active; a group shows a tick if any sibling is enabled.
3. Use Disable all hotkeys / Enable all hotkeys to pause the hook, or Exit to quit.

The icon reflects the current state (active / disabled).

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Building

• Windows + Visual Studio 2022 (v145) recommended, x64.
• Open DisableMenuAcceleration.slnx (or the .vcxproj) and build Release.
• The project is self-contained: the only dependency is a vendored copy of a handful of cst headers (7 header-only modules), so it builds anywhere without extra setup.

Runtime requirement: 64-bit Windows 10/11.

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Dependencies

• cst (header-only) - a personal utility library. Only the needed modules (FormattedText, UniqID and the winapi wrappers for Window, WindowTheme, WinHandles, TrayIcon, SingleInstanceGuard) are vendored under cst/.

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Contributing

Contributions are accepted. Please submit an issue or a pull request for proposed changes or bug fixes.