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I recently got a new "Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop" keyboard. It has a the "Office key" which if you press launches an ad to buy Microsoft Office. AFAICT there i

I recently got a new "Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop" keyboard. It has a the "Office key" which if you press launches an ad to buy Microsoft Office. AFAICT there is no official way to disable it!!! and at least for me it was easy to hit by mistake. Apple isn't as bad but I run into ads for Apple Music on my iPhone unintentionally in a similar fashion. Meaning have no intent of ever subscribing to Apple Music but Apple has designed the UX so that users are likely to hit the ad to sign up from time to time.

panpanna 6y ago
Then stay away from the YouTube app...
lioeters 6y ago
> ["Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop" keyboard] has an "Office key" which if you press launches an ad to buy Microsoft Office. That is the funniest and saddest thing I've heard today. Ergonomic indeed.. With their work in open-source, like developer tools and programming languages, Microsoft has been regaining some of the trust they lost over the years with their business strategy and product insanity. I'm surprised to note that these days I'm using more and more of their products regularly. At the same time, it's widely recognized that the company culture is still sick in some ways, with incredibly questionable design decisions in Windows 10 and other products. That's what worries me, for example, about their acquisition of GitHub and NPM. I never want to be stuck being dependent on Microsoft, because you never know when they might slip into crazy mode and ruin a good thing.
thinkmassive 6y ago
On a related note, while my wife and I were trying to remember how to put the Apple TV to sleep we accidentally subscribed to Apple Music. I only found out the next day when I saw an email informing us of our 3-month trial.
smolder 6y ago
There are registry tweaks to disable or reassign buttons, and utilities that make it easy to do them. I made my left Windows key be inert this way, by mapping it to another key that does nothing. The software I used is SharpKeys from randyrants.com.
fenwick67 6y ago
Honestly I would jam a paperclip under that key to disable it out of spite
- maalicious 6y ago
  You mean Clippy?
ptero 6y ago
Can you remap this monstrosity out of the way (or making another control key or something more useful)? I always remap control and caps keys on my keyboards, which is a pretty minor one-time regedit incantation.

panpanna 6y ago

Then stay away from the YouTube app...

lioeters 6y ago

> ["Microsoft Ergonomic Desktop" keyboard] has an "Office key" which if you press launches an ad to buy Microsoft Office. That is the funniest and saddest thing I've heard today. Ergonomic indeed.. With their work in open-source, like developer tools and programming languages, Microsoft has been regaining some of the trust they lost over the years with their business strategy and product insanity. I'm surprised to note that these days I'm using more and more of their products regularly. At the same time, it's widely recognized that the company culture is still sick in some ways, with incredibly questionable design decisions in Windows 10 and other products. That's what worries me, for example, about their acquisition of GitHub and NPM. I never want to be stuck being dependent on Microsoft, because you never know when they might slip into crazy mode and ruin a good thing.

thinkmassive 6y ago

On a related note, while my wife and I were trying to remember how to put the Apple TV to sleep we accidentally subscribed to Apple Music. I only found out the next day when I saw an email informing us of our 3-month trial.

smolder 6y ago

There are registry tweaks to disable or reassign buttons, and utilities that make it easy to do them. I made my left Windows key be inert this way, by mapping it to another key that does nothing. The software I used is SharpKeys from randyrants.com.

fenwick67 6y ago

Honestly I would jam a paperclip under that key to disable it out of spite

maalicious 6y ago
You mean Clippy?

ptero 6y ago

Can you remap this monstrosity out of the way (or making another control key or something more useful)? I always remap control and caps keys on my keyboards, which is a pretty minor one-time regedit incantation.