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I wish the browsers had a function of disabling all keyboard shortcuts of a website. I binded Ctrl+E to opening a new tab just beside the current tab (built-in

I wish the browsers had a function of disabling all keyboard shortcuts of a website. I binded Ctrl+E to opening a new tab just beside the current tab (built-in hotkey in Brave). It's frustrating to see it changed to something like opening the emoji menu on Discord.

blfr 6mo ago
Another one is hijcking ctrl+click (open in the new tab) into mere click (open here). I am shocked how many ecommerce sites do this.
- myself248 6mo ago
  And many of them don't even have a real click action, that I can find. I can't even right-click and manually pick "open in new tab", because the browser doesn't recognize what I'm clicking on as a link. I agree, ecommerce sites are the place that I most often want to open several items in tabs and decide between them, and the place this function is most often blocked! I wish I could scream at the jerk who implemented this, but that jerk is not among the options of screamable people.
  - fragmede 6mo ago
    > the browser doesn't recognize what I'm clicking on as a link. It's entirely possible the browser itself does, but that the site's JavaScript is (also) overriding the right click handler. There's browser extensions to override their override but having to do that is stupid.
    - myself248 6mo ago
      I've installed one of those and it doesn't seem to help in the ecommerce case.
    - kevincox 6mo ago
      It's possible but this seems to be quite rare. In my experience it is always just that they think a div with an onclick handler is the same thing as a link.
    - mghackerlady 6mo ago
      why did we even allow this to be overridden in the first place? if you genuinely need that much control, stop shipping a webapp! JS canvas is another thing that really shouldn't exist
- eastbound 6mo ago
  That’s because of React. The React Router is bad and people don’t spend extra time configuring it against its own bugs.
- lemoncucumber 6mo ago
  This one drives me nuts. I get it if it’s a single page app, but in many cases right-clicking the same link and choosing “open in new tab” works fine so that’s not the issue.
- matusfaro 6mo ago
  This usually happens in single page apps (SPA): The proper way is to have an actual link but to override the behavior to navigate within the SPA. So if you click it, the navigation will be within the SPA but if you ctrl+click it, the browser takes over and opens the underlying link in a new page. Typical issue is when a developer forgets to make it an actual link, but only inclides the SPA navigation.
declan_roberts 6mo ago
Ctrl+f is a bad offender. No I don't want to use your contextual search. I want to search for this word on this page!
- kube-system 6mo ago
  Half of the time those sites also lazy load anyway so whatever you're looking for isn't even in the DOM yet
  - hansvm 6mo ago
    And lazy unload, so you can't find it even if you've already scrolled through the whole thing.
    - underdeserver 6mo ago
      I used to hear it called "virtual scroll", and I remember webpages ballooning in RAM when they didn't do it.
      - RugnirViking 6mo ago
        the text content of the site is not what is ballooning the RAM.
- raydev 6mo ago
  If the page is lazy loading content then the local ctrl+f is not going to work, obviously. If you’re hinting at an argument about whether lazy loading content should exist, that’s a separate discussion. In my experience, pages that override ctrl+f do it for a good reason
  - xur17 6mo ago
    Even in those cases I'd prefer to just be able to natively search the content that has been lazy loaded. I've run into more than one website where the search functionality they bound to control-f is horrible.
kule 6mo ago
Looking at you ctrl+r in web outlook...I want to reload the page not reply to the email!
- qup 6mo ago
  Try ctrl shift r
igor47 6mo ago
I use vimium in Firefox and so my default key bindings are the plug-in ones. I push 't' to create a new tab, for instance. If I want to use the website key bindings I have to to into "insert mode" ('i'), or I opt into specific keys by site. I do like when websites use ctrl-k -- it means nothing to my plug-in so websites always get it, plus it helps with key binding discovery.
mrandish 6mo ago
I recently vibe-coded a browser UserScript to ensure certain keys are always passed through to my browser (and any other scripts I'm running). There's also an 'aggressive mode' activated by an assignable hotkey for poorly behaved sites that refuse to pass through any keys. // ==UserScript== // @name Key Passthrough 2.0 // @description Ensure specific hotkeys reach userscripts on greedy sites. Ctrl+Shift+/ toggles aggressive mode for sites that swallow keys entirely. // @run-at document-start // @include * // @exclude http://192.168.* // Always-enabled key codes: 27=Esc, 116=F5 (Refresh), 166=Browser_Back, 167=Browser_Fwd, 191=/ // Other keycodes to consider: 8=BS, 9=Tab, 16/160/161=Shift, 17/162/163=Ctrl, 18=Alt, 37=LArrow, 39=RArrow, 46=Delete, 112=F1 // ==/UserScript== (function () { 'use strict'; // Keys to passthrough in normal mode. // Esc, Ctrl, / (191) and Browser nav (166/167) are the core cases. // F1/F5 included if you have AHK remaps on those. // Esc included to prevent sites trapping it in overlays. const PASSTHROUGH_KEYS = new Set([27, 116, 166, 167, 191]); // Aggressive mode toggle hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+/ const AGGRESSIVE_TOGGLE_CODE = 191; const REFIRE_FLAG = '_kp_refire'; let aggressiveMode = sessionStorage.getItem('kp_aggressive') === '1'; const logPrefix = '[KeyPassthrough]'; const announce = (msg) => console.log(`${logPrefix} ${msg}`); if (aggressiveMode) announce('Aggressive mode ON (persisted from earlier in session)'); // --- Normal mode --- // We're first in the capture chain at document-start. // For passthrough keys, do nothing — just let the event propagate naturally. // The site's listeners follow ours in the chain, so we've already won the race. // --- Aggressive mode --- // For sites that still swallow keys via stopImmediatePropagation in an // inline <script> that races document-start: block the site's listeners, // then re-dispatch a clone after the current call stack clears so our // userscripts get a clean second shot. function refire(e) { // Build a plain init object from the original event const init = { key: e.key, code: e.code, keyCode: e.keyCode, which: e.which, charCode: e.charCode, ctrlKey: e.ctrlKey, shiftKey: e.shiftKey, altKey: e.altKey, metaKey: e.metaKey, repeat: e.repeat, bubbles: true, cancelable: true, composed: true, }; const clone = new KeyboardEvent(e.type, init); clone[REFIRE_FLAG] = true; // After current capture/bubble cycle fully completes setTimeout(() => document.dispatchEvent(clone), 0); } function handleKey(e) { // Ignore our own re-dispatched events if (e[REFIRE_FLAG]) return; // Aggressive mode toggle: Ctrl+Shift+/ if (e.ctrlKey && e.shiftKey && e.keyCode === AGGRESSIVE_TOGGLE_CODE) { aggressiveMode = !aggressiveMode; sessionStorage.setItem('kp_aggressive', aggressiveMode ? '1' : '0'); announce(`Aggressive mode ${aggressiveMode ? 'ON' : 'OFF'}`); e.stopImmediatePropagation(); return; } if (!PASSTHROUGH_KEYS.has(e.keyCode)) return; if (aggressiveMode) { // Block the site from seeing this key, then re-dispatch for our scripts e.stopImmediatePropagation(); refire(e); } // Normal mode: do nothing, let event propagate naturally } document.addEventListener('keydown', handleKey, true); document.addEventListener('keyup', handleKey, true); })();
joquarky 6mo ago
There should be a toggle control near the navigation buttons that toggles between document mode and app mode.
jeffalyanak 6mo ago
Rather than outright disabling it, I wish it was a permission the site would have to request. That way trusted sites that used it responsibly could be given permission, but it could not be used by any random site.
- binkHN 6mo ago
  This is the way.
varenc 6mo ago
I keep a bookmarklet handy that blocks all keypress listeners to disable this stuff. Agreed it's quite annoying! Can share if desired, though pretty straightforward.
nesk_ 6mo ago
Actually, you can do that with Firefox, either per site or as a global policy. https://superuser.com/a/1317514 https://superuser.com/a/1317514
- Baljhin 6mo ago
  Big thanks for that! damn!- was sitting in the Fx queue for TEN years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=380637 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=380637

blfr 6mo ago

Another one is hijcking ctrl+click (open in the new tab) into mere click (open here). I am shocked how many ecommerce sites do this.

myself248 6mo ago
And many of them don't even have a real click action, that I can find. I can't even right-click and manually pick "open in new tab", because the browser doesn't recognize what I'm clicking on as a link. I agree, ecommerce sites are the place that I most often want to open several items in tabs and decide between them, and the place this function is most often blocked! I wish I could scream at the jerk who implemented this, but that jerk is not among the options of screamable people.
- fragmede 6mo ago
  > the browser doesn't recognize what I'm clicking on as a link. It's entirely possible the browser itself does, but that the site's JavaScript is (also) overriding the right click handler. There's browser extensions to override their override but having to do that is stupid.
  - myself248 6mo ago
    I've installed one of those and it doesn't seem to help in the ecommerce case.
  - kevincox 6mo ago
    It's possible but this seems to be quite rare. In my experience it is always just that they think a div with an onclick handler is the same thing as a link.
  - mghackerlady 6mo ago
    why did we even allow this to be overridden in the first place? if you genuinely need that much control, stop shipping a webapp! JS canvas is another thing that really shouldn't exist
eastbound 6mo ago
That’s because of React. The React Router is bad and people don’t spend extra time configuring it against its own bugs.
lemoncucumber 6mo ago
This one drives me nuts. I get it if it’s a single page app, but in many cases right-clicking the same link and choosing “open in new tab” works fine so that’s not the issue.
matusfaro 6mo ago
This usually happens in single page apps (SPA): The proper way is to have an actual link but to override the behavior to navigate within the SPA. So if you click it, the navigation will be within the SPA but if you ctrl+click it, the browser takes over and opens the underlying link in a new page. Typical issue is when a developer forgets to make it an actual link, but only inclides the SPA navigation.

declan_roberts 6mo ago

Ctrl+f is a bad offender. No I don't want to use your contextual search. I want to search for this word on this page!

kube-system 6mo ago
Half of the time those sites also lazy load anyway so whatever you're looking for isn't even in the DOM yet
- hansvm 6mo ago
  And lazy unload, so you can't find it even if you've already scrolled through the whole thing.
  - underdeserver 6mo ago
    I used to hear it called "virtual scroll", and I remember webpages ballooning in RAM when they didn't do it.
    - RugnirViking 6mo ago
      the text content of the site is not what is ballooning the RAM.
raydev 6mo ago
If the page is lazy loading content then the local ctrl+f is not going to work, obviously. If you’re hinting at an argument about whether lazy loading content should exist, that’s a separate discussion. In my experience, pages that override ctrl+f do it for a good reason
- xur17 6mo ago
  Even in those cases I'd prefer to just be able to natively search the content that has been lazy loaded. I've run into more than one website where the search functionality they bound to control-f is horrible.

kule 6mo ago

Looking at you ctrl+r in web outlook...I want to reload the page not reply to the email!

qup 6mo ago
Try ctrl shift r

igor47 6mo ago

I use vimium in Firefox and so my default key bindings are the plug-in ones. I push 't' to create a new tab, for instance. If I want to use the website key bindings I have to to into "insert mode" ('i'), or I opt into specific keys by site. I do like when websites use ctrl-k -- it means nothing to my plug-in so websites always get it, plus it helps with key binding discovery.

mrandish 6mo ago

I recently vibe-coded a browser UserScript to ensure certain keys are always passed through to my browser (and any other scripts I'm running). There's also an 'aggressive mode' activated by an assignable hotkey for poorly behaved sites that refuse to pass through any keys. // ==UserScript== // @name Key Passthrough 2.0 // @description Ensure specific hotkeys reach userscripts on greedy sites. Ctrl+Shift+/ toggles aggressive mode for sites that swallow keys entirely. // @run-at document-start // @include * // @exclude http://192.168.* // Always-enabled key codes: 27=Esc, 116=F5 (Refresh), 166=Browser_Back, 167=Browser_Fwd, 191=/ // Other keycodes to consider: 8=BS, 9=Tab, 16/160/161=Shift, 17/162/163=Ctrl, 18=Alt, 37=LArrow, 39=RArrow, 46=Delete, 112=F1 // ==/UserScript== (function () { 'use strict'; // Keys to passthrough in normal mode. // Esc, Ctrl, / (191) and Browser nav (166/167) are the core cases. // F1/F5 included if you have AHK remaps on those. // Esc included to prevent sites trapping it in overlays. const PASSTHROUGH_KEYS = new Set([27, 116, 166, 167, 191]); // Aggressive mode toggle hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+/ const AGGRESSIVE_TOGGLE_CODE = 191; const REFIRE_FLAG = '_kp_refire'; let aggressiveMode = sessionStorage.getItem('kp_aggressive') === '1'; const logPrefix = '[KeyPassthrough]'; const announce = (msg) => console.log(`${logPrefix} ${msg}`); if (aggressiveMode) announce('Aggressive mode ON (persisted from earlier in session)'); // --- Normal mode --- // We're first in the capture chain at document-start. // For passthrough keys, do nothing — just let the event propagate naturally. // The site's listeners follow ours in the chain, so we've already won the race. // --- Aggressive mode --- // For sites that still swallow keys via stopImmediatePropagation in an // inline <script> that races document-start: block the site's listeners, // then re-dispatch a clone after the current call stack clears so our // userscripts get a clean second shot. function refire(e) { // Build a plain init object from the original event const init = { key: e.key, code: e.code, keyCode: e.keyCode, which: e.which, charCode: e.charCode, ctrlKey: e.ctrlKey, shiftKey: e.shiftKey, altKey: e.altKey, metaKey: e.metaKey, repeat: e.repeat, bubbles: true, cancelable: true, composed: true, }; const clone = new KeyboardEvent(e.type, init); clone[REFIRE_FLAG] = true; // After current capture/bubble cycle fully completes setTimeout(() => document.dispatchEvent(clone), 0); } function handleKey(e) { // Ignore our own re-dispatched events if (e[REFIRE_FLAG]) return; // Aggressive mode toggle: Ctrl+Shift+/ if (e.ctrlKey && e.shiftKey && e.keyCode === AGGRESSIVE_TOGGLE_CODE) { aggressiveMode = !aggressiveMode; sessionStorage.setItem('kp_aggressive', aggressiveMode ? '1' : '0'); announce(`Aggressive mode ${aggressiveMode ? 'ON' : 'OFF'}`); e.stopImmediatePropagation(); return; } if (!PASSTHROUGH_KEYS.has(e.keyCode)) return; if (aggressiveMode) { // Block the site from seeing this key, then re-dispatch for our scripts e.stopImmediatePropagation(); refire(e); } // Normal mode: do nothing, let event propagate naturally } document.addEventListener('keydown', handleKey, true); document.addEventListener('keyup', handleKey, true); })();

joquarky 6mo ago

There should be a toggle control near the navigation buttons that toggles between document mode and app mode.

jeffalyanak 6mo ago

Rather than outright disabling it, I wish it was a permission the site would have to request. That way trusted sites that used it responsibly could be given permission, but it could not be used by any random site.

binkHN 6mo ago
This is the way.

varenc 6mo ago

I keep a bookmarklet handy that blocks all keypress listeners to disable this stuff. Agreed it's quite annoying! Can share if desired, though pretty straightforward.

nesk_ 6mo ago

Actually, you can do that with Firefox, either per site or as a global policy. https://superuser.com/a/1317514 https://superuser.com/a/1317514

Baljhin 6mo ago
Big thanks for that! damn!- was sitting in the Fx queue for TEN years: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=380637 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=380637