Keyboard Shortcut Ctrl+Alt+W

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  • Start date Start date
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Guest

System Info: MS Windows XP Pro, SP2

Has anyone ever encountered the following scenario?

Want to use Ctrl+Alt+W as a keyboard shortcut to start MS Office Word 2003.
Instead, the shortcut opens the "My Documents" folder. Right clicking on the
"My Documents" desktop icon and selecting Properties does not offer a
Shortcut Key selection, as do user created shortcuts.

Is it possible to change this? Thanks for any help.
 
Sat, 6 Jan 2007 20:46:00 -0800 from Langston
System Info: MS Windows XP Pro, SP2

Want to use Ctrl+Alt+W as a keyboard shortcut to start MS Office Word 2003.
Instead, the shortcut opens the "My Documents" folder.

Is it possible to change this? Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you what's going on, but I *can* tell you this is not
native XP behavior. I programmed Ctrl-Alt-W about two years ago to
open Word, and it has done so every time.

You might have installed something non-obvious, like a keyboard
handler, which captures that combination. Otherwise, check Properties
of every likely desktop icon and every likely icon in the entire
Start Menu tree to find the one that has Ctrl-Alt-W as a hotkey.
 
You may have a shortcut to My Documents somewhere. That shortcut may have
that shortcut key sequence.

Do a Search for: My Documents.lnk

..lnk files are shortcuts and the extension is usually hidden no matter what
settings you have in folder Options.

Delete the My Documents.lnk if it has Ctrl + Alt + W on its shortcut tab in
Properties. Or change the shortcut key to None.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Well, thank you Stan and Wesley, you both helped. After looking for other
links to My Documents and finding none, I went through all of the icons on my
desktop and checked their properties for shortcut keys, finding a Ctrl+Alt+W
set for the Windows Explorer. The Windows Explorer window looks just like
the My Documents window, except it has an Explorer bar on the left, and I
failed to note the difference. Blame it on a throwback to Win 98 and
earlier, where Windows Explorer always came up at C:\ and was named C:\ in
the title bar, if memory serves me correctly.
 
Langston,

Change it/them to open @ C:\ I have.

[[When you open Windows Explorer using the Windows Explorer shortcut on the
Start menu, the My Documents folder is selected by default.]]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221878

[[By default, Windows Explorer starts in the My Documents folder. ]]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257518

This will create a shortcut to C: with the Folders Pane showing.
Right click the Desktop | New | Shortcut |
Type or copy and paste this in the box:

%windir%\EXPLORER.EXE /e,c:

Click Next | Type or paste WINDOWS EXPLORER in the Type a name for this
shortcut box | Click Finish

Or change the Target of your existing shortcut to
%windir%\EXPLORER.EXE /e,c:
-----

Or create a shortcut to explorer.exe with this as the
Target: %windir%\explorer.scf

-----
Explorer.exe Command-Line Options for Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314853

HOW TO: Customize the Windows Explorer Views in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307856

HOW TO: Have Windows Explorer Default to the %SystemRoot% Drive When Started
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257518

HOW TO: Change Windows Explorer Default View to My Computer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221878

How to open folder in single pane when using the "Winkey + E" combination
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winkeye.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Have fun, Langston.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
Langston said:
Wesley,

Thanks for the various suggestions on how to modify how Windows Explorer
starts up.
I'll give them a try and repost if I run into any more problems.

Thanks,
Langston


Wesley Vogel said:
Langston,

Change it/them to open @ C:\ I have.

[[When you open Windows Explorer using the Windows Explorer shortcut on
the Start menu, the My Documents folder is selected by default.]]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/221878

[[By default, Windows Explorer starts in the My Documents folder. ]]
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257518
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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