Same problem here – I’m studying the software and taking notes in Notepad in both Russian and English, and every time this stupid layout pops up and blocks input.

As @Michael-Vincent said 3 years ago, hitting Alt is used as an accelerator to keyboard-access menu bars in almost every win32-api-based Windows application. Include Microsoft’s own notepad.exe.

Who even came up with this?

A small company called Microsoft has been using that feature in their operating system for decades. I am sorry this bothers you.

The devs of a program whose only purpose is text input didn’t consider that pressing Alt would ruin typing when switching languages? Or did no one think that there are not only Americans but also people who actually use multiple keyboard layouts? And what are all these weirdos even writing here?

And then you switch to full on insult mode, being rude to people who had nothing to do with that design decision that happened decades ago. Brilliant, and well argued. (That last sentence was sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.)

I will explain how I use it.

But what you wrote isn’t very helpful in regard to your problem. You are communicating with a technical audience that craves clues about what is causing what.

If you change languages 20 or 50 times in a row using your normal typing habits, what happens? Does the bad behavior happen all the time? 20% of the time?

Have you tried carefully observing your normal finger movements in order to get a sense about which key is actuating first, and by how much? This might allow you to train yourself to execute the two-finger motion in a slightly different way so the bad behaviour almost never happens.

All keyboards perform a debounce mostly to avoid registering unintended multiple after-the-first presses, but also to reject extremely short duration presses (signifying electrical noise or an accidental touch). Some computers have a setting that allows you to alter the debounce time. You may need to chase down manufacturer specs for the your keyboard or laptop and learn which/whether keyboard timing control settings exist.

I googled windows 7 control keyboard key press delay debounce control and a lot of stuff came up.

Here’s a guy who reduced his keyboard error rate after doing some research and trying different settings:

https://superuser.com/questions/1296081/change-debounce-time-of-keyboard

@ekopalypse :

Not totally sure But I suppose that Tim speak about the Windows default shortcut to switch betwenn two keyboard layouts, on the same laptop/desktop !

Here are 3 screenshoots, from Parameters ( Sorry, but it’s all in French language )

Best Regards,

guy038

I have the same behaviour on Windows 7 (my normal operating system) as on Windows 10 (running in a VM).

Can I ask you what you mean by switching the language by pressing the Alt-Shift key? Which languages are you referring to?

The latest update has a very inconvenient feature that highlights menu options while holding Alt.

Are you sure? I believe this is the case for all Windows applications, including Notepad++ all the way back to the beginning:

Notice the underlines on F in ‘File’, E in 'Edit, V in View and T in Tools when I press the Alt key to get a screenshot (Alt+PrtScrn):

Cheers.

I seriously doubt the N++ devs would add the ability to disable the Alt key; they’d probably just say that your complaint has its roots in a PBKAC.

Do you mean this one (the underlined letters)?

If so, this is the normal menu behaviour of any Windows programme. See here for more information.

Can it be disabled? Generally yes, Npp can catch any keystroke, but to make the developers aware of your feature request, it would be better to open one on github.