Firefox: Keyboard Shortcuts

You can find all the official keyboard shortcuts for every platform at keyboard shortcuts link. Use the “Customize this article” sidebar on the right to switch view to the specific platform.

For a visual layout representation, check out the usable Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts on KeyCombiner.

Disable Quit Firefox (Ctrl-Shift-Q) Shortcut

I’m tired of the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Q unexpectedly exiting from the Firefox browser without any warning. In 2021, Firefox finally heard users cries and introduced an option to disable it completely. Head over to the “Configuration Editor” or the about:config page and set the option browser.quitShortcut.disabled to true.

As a side note, if you’re on Mac, the shortcut is not Ctrl+Shift+Q as on WIndows/Linux, but Cmd-Q.

Uncovering Global Shortcuts on Windows

discovering all globally assigned shortcuts in windows

The offer might be a bit weak, but at least HotKeysList is somewhat useful

Sometimes, very rarely, you might need to discover the active global keyboard shortcuts and more importantly, what application those shortcuts refer to. I believe there must be a great tool for that, but alas! It turns out that the choice of tools is not very good. The best of them is long discontinued, even though it still seems to work.

Prior to further perusal, allow me to mention that a highly detailed analysis of all this I am speaking about here can be found at the following address. Had I come across this page earlier, I would not have delved further into this matter: How To Check And Manage All Active Windows Hotkeys.

ActiveHotkeys

So they say this tool is the best, but I don’t get why, as still maintained HotKeysList does exactly the same thing. Nonetheless, this tool creates just a list of keys, without trying to find out which application reacts to the shortcut. The installation is “wild”, because the original site has long been buried. You should download it from the internet archive t this direct link, then unzip it and run it immediately as it is a portable application. After testing, I’ve decided to delete it right away.

PowerToys Shortcut Guide

To start, Microsoft offers the PowerToys Shortcut Guide utility which essentially doesn’t do much useful. It only displays common keyboard shortcuts that use the Windows key and nothing more. So, not much help for you.

HotKeysList by NirSoft

The best maintained tool for now is HotKeysList by my beloved NirSoft, which provides a list of the global hot keys currently registered on your system. The tool is easy to install with scoop install hotkeyslist.

However, the list you get is not complete and lacks the most important information, which is which application responds to the given shortcut. That was actually my original problem that I wanted to solve.

So, the tool is only useful to discover which shortcut is occupied and which is not, if that means anything to you as information.

Tools Traversing Start Menu and Desktop

Shortcuts Map is another tool from antiquity, except this one installs and runs normally. However, I still received no useful information. It traverses all shortcuts on the “Desktop” and the “Start Menu” hierarchy, showing if any program has an active hotkey shortcut. On my computer, none of them had one.

ShortcutsMan by Nirsoft is the best in doing what it does, but what it does is not of much value to me. Its function is the same as Shortcuts Map, just well-maintained and displays much more useful information about each app shortcut.

Hotkey Detective: Bingo

Let me first mention the legendary tool that could give you a heart attack. Hotkey Commander aka Windows Hotkey Explorer, is a quirky program, for when you run it, chaos ensues! The program simulates pressing every hotkey it can and then intercepts whichever app gets called. The result is a deluge of windows and actions opening on your system, all at once. It is such a meltdown that I dared not try it. But the idea is there, and it yields results in the end.

Theoretically, although I lacked the courage to try it, by the end of the process, you will either have a fried computer or a list of all global keyboard shortcuts.

My tool Hotkey Detective is for investigating stolen hotkeys. It applies the same approach as the aforementioned madman, but it does so in a sane manner.

It hooks onto every process and awaits for it to receive a hotkey command, but it does not attempt to trigger all hotkeys. Simply wait for you to specify the one that interests you, by pressing the “problematic” shortcut. And voilà, you will see which process has claimed or stolen it.

So, that is exactly what I want. Nothing more, nothing less.

Download the application from the Releases page on their site. Simply unpack it and run HotkeyDetective.exe, but be sure to run it as administrator.

Then press the key combination that interests you, to discover which program reacts to that shortcut. And that, my friend, is all I wanted, is that too much to ask? Finally, I have found what I was seeking!