Microsoft 2019 Ergonomic Keyboard: Reassigning the “Office 365” Key

Microsoft's successor to the Natural Ergonomic Desktop 4000, the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard (model/part designation LXM-00013) has a variety of special keys, many of which are difficult to reassign (and even merely assign under non-Windows operating systems). One in particular is the “Office 365” key that is positioned where either a Win or Menu key would typically be found.

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Assigning a Different Action to the Key

One option is to override the default command triggered by pressing the key. The alternative command of your choosing can be something as simple as a built-in Windows utility or tool application such as the Character Map (charmap) or On-Screen Keyboard (osk), or something more complex like a PowerShell or AutoHotKey script.

Substituting foo with the executable or command you've decided that you fancy the most, run the following command in a PowerShell prompt with administrative privileges:

New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\ms-officeapp\Shell\Open\Command' -Name '(default)' -PropertyType 'String' -Value 'foo' -Force

Neutering the Key Outright

Following in the footsteps of the above procedure, instead replace the command with merely rundll32:

New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Classes\ms-officeapp\Shell\Open\Command' -Name '(default)' -PropertyType 'String' -Value 'rundll32' -Force

Striking the key will now result in nothing happening. Well, it's slightly more complicated than that as something does still technically happen, but the result is good enough.

Conclusion

It's a brazen trend that continues to gain momentum no matter how strong the pushback: Tech giants flagrantly throwing common sense to the wind either because they believe consumers are too stupid to know what's best for themselves, they have their own selfish agendas to push, or a combination of both (as is the case here).

Magic Spearmint