Windows preview adds a 'don't ask again' option to accessibility prompts, sparing users a trip through Settings
Windows testers are getting a new option in the Sticky Keys and Filter Keys dialogs – one to banish the pop-ups without needing to venture deep into Settings.
It's only taken several decades for Microsoft to put the off switch where the interruption actually happens. The accessibility features themselves are useful, though triggering their activation prompts by accident is another matter.
Once enabled, Sticky Keys let users press modifier keys (such as Control) one at a time instead of holding them down together. For example, rather than holding Control and pressing C to copy, a user can press and release Control, then press C. Filter Keys, meanwhile, ignores brief or repeated keystrokes and adjusts the keyboard's repeat behavior.
However, the dialogs are of little use to people who don't need the features, and they can pop up at the most inconvenient moments. Tap Shift five times, and you'll see what we mean: Windows chimes and shows a dialog asking whether you'd like to turn on Sticky Keys. Dismiss it, hit Shift five times, and there it is again.
Or hold down the right Shift key for eight seconds to be treated to the Filter Keys pop-up.
You can stop this behavior elsewhere in the system, but it requires a trek through Windows settings. The change, introduced in the Experimental Windows Insider Build 26340.9882, adds an option to the Sticky Keys or Filter Keys dialogs to dismiss the prompts permanently.
It's a small change, but one that should spare users an irritating interruption. Better late than never – even if "never ask me again" has taken roughly three decades to reach the dialog.
Former Microsoft engineer Charles Opperman said he wrote the dialog in early 1995 "after @bradsilverberg kids kept activating StickeyKeys [sic] while playing Space Cadet pinball."
Opperman added that a link to Settings was added in Windows 98 or what would become Windows 2000, and a checkbox was considered even then, but it wasn't deemed a priority. Users could turn off the prompt via settings. Now the option is front and center.
The option is also rolling out in the Windows Insider Beta channel, although Microsoft has not announced a general release date. ®