Is Ctrl+Alt+<key> no longer allowed?

[kanishknishar]

I had earlier mapped Ctrl+Alt+T for stacking tabs but it appears that the shortcut no longer works and when I try to re-map it manually, the application simply doesn't register it.

Vivaldi I am running:

Vivaldi	6.8.3381.48 (Stable channel) (64-bit) 
Revision	79dc6e3dc75f1ca82759568b8aaa16287cbeedb4
OS	Windows 10 Version 22H2 (Build 19045.4651)
JavaScript	V8 12.6.228.28
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Command Line	"C:\Users\Lance\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe" --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end --save-page-as-mhtml
Executable Path	C:\Users\Lance\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\Application\vivaldi.exe
Profile Path	C:\Users\Lance\AppData\Local\Vivaldi\User Data\Default
Active Variations	5e3a236d-4113a79e

[Pathduck]

@kanishknishar No works fine here...

Win10 x64, last Stable.

[DoctorG]

@kanishknishar Works for me 6.8.3381.48 Win 11.

Please check if a extension in Vivaldi, a external program or Windows catches the shortcut.

[Catweazle]

@DoctorG, Windows itsel use over 200 shortcuts and sometimes coincide of the Vivaldi ones, but in the case intending to enter a shortcut in the settings, appears an little popup, saying that it is used already by Windows. But maybe in an update this shortcut was implemented or reserved by Widows, in this case in Vivaldi it won't work. Try with an othe key combination.

[kanishknishar]

@Catweazle Other key combos like Alt+Shift+T work. I exited all background applications. I tried pressing Ctrl+Shift+T in the desktop to see what would happen - nothing happens.

I have no idea what is using the shortcut. Is there a way to figure out what a keystroke press does?

[Pathduck]

@kanishknishar If another program has assigned a global hotkey or you've assigned it yourself (like with a desktop shortcut), turns out this is really difficult to figure out, as Windows has no way to list global hotkeys.

I did some searching, found lots of articles on SuperUser among others but no good answers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=windows+find+what+program+hotkey

I did find some tools:

HotKeysList: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/hot_keys_list.html
Lists all assigned hotkeys, unfortunately does not list what programs they are assigned to.

A VB Script: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/list-all-assigned-shortcut-keys-for-shortcuts-in-windows-11.4839/

Shortcuts Map: https://www.zealsoftstudio.com/shortcuts/

These last two seems to only list hotkeys assigned to shortcuts, not program-assigned global ones.

Found another program called "Hotkey Explorer" - Do NOT run this, terrible program.

[Pathduck]

Some more programs I found:

Hotkey Screener:
https://www.ntwind.com/freeware/hotkey-screener.html
Works OK but not a good UI.

Hotkey Detective:
https://github.com/ITachiLab/hotkey-detective
You have to trigger the hotkey for it to detect where it's sent, but probably the best of the bunch for finding it out.

Note if the list says explorer.exe it's most likely assigned to a shortcut (LNK file) or it's a default hotkey in Windows.

You should also note that browser extensions can assign hotkeys, that will be active when the browser is running. So also check:
vivaldi://extensions/shortcuts

[Catweazle]

@Pathduck, you'll find all Windows shortcuts in the page which I've put in my post, but it's difficult to find it in the OS, nor modify them.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows-dcc61a57-8ff0-cffe-9796-cb9706c75eec

[Pathduck]

@Catweazle Those are just the standard Win hotkeys. Applications can register global hotkeys in Windows. I assume they do this by hooking into the shell (Explorer) at runtime.

Shortcuts (LNK files) on the desktop or start menu can also contain hotkeys.

For instance, I have SunsetScreen register Ctrl+' and Ctrl+Shift+' to toggle on/off and invert the screen. I also have Ctrl+Shift+Z in a shortcut to launch Zoom Player, as well as Ctrl+Shift+M to toggle primary monitor.

If I tried to assign Ctrl+Shift+Z in Vivaldi, it would only launch ZP.
If I tried Ctrl+' I would see nothing happen, but it would actually toggle SunsetScreen off.

These kinds of hotkeys can't be easily found in Windows.

[Catweazle]

@Pathduck, that is what I mean, there are, as said, ~200 standard hotkeys in the list, but it's nearly impossible to find them in Windows itself, nor you can change them. It only give you an advice that the hotkey is in use, if you want to set it in an app. The only way to free this key combination is to delete or desactivate the corresponding Windows function, but also this won't work always.