Visual Studio Tip: Disable F1!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Lately I've been using a laptop more often than a desktop to work in Visual Studio, and of course like most laptop keyboards, the keys are jammed close together. The most annoying thing I keep doing by mistake is hitting F1 instead of Escape, which of course begins the not-so-quick process of bringing up help. Every time I do it, I sigh, wait, and close it.

No longer... realizing I can just disable F1 has made my day.

Now I can hit escape without fear.

16 Comments

Did you consider calling the post "Visual Studio Tip: Escape without fear"

:D

I mapped F1 to Help:About a few weeks ago after a failed escape. ;)

AndrewSeven - Friday, July 18, 2008 8:53:06 PM

Escape without fear would have been way better. The readers are already caching it, so I'll live with the boring title :)

InfinitiesLoop - Friday, July 18, 2008 8:56:58 PM

Great, F1 is for pussies :)

Ex - Friday, July 18, 2008 9:35:24 PM

i have f1 bring up clippy who tells me it looks like i'm writing a singleton pattern and if i would like to use a template.

Darren Kopp - Friday, July 18, 2008 9:57:54 PM

Simple idea. Good idea. I think of them as N - Minute mistakes: Accidental clicks or keystrokes that are going to subtract N minutes from your effective coding time.

@clanota: heheh...clippy the coder

ee - Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:07:52 AM

Great tip. More than once I've regretted pressing F1 for help on some highlighted class or keyword and waiting minutes until visualstudio says it has no idea what the item is.

avrashow - Saturday, July 19, 2008 5:23:36 PM

Yeah, but what are you using Esc for?

Be nice to know so I could use it too instead or besides F1

John A. Davis - Wednesday, July 30, 2008 7:07:39 PM

yeah often i do the similiar mistake when i press escape i accidently press the f1 key. thanks any way....................

hardhitter - Sunday, August 31, 2008 11:05:30 PM

Useful tip, I don't like F1 for help.

Sambo - Monday, November 10, 2008 8:55:11 AM

Thanks. Yet another situation where I try Google instead of thinking or even trying to find configuration settings... Simple and saves a lot of time each day developing!

eXton - Thursday, January 8, 2009 5:51:59 PM

Per the other posts, this is GREAT... drives me nuts waiting minutes for VS 2008 to eventually show the useless help when I hit f1 instead of esc by mistake. Thanks!!

scush - Thursday, January 8, 2009 10:22:47 PM

Oh yeah. I spend more time waiting for unwanted F1 help in VS than I do developing software.

Steve - Saturday, May 16, 2009 11:26:21 AM

Largest improvement to my productivity EVER.
I no longer destory monitors or interns in frustration while waiting for the help screen to take 5-10 minutes to unlock Visual Studio.

Dwight - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 8:18:38 PM

LOL @Dwight -- mind if I quote you on that? :)

InfinitiesLoop - Wednesday, January 6, 2010 8:24:59 PM

Thanks for the post, very helpful :))

I usually use F2 to rename and every misguided touch would create havoc... not any more.

Keep up,

Bruno Pimenta - Wednesday, March 3, 2010 10:52:24 AM

Yay.
Option B. Tear out the F1 key from keyboard.... :P

NNM - Monday, May 3, 2010 12:51:46 PM

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