Ctrl+z not working in Windows 11 Home

Question

Ctrl+z not working in Windows 11 Home

Alan Clarke 45

In Windows 10, you could undo the last action by pressing Ctrl+z in Word, Excel, Notepad etc.

In Windows 11, this does not work. Can it be turned on, or does it no longer exist?

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Answer accepted by question author

Francisco Montilla 30,710 Independent Advisor

Hi Alan,

The Ctrl+Z absolutely still exists in Windows 11 and it works in Word, Excel, Notepad and most other apps. When it does nothing, the most common cause is that Windows switched your active keyboard layout, so the physical key you press is not sending the letter Z for the current layout.

Please try this.

Press Win+Space once or twice and watch the language indicator on the taskbar change to the layout that matches your physical keyboard, for example ENG US or ENG UK. Open Notepad and type the letter Z to confirm the key sends Z, then press Ctrl+Z to undo the last typed character.

If it now works, make the correct layout stick so it does not change again.

Open Settings > Time and language > Language and region. Under Preferred languages, beside your language click the three dots, then Language options. Under Keyboards, keep only the layout that matches your hardware, for example English United States - US or English United Kingdom - UK, and remove any others like US International or a different language. Close Settings and test Ctrl+Z again in Notepad.

If that does not sort it, tell me what layouts you see on the taskbar and what happens when you press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+Z in Notepad, and I will guide you further.

DR 50 Reputation points

2026-07-21T23:48:26.41+00:00

I recently have had exactly the same problem. I found two things: 1. MouseKeys can disrupt keyboard functioning, even if you turn it off. Sometimes it helps to toggle it on and off a couple of times. I need it, so I don't want to totally disable it. Yet. ;-) 2. Simply closing the problem document and re-opening it seems to solve the problem. I work with both Japanese and English, so I'm not going to disable or turn off either one. Also, the problem has occurred on occasion regardless of which language I'm typing in. See 1 and 2 above.

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Your answer

DR 50 Reputation points

2026-07-21T23:48:26.41+00:00

I recently have had exactly the same problem. I found two things: 1. MouseKeys can disrupt keyboard functioning, even if you turn it off. Sometimes it helps to toggle it on and off a couple of times. I need it, so I don't want to totally disable it. Yet. ;-) 2. Simply closing the problem document and re-opening it seems to solve the problem. I work with both Japanese and English, so I'm not going to disable or turn off either one. Also, the problem has occurred on occasion regardless of which language I'm typing in. See 1 and 2 above.

Answer 1

Alan Clarke 45

Thank you for your reply.

I live in Australia, I had USA, UK and Australia listed in Settings under Language. I removed USA and UK, and Ctrl+z now works.

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