Ignore special characters input to use shortcut in VSCode

Uzair Ali 0 Reputation points
2026-09-03T14:21:54.7533333+00:00

So I had this issue in VS Code where pressing Ctrl+Alt+anykey was not working, even if the shortcut was already set. I searched for any solution but couldn't find one, but eventually I discovered the solution myself. So I'm just putting it here for anyone else who encounters this particular problem.

  1. Press Win+R and type ms-settings:regionlanguage
  2. Then make sure that English(US) is put first in preferred keyboards.
  3. Now click on the three dots in English(US). Click on Language Options.
  4. Under Keyboards, just below installed keyboards, make sure there's US(QWERTY) and on first position. Done.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings

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  1. Emma1-N 11,450 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-04T07:03:49.9566667+00:00

    Welcome Uzair Ali,

    Thank you for sharing your solution with the community. It's great that you were able to identify the cause of the problem and document the steps. Your workaround regarding the keyboard layout order and ensuring US (QWERTY) is the primary keyboard may help other users who encounter issues with Ctrl + Alt shortcuts in VS Code. I appreciate you taking the time to post your findings.

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