Turn off F12 opening DevTools with new Edge setting

[zghadyali]

Hello Insiders! We've heard a lot of feedback in the Microsoft Edge DevTools from customers who accidentally press F12 and didn't intend to launch or use the DevTools. To help solve this problem, we've added a new setting under Developer Tools called Open the DevTools when the F12 key is pressed. With this new setting toggled on, selecting F12 on your keyboard opens the DevTools. With this setting toggled off, selecting F12 no longer opens the DevTools. This setting is currently available in Canary and Dev and will be available in the next version of Beta.

To access this setting, complete the following actions.

1. Choose the icon the Settings and more (...) icon > Settings.

2. In Search settings, enter Developer Tools.
3. By default, the Open the DevTools when the F12 key is pressed setting is toggled on. Choose Open the DevTools when the F12 key is pressed to toggle the setting to off.
4. Select F12to confirm that DevTools no longer open.

Please note that other ways of opening the DevTools, like pressing Ctrl+Shift+Iwill continue to work even when the Open the DevTools when the F12 key is pressed setting is turned off. Check out our docs for more info: Open Microsoft Edge DevTools - Microsoft Edge Development | Microsoft Docs

Thanks,

The Microsoft Edge DevTools team

[#2]

Yes, that is very good. I just use the Ctr-Shift-J anyway for my shortcut for that.

[#3]

Going into settings without doing a search... Settings/system is where this toggle is located...

Dennis5mile

[#4]

It's useful if someone isn't using Dev tools often but uses F11 regularly for switching between full screen and normal mode and since F11 and F12 are next to each other, could accidentally open Dev tools.

[#5]

As someone who uses F12 daily, I believe this is a fantastic toggle: I'll be turning F12 off immediately.

I hit it all the time when I'm meaning to full-screen or grab a screenshot.

[#6]

This would have to be about the dumbest thing I've seen Microsoft do in a long time.

First up, it forgets my choice every time Edge updates.

Secondly, are you going to ask if you wanted to press every individual key press just because some users are fat-fingered and can't cope with fixing their own mistakes by pressing F12 a second time?

The stupidity of this is staggering.

[#7]

It's not only one example. It looks as if Microsoft would like to follow up Vivaldi's Byzantine lavishness in pandering to everyone's whim. I'm all for an efficient and a slim Edge. Otherwise MS Edge will end soon with Settings part taking over 50% of code.

[#8]

Hi @zghadyali ,

I have the opposite issue : I am trying to open the DevTools using either F12 or Crtl  + Shift + I, but nothing happens on Edge. It works fine on Firefox, and weither I turn on or off the "Open DevTools" settings, nothing happens... How to solve this on Edge to be able to get the DevTools (I precise I'm on a professional laptop) ?
Thanks

[#9]

Hi @charlotteg71! Thanks for reaching out! I'm so sorry to hear about the issues you're encountering opening DevTools. To unblock yourself immediately, can you try right-clicking the web content you want to debug in Edge and selecting the Inspect entry in the menu? This should open DevTools for you. Here's a screenshot of this menu:

Once you are able to open DevTools, please send us feedback via the Feedback icon in the top-right corner of the tools and include diagnostic data so the DevTools team can take a look at what's happening. Here's a screenshot of the Feedback icon:

We definitely want you to be able to access our tools. Thanks!

[#10]

This is great, but can you extend this feature to also disable all the right-click menu entries? The vast, vast majority of Edge users are not web-devs or coders, and so have no-use for things like "Inspect page source", "Inspect frame source", "View source" or "Inspect". Please add an option to hide all web-developer targeted options from all areas of the UI. Thank you!

[#11]

@peter_giles 

I was surprised that all of a sudden pressing the F12 key did nothing. Checking the short cut revealed I'd have to press Ctrl + Shift + I, and I just asked myself, Why? How long has F12 for development tools been a thing? F1 has a long time been associated with Help for any program, if I press F1 by mistake for any other reason, should Microsoft change it? The F12 key was there and anyone who used development tools would know what it was for. And if you pressed it by mistake for something else you would see that it's not the key to press for what you intended. Press the right key. I have pressed F11 by mistake and surprised that development tools did not come up. It didn't puzzle me because when I pressed F12 development tool came up and I realized I had accidentally press F11. SO, what happens if someone presses Ctrl + Shift + O by mistake?

[#12]

If you use F12 daily, shouldn't you be accustomed to using it so mistaking it for F11 should be few and far between. I press it by touch from memory (muscle) memory at this point. I they chose to change the short cut to dev tools that's ok. I fail to see any confusion or problem associate with the use of this key press in Edge. Why change it? Is pressing any key by mistake enough reason to change its behavior? Often when typing, JS, I press the "-" key instead of the ")" key, it's my mistake, Microsoft doesn't have to deal with that. F11 is a Full Screen toggle, I hope someone doesn't press that key by mistake.

[#13]

Hi,
Great!
Is there a policy to apply this setting automatically to many users ?
Thx
Regards,
MS

[#14]

@MS2000 Hello! We don't have a policy for specifically turning off the `F12` keyboard shortcut for large groups of users but we do have one for whether or not the DevTools in Microsoft Edge should be enabled. See DeveloperToolsAvailability for more info. Cheers!

[#15]

@zghadyali Hi, 

Thank you for your response.

I already know the policy to disable DevTools, because I apply it. I have to disable DevTools because of a "special" web app that we have, wich uses the F12 fonction to open a menu. That's the reason why I am trying to find a way to disable F12 for DevTools, because instead of opening the menu, F12 opens DevTools, And I have to disable it to thousands of computers. I cannot ask for change on the "special" web app because I know they will not change that behaviour (end of support very soon).

So I disabled DevTools, but it's difficult then to debug when I need to open DevTools on a particular computer when a random bug appears. I am experiencing that rigth now, a bug that appears on random machines, and I cannot use DevTools.

Do you know if there is a way to disable the F12 shortcut in another way than using a policy ? Maybe setting registry values ?

Best regards, 

MS

[#16]

I reply to my last question.

Actually, there is a policy that can be used to disable MSEdge shortcuts : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/edge-learnmore-configurable-edge-commands

I can use it to disable the "dev_tools_toggle" command by pressing F12 key.

Hope this may help someone, one day.

Regards.

MS