Disabling the Insert Key

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 22, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Dave admits he is an inaccurate typist, and he often hits the Insert key when he doesn't mean to. He wonders if there is a way to disable the Insert key in Excel, short of using a screwdriver to pry it off.

There are a number of things you could try. If you don't need to use the Insert key in any program (not just Excel), you can disable the Insert key in Windows by editing the Registry. This page indicates how you can accomplish the task:

http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-the-Insert-Key-in-Windows

Another option, without the necessity of modifying the Registry, is to use a third-party program to change how each key on your system behaves. Here is a candidate you can check out:

http://www.hotkeycontrol.com/

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (5599) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Maintaining Text Formatting in a Lookup

Want to maintain the formatting used in one cell when you use formulas to reference that text in another cell? The answer ...

Discover More

Getting Rid of Unused Range Names

Excel allows you to easily create names for different ranges in your workbook. If you ever want to clean up the list of ...

Discover More

Automatic Italics of Newspaper Names

The AutoCorrect tool in Word is a great help in making sure that all instances of a name (such as a newspaper name) are ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Changing Excel's Starting Date

When keeping track of dates, internally, Excel uses special date serial numbers that are based upon a specific day in the ...

Discover More

Arranging Workbook Windows

If you find yourself working with a number of different workbooks at the same time, you may want to arrange your desktop ...

Discover More

Deleting Names

Excel allows you to associate names with cells or ranges of cells. If you ever want to delete those names, you'll need ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is nine more than 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.