Hush – Disable F1 in Excel

You're three levels deep in a model. Your hand drifts up, hits F1, and Excel throws you into the help panel. Hush catches the keypress before Office sees it – in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook – no install, no macros, no admin rights.

Why I built this
I built it for myself. Reviewing financial models means a constant F2 → edit → Esc rhythm, and F1 sits right between them – one mispress and you the help window steals your focus. The traditional fix was to pop the F1 key off your keyboard. Works on a desktop, less so on your corporate ThinkPad.

What it does

Hush disables the F1 help key in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook – before Office sees it. Every other application works normally.

Run it when you need it, and close the window to stop.

Works on Windows with Office 2016, 2019, 2021, and Microsoft 365.

How to use

1. Download hush-ps.zip and extract it
2. Double-click start-hush.cmd
3. A small window confirms it is running
4. Close that window at any time to stop

Hint: I'm working on a more capable standalone version.

Downloads

Source: https://github.com/noahmaichel/hush-ps

What this actually does (for the technically interested)

start-hush.cmd launches hush.ps1 via PowerShell with the correct threading flags. The script registers a low-level Windows keyboard hook (WH_KEYBOARD_LL) that fires on every keypress. Before passing the key through, it checks whether the foreground window belongs to an Office process. If yes, and the key is F1, it suppresses it. Otherwise, it does nothing. No keystrokes are logged or stored. No network calls. The hook unregisters when you close the window.

Full source is on GitHub.

FAQ

Who is this for?
Built for people who live in Excel – financial modellers, analysts, anyone doing heavy F2-edit work. The traditional IB fix is to pop the F1 key off the keyboard; Hush is the software version.

Why not just use a VBA macro?
VBA needs to be in every workbook or your personal macro file, doesn't survive corporate-locked-down setups or client sharing, and breaks if macros are disabled. Hush is system-level.

Does it affect files I share with others?
No. Nothing is written in your documents. Spreadsheets and presentations you share are completely unaffected without requiring macros.

Does it affect non-Office applications?
No. The suppression only fires when Excel, Word, PowerPoint, or Outlook is the active window. F1 works normally everywhere else.

Does it run at startup automatically?
Not in this version. You start it manually when you want it.

Does this require admin rights?
No.

What about Mac?
Not supported, Windows-only.

Will my IT department flag this?
Likely, yes. Many corporate environments block unsigned PowerShell scripts by default. The source is fully open and on GitHub – share it with your IT team.

Notes for locked-down corporate environments

Some organisations block PowerShell scripts from running. If start-hush.cmd is blocked, the full Hush app (Windows Store) will be the right path – no PowerShell, Microsoft-signed, passes standard corporate app policies.