Filter Keys lets you slow down or ignore repeated key presses, but you can turn it off in seconds
Filter Keys is an accessibility feature that ignores accidental key repeats — when you hold a key down and it types the same letter over and over. If you turned it on by accident, or it's making typing harder instead of easier, you can disable it right now without affecting any other settings on your computer.
The steps differ slightly between Windows and Mac, but both take less than a minute. You don't need to restart your computer or change anything else.
Key Takeaways
- On Windows, open Settings, go to Accessibility > Keyboard, and toggle Filter Keys off.
- On Mac, open System Settings, go to Accessibility > Keyboard, and uncheck Enable Slow Keys or Enable Sticky Keys depending on which feature is on.
- Filter Keys is usually turned on by accident through keyboard shortcuts, not by design.
- Turning off Filter Keys does not affect any other accessibility features you may be using.
How to turn off Filter Keys on Windows 11 and Windows 10
Open the Settings app by pressing the Windows key and typing "settings", then press Enter. Click on Accessibility in the left sidebar.
Click Keyboard under the Accessibility menu. Look for the Filter Keys toggle switch. If it is blue and switched to the right, Filter Keys is on. Click the toggle to turn it off — it will turn gray and move to the left.
Close Settings. Your keyboard will return to normal behavior when ready. You can now type without the delay or key-repeat filtering that Filter Keys was explore.
How to turn off Filter Keys on Mac
Click the Apple menu in the top-left corner and select System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions). Click Accessibility in the sidebar.
Click Keyboard on the left. You will see two related features: Slow Keys and Sticky Keys. If either checkbox is marked, uncheck it. Close System Settings. Your keyboard will work normally again.
On some older Mac models, you may also see Mouse Keys listed here — that is a different feature and does not affect typing, so you can leave it as is.
Why Filter Keys turns on by accident
Filter Keys usually gets enabled through a keyboard shortcut, not because someone chose it from a menu. On Windows, holding Shift for eight seconds triggers the Filter Keys on/off toggle. On Mac, holding Shift for three seconds does the same thing. If you were holding Shift while typing and suddenly your keyboard felt sluggish, that is almost certainly what happened.
Once you turn it off, the same keyboard shortcut will turn it back on if you hold Shift again by accident. If you find yourself turning it off repeatedly, you can disable the shortcut itself in the same Accessibility menu — look for an option to turn off the keyboard shortcut for Filter Keys.
What Filter Keys actually does
When Filter Keys is on, your computer ignores key presses that happen too quickly after the previous one. This is meant to help people with tremors or limited hand control who might accidentally press a key multiple times. It can also ignore the "bounce" that happens when a key physically sticks for a fraction of a second.
The downside is that it makes typing feel delayed and sluggish if you type fast or if you hold keys down intentionally — for example, when you hold the spacebar to scroll through a document, or hold a letter key to select multiple instances of it. That is why most people turn it off as soon as they realize it is on.
Difference between Filter Keys and Sticky Keys
Filter Keys and Sticky Keys are separate features that sometimes get confused. Sticky Keys lets you press modifier keys like Shift, Control, or Alt one at a time instead of holding them down while pressing another key. For example, instead of holding Shift and pressing S for a capital letter, you press Shift once, release it, then press S.
Filter Keys is about slowing down or ignoring repeated presses of the same key. Sticky Keys is about holding modifier keys. You can have one on and one off, or both on, or both off — they do not depend on each other. If you only want to turn off the sluggish typing feeling, make sure you are turning off Filter Keys specifically, not Sticky Keys.
Other keyboard accessibility features you might want instead
If you turned on Filter Keys because you were having trouble with accidental key repeats, there are other options that might work better. Bounce Keys (Windows) ignores key presses that happen within a very short time of each other — usually adjustable to a few milliseconds. This stops the physical bounce of a sticking key without slowing down your whole typing speed.
On Mac, Slow Keys is similar to Bounce Keys — it requires you to hold a key down for a set amount of time before it registers, which prevents accidental taps. You can adjust how long you need to hold the key, so you can find a setting that works for your typing style without making normal typing feel slow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will turning off Filter Keys affect my other accessibility settings?
No. Each accessibility feature works independently. Turning off Filter Keys does not change Sticky Keys, Slow Keys, high contrast mode, text size, or any other setting you have configured. You can turn off Filter Keys and leave everything else exactly as it is.
What if I want Filter Keys back on later?
You can turn it back on the same way you turned it off — go to Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard on Windows, or System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard on Mac, and toggle Filter Keys back on. Or you can use the keyboard shortcut: hold Shift for eight seconds on Windows, or three seconds on Mac.
Does Filter Keys work the same way on Windows and Mac?
The basic idea is the same — both ignore or slow down repeated key presses — but the exact behavior is slightly different. Windows calls it "Filter Keys" and Mac calls it "Slow Keys" or "Bounce Keys" depending on the version. The steps to turn them off are different, but the result is the same: your keyboard will type normally again.
My keyboard still feels slow after I turned off Filter Keys. What else could it be?
Check whether Slow Keys or Sticky Keys is still on — you may have turned off the wrong feature. Also look for keyboard repeat settings in the main Keyboard settings (not Accessibility) — sometimes the repeat delay or repeat rate is set very low. If neither of those is the problem, restart your computer and try typing again.
Can I disable the keyboard shortcut that turns Filter Keys on?
Yes. On Windows, in the same Accessibility > Keyboard menu where you turned off Filter Keys, look for an option that says "Allow the shortcut key to start Filter Keys" or similar, and uncheck it. On Mac, the option is usually in the same Keyboard accessibility panel. This prevents you from accidentally turning it back on.