Keyboard Blocker — Disable Keyboard Input on Windows

Copyright © 2025 Pavel Bashkardin

Description

Keyboard Blocker is a lightweight free Windows utility designed to completely block keyboard input. It runs silently in the background with a system tray icon (near the clock), making it ideal for preventing accidental keystrokes (e.g., during video playback or when a child is using the computer).

The program uses a low‑level keyboard hook (WH_KEYBOARD_LL) to intercept and discard all keyboard messages. It is intended for situations where you want to prevent a child (or anyone) from accidentally pressing keys while watching a video.

Key Features

• System Tray Integration: Runs in the background with a tray icon.
• Keyword Unblocking: Type unblock to unblock the keyboard at any time.
• Manual Control: Right-click the tray icon to block/unblock or exit.
• Registry Persistence: Remembers the last blocking state.
• Self-Contained Installer: Easy installation and uninstallation via Setup.exe.
• No Admin Rights Required: Works without administrator privileges.

Installation

Quick install: Download Setup.exe and run it. The program will be installed to %APPDATA%\Keyblock and added to Windows startup.
If you want, you can modify the source code and create your own binaries.

Compilation Requirements

• Windows operating system.

• MinGW‑w64 compiler (TDM‑GCC recommended) with windres (resource compiler) and objdump (usually included). The provided build script assumes the compiler is installed at: C:\Program Files\TDM-GCC-64\bin. If your compiler is located elsewhere, edit the set PATH= line in build.bat.

  • TDM-GCC (MinGW-w64)
  • Official MinGW-w64

• Optional:

  • UPX or UPX on SourceForge (Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) for further size reduction.
  • WinRAR Default path: C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe. Change the set PATH= line in buildsfx.bat if it necessary.

How to Build

Simply double‑click build.bat or run it from the command prompt.

The script will:

1. Delete old object files and the previous executable.
2. Compile all the resources script.
3. Compiles the main application and uninstaller.
4. Link everything to executable file with optimizations for small size.
5. Display the list of imported DLLs (to verify no unexpected dependencies).
6. If UPX is found, compress the executable (optional).
7. Create an SFX archive that includes all necessary files and an installation script. Ensure WinRAR is installed and the path in buildsfx.bat is correctly set to the default or your custom location.

After a successful build you will find keyblock.exe, uninstall.exe and setup.exe in the same folder.

Using the Installer

• Run Setup.exe to install Keyboard Blocker. Download the installer here.
• The program will be extracted to %APPDATA%\Keyblock and added to Windows startup.

Usage

• Block/Unblock:
  • Right-click the tray icon and select “Block” or “Unblock”.
  • Type unblock to unblock the keyboard at any time.
• Exit:
  • Right-click the tray icon and select “Exit”.
• Notifications:
  • Left-click the tray icon to show the current blocking state.

The program is designed to be as unobtrusive as possible: no windows, only a tray icon and occasional balloons.

Uninstallation

• Via Installer:
  • Open Apps & Features (or Programs and Features).
  • Find Keyboard Blocker and click Uninstall.
• Manual Removal:
  • Delete the installation folder (%APPDATA%\Keyblock).
  • Remove the “Keyboard Blocker” entry from Windows startup (via Task Manager or Registry Editor).

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file or the source code headers for details. In short, you may use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software, provided that the copyright notice and permission notice appear in all copies.

Author

Pavel Bashkardin

For questions or suggestions, feel free to contact the author via GitHub.