Quick fix: Open Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard, scroll to Sticky keys, expand it, and turn off Keyboard shortcut for Sticky keys. This removes the five-Shift-presses trigger entirely while leaving Sticky Keys usable by other paths.

You’re in a game, you tap Shift several times to crouch and walk slowly, and a dialog pops up asking if you want to turn on Sticky Keys. The game minimizes. By the time you dismiss the prompt, you’re dead. The dialog reappears next time you tap Shift five times in close succession. Windows 11 keeps the legacy accessibility shortcut on by default, and most users never need it.

Symptom: Sticky Keys dialog appears while gaming after rapid Shift key presses.
Affects: Windows 11 (any edition).
Fix time: 2 minutes.

What the keyboard shortcut for Sticky Keys is

Sticky Keys is an accessibility feature for users who can’t hold down modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt) and another key simultaneously. With Sticky Keys on, pressing a modifier “sticks” it as if held, until you press it again. Windows includes a legacy keyboard shortcut to enable it: pressing Shift five times in a row triggers a UAC-like prompt asking you to confirm turning Sticky Keys on. The prompt was added in Windows 95 and survives today, even though most users never need it.

Games that bind Shift to crouch/walk frequently trigger the shortcut accidentally during normal play. Turning off the shortcut while leaving Sticky Keys itself untouched preserves accessibility for users who need it.

Method 1: Disable the shortcut in Accessibility settings

Open Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard.
Scroll to Sticky keys and click to expand it.
Toggle off Keyboard shortcut for Sticky keys (this is the 5-Shift trigger).
Optionally also toggle off Notification when Sticky keys is turned on.
Close Settings.

Test by tapping Shift five times. No prompt appears. Sticky Keys itself can still be turned on via the toggle in Settings; only the keyboard shortcut path is disabled.

Method 2: Also disable Filter Keys and Toggle Keys shortcuts

Two other accessibility shortcuts trigger similarly: Right Shift held for 8 seconds (Filter Keys), and Num Lock held for 5 seconds (Toggle Keys). Disable both for full cleanup.

In the same Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard page, expand Filter keys.
Toggle off Keyboard shortcut for Filter keys.
Expand Toggle keys.
Toggle off Keyboard shortcut for Toggle keys.
Close.

Now all three accessibility keyboard shortcuts are off. Gaming is uninterrupted by accidental key sequences.

Method 3: Registry deployment for fleet machines

For deploying the fix across many PCs (a school computer lab, an office gaming room, an esports facility):

The relevant registry values are under HKCU\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys.
Set the Flags value to 506 (Sticky Keys on, hotkey off, notification off) or 510 (everything off including Sticky Keys itself).
For Filter Keys: HKCU\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response\Flags = 122.
For Toggle Keys: HKCU\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys\Flags = 58.
Deploy via Group Policy logon scripts or via Intune Settings Catalog under Accessibility.

The Flags values are bitmasks — reference Microsoft Docs for the exact meaning of each bit. The values above are common “off, no prompt” configurations.

How to verify the fix worked

Tap Shift five times rapidly. No dialog appears, no sound plays.
Tap Right Shift and hold for 10 seconds. No Filter Keys prompt.
Hold Num Lock for 6 seconds. No Toggle Keys prompt.
Open the Accessibility settings. The respective Keyboard shortcut for … toggles are off; the feature toggles can be on or off independently.

If none of these work

If the prompt still appears after disabling, a third-party tool may be re-enabling it. Check whether any keyboard utility (such as gaming software with macro features or a screen reader companion) has its own “Restore default accessibility shortcuts” setting. For systems where the toggle keeps re-enabling itself, a Group Policy from Active Directory may be enforcing the shortcut on — run gpresult /h gpresult.html as your user and search for “Accessibility.” If a GPO is the source, contact IT to exempt your machine or your user.

Bottom line: The five-Shift trigger is a legacy accessibility shortcut you can disable without affecting Sticky Keys itself. Two minutes in Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard removes the interruption for good.