Native Input Mute
Native Input Mute stops chosen keyboard and mouse inputs from doing their normal job in Windows, while OmniControl carries on using them. It is how you stop an input doing two things at once: a key driving your virtual stick no longer also types, and a click mapped to a trigger no longer also clicks.
It is free on both tiers, and you will find it under Output → Native Input Mute.
Overview
Choose the inputs you want muted. While the feature is on, those inputs stop performing their normal Windows actions everywhere, and only those inputs are affected. Everything you have not selected behaves exactly as it always did.
There is no game detection in it at all. It does not look at which application has focus, does not match executable names, and has no allow-list or block-list. That is deliberate: it is a Windows input setting, not a per-game one.
Setting it up
- Open Native Input Mute.
- Under Keys, click the keys you want muted on the keyboard view. Anything the board does not draw - media keys, the numpad, a vendor macro key - can be added with Add any key, which captures one real press.
- Under Mouse, turn on any of Buttons, Wheel and Movement. With Buttons on you can narrow it to individual buttons.
- Set a Toggle hotkey so you can turn it on and off without alt-tabbing.
- Turn on Mute native input.
Your selection is saved. The on/off switch is not: Native Input Mute is always off when OmniControl starts, so nothing carries over from a previous session.
Turning it off in a hurry
Read this section before you turn the feature on. It is global, and these are the ways out.
| Method | Works when |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + Alt + Home | Always, including when OmniControl has stopped responding |
| Hold both Shift keys for two seconds | Always, and needs no third key |
| Release input in the tray icon | Always, and needs no keyboard at all |
| Closing OmniControl | Always, including a crash or End Task |
The two key combinations are recognised inside the input layer itself rather than by the app window, which is why they still work if the interface is frozen. They also work if you have muted those keys, because they are recognised from the keys being pressed rather than from them being delivered.
Muting also lifts on its own if OmniControl stops running for any reason. It is a permission that has to be continuously re-earned rather than a state that has to be cleaned up, so there is no situation where a crash leaves your keyboard muted.
The first time you turn the feature on, OmniControl asks you to perform the emergency release once. That is not a formality: some keyboards have no Home key, and other software can claim the combination first. Better to find that out before you need it. You can skip the check if the combination does not work on your machine, and use the other two routes.
Warning
There is no protected list of keys. If you select a modifier, Escape, or the Windows key, it is muted. A picker that quietly ignored half of what you chose would be harder to trust than one that does what you asked, so the safety comes from the escape routes above instead.
Muted inputs still drive your controller
This is the point of the feature rather than a side effect. An input you have muted still reaches OmniControl, so anything you have mapped to it through Keyboard and Mouse or remapping works exactly as before. W still moves the left stick. A muted left click still pulls the right trigger. What stops is the second, unwanted half.
Under Advanced there is a Link with Drive a Controller option. With it on, Drive a Controller only receives your keyboard and mouse while mute is on, so the hotkey becomes a single switch for both: outside it your mouse is an ordinary mouse, inside it your keyboard and mouse are driving the pad. It is off by default, because turning it on changes what an existing setup does.
Mouse movement, and what it can and cannot do
Muting Movement freezes the pointer. It cannot stop an application being told that the mouse moved.
Windows lets any program read the mouse directly, and no program can deny that to another. Ordinary software follows the pointer, so it sees nothing. A game reading the mouse directly can still detect the motion even though the cursor has stopped.
The page has a compatibility test that reports what happens on your PC:
- Full - movement was fully muted in the test.
- Pointer only - cursor movement is blocked, but some applications may still detect that the mouse moved.
- Not tested - run the test to find out.
Where it reports Pointer only, Play Mode solves the same problem by a different route. It holds focus itself, and Windows does not send mouse input to an application that does not have focus, so the game receives nothing at all while your virtual controller keeps working.
OmniControl will not go further than this. Getting past the limit would mean a kernel driver or reaching into another game's process, which is precisely the behaviour anti-cheat exists to detect, and the consequences of that would land on your account. It stays inside ordinary Windows behaviour and does not hide from anything.
Troubleshooting
A muted key still does something in one specific game. Some programs read input directly rather than through the normal Windows path. An application in the background is never sent the input, but one in the foreground reading it directly may still receive it. This is the same limit described for mouse movement above.
Ctrl + Alt + Home does nothing. Check that Native Input Mute is actually on; the combination is only listened for while it is. If it is on and nothing happens, another tool may have claimed the combination first. Use both Shift keys, or Release input in the tray.
My keyboard feels normal even though the switch is on. Check the status line under the switch. If it says No inputs selected, nothing has been chosen yet. If it says Not running, OmniControl could not start the input layer, and the reason is shown underneath.
The pointer froze and I did not expect it. Movement is selected under Mouse. Turn it off, or turn the whole feature off.
Related
- Keyboard and Mouse - the feature this pairs with most often.
- Emulation - the virtual pad muted inputs are driving.
- Remapping - assigning those inputs in the first place.