Cancel is the only one unset out of the box. Bind it to whatever you like. It stops an active recording, a streaming assistant reply, or a Flow generation in progress.
Debug mode is not a global shortcut. It only fires while the Settings window is focused, because all it does is reveal the Debug section in the sidebar.
Hold or Tap
One setting in Settings → General controls all three recording shortcuts: dictation, dictation with cleanup, and the assistant.- Hold (default). Records while you hold the shortcut, and types out when you let go.
- Tap. One press starts recording, the next press stops it. This is how you record hands-free.
Why the Windows defaults are modifier-only
Why the Windows defaults are modifier-only
Holding
Left Ctrl + Left Win keeps every letter and the Space bar free, so the shortcut can’t collide with text shortcuts inside your apps.Left-side keys specifically, so an international AltGr layout won’t trigger the assistant by accident.Tap to lock does nothing in the current build
Tap to lock does nothing in the current build
The idea was that tapping a lock key mid-hold would flip the recording to hands-free, so you could let go and keep talking.It is not wired up. Three settings for it still exist in the settings file: a Tap to lock switch (on), a lock key for dictation, and a separate one for the assistant. But there is no control for any of them in Settings, and nothing arms the watcher during a hold recording. Tapping the key has no effect.Use the Tap recording behavior instead. It is the same outcome by a different route.For reference, the stored defaults are
Space on Windows and Shift on macOS and Linux. Space on Windows because the Windows record shortcuts are modifier-only and leave Space free. Shift elsewhere because the default macOS and Linux shortcuts already hold Space, and a lock key that overlaps the record shortcut could never work anyway.