# Way to Disable the escape key/menu system?

**URL:** <https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/way-to-disable-the-escape-key-menu-system/2011>\
**Category:** ioquake3\
**Created:** [January 5, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/way-to-disable-the-escape-key-menu-system/2011 "2025-01-05T12:29:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Titchgamer](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.ioquake.org/titchgamer/32/757_2.png) [@Titchgamer](https://discourse.ioquake.org/u/Titchgamer)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/way-to-disable-the-escape-key-menu-system/2011/1 "2025-01-05T12:29:00Z")

</div>

Hi all,

I was wondering is there a way I can disable access to the in game menu of the game while its running?

Either by disabling the menu completely or just disabling the escape key so it cant be accessed?

Ideally I would like to do something in game rather than having to resort to AHK scripts or the like to change button mappings.

Any help appreciated 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![WofWca](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.ioquake.org/wofwca/32/795_2.png) [@WofWca](https://discourse.ioquake.org/u/WofWca)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 12:10pm UTC](https://discourse.ioquake.org/t/way-to-disable-the-escape-key-menu-system/2011/3 "2025-06-11T12:10:35Z")

</div>

If you open the [`q3config.cfg` file](https://ioquake3.org/help/players-guide/#windowswhere), you’ll see the line `bind ESCAPE "togglemenu"`. What you want to do is to add a file named `autoexec.cfg` beside it, and put `unbind ESCAPE` in the newly created file.  
But you should probably also keep a way to toggle the menu. For that, add another line `bind F12 "togglemenu"` in `autoexec.cfg` (or with another key instead of `F12`).