My HP HDX18 laptop launches Microsoft Excel every time I press the “soft touch” buttons across the top of the laptop (mute, volume, etc.). I’m not the only one with this problem. The problem is with Microsoft’s IntelliType Pro keyboard driver, itype.exe. I can kill this executable and the problem goes away, but then the fancy keyboard buttons no longer function.
To solve the problem for good, I edited the \Program Files\Microsoft IntelliType Pro\mscmdkey.xml
file (make a copy first, fool) and searched for “excel” and found the XML Command node name=“OFFICE_EXCEL_COMMAND”. I removed this node (Everything from <Command name= … </Command>) then stopped itype.exe and then restarted itype.exe (command line: cd "C:\Program Files\Microsoft IntelliType Pro, then “start itype.exe). This works a treat.