How to Disable Windows 8 & Internet Explorer 10 Spell Check ?

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Windows 8 LogoInternet Explorer 10 comes with an excellent spell checking feature that not only checks spelling but also auto corrects misspelled words while you may continue with your typing. However, the spell checking engine and dictionaries are not limited to Internet Explorer usage, they are available system-wide in all programs on the Windows 8 Operating System. If for whatever reason you’d like to disable this feature, here’s how you can do it:

Steps:

  • Press Win key + C to bring up the Charms bar
  • On the Charms bar select Settings
  • Then select More PC Settings > General
  • Under General settings, you’ll find Spelling options
  • Windows 8 Spell Check

  • Click on “Autocorrect misspelled words” and “Highlight misspelled words” sliders to turn them off

That’s it. You won’t find the dictionary following you around on the OS now.

System-wide spell check is provided by the MsSpellCheckingFacility.exe application. You can find it here: %SystemRoot%\system32\MsSpellCheckingFacility.exe

If the above steps don’t work for you, try killing the program from the Task Manager. Though this would only temporarily stop it. To permanently prevent it from running, rename the executable file to something like MsSpellCheckingFacility.exe.bak or MsSpellCheckingFacility2.exe. To be able to do that you need to take ownership of the file first. If you don’t know how to go about that, refer to this post to know how you can add a new “Take Ownership” context menu option. Once the option is available, simply right-click on MsSpellCheckingFacility.exe, click on “Take Ownership”, and rename the file.

Hope it helps!