I posted this under an old posting under Cubase 6 (Can't modify Windows alt key. Please help. - Cubase - Steinberg Forums), so maybe it’s better posted under C7.
I just updated to Cubase 7 on Windows 8 and lost the option to select the file menu bar via a keystrokes or keyboard shortcut. In my previous world, Cubase Studio 5 on XP, I would alt to select the file menu (sometimes need to hit alt+tab to move from the project to the main window).
Is there any way to use a keyboard shortcut to select (underline) the file menu (file, edit…)?
Many thanks.
Can you do this in another applications? Can you jump directly to the menu from your computer keyboard in different application? I think, this is Windows 8 problem. But I’m not sure.
+1
Regrettably Cubase 7 no longer seems to support Windows keyboard shortcuts. 
Can we have them back please? 
In the middle of a session we find routine time-saving operations have just disappeared because of this failure. We try to reduce the number of keystrokes each day so why increase them? 
Many thanks. 
In Windows8, as in previous os versions, tab selects the file menu (like in a folder, browser, etc), so from my understanding Windows remains constant. (alt+spacebar does approximately the same)
In Cubase 5, the tab key did not do anything when I was editing in an editor or the project window, but when I hit alt-tab Cubase would jump to the main Cubase window (this is the Cubase program window that is open, even if you don’t have a project up yet). At that point, I could hit tab and use the arrow buttons to move around the file menu (file, edit, project…) as it does in most all other windows programs.
It sounds like a lot of keystrokes, but it simply was alt-tab, then tab, to get the file window.
Perhaps Cubase 7 should just add “Select File menu” to the keyboard shortcut list as using the arrow keys is so much better, and faster, than mousing around.
Umm. Logsplitter is trying to help.
Actually the issue is that to activate the Windows 7 Keyboard shortcuts you have to start with the alt. key.
Cubase 7 appears to have hi-jacked the alt key for ‘Suspend All channel Linking’ in the mixer window.
‘Suspend all channel linking’ is not in the key command list AFAIK. If it was we could simply delete the key command and get the Windows shortcuts back again.
My guess is that the Mixer ‘Console’ was designed by a new team that were not fully acquainted with all the prior functionality of Cubase. So in their haste have overwritten this important time-saving shortcut.
Tragic really. 
Alt key is used in all windows of Cubase. In the Project window, Key/Sample/Score editors, you can use the Alt key as modifier, to switch to another tool(very useful!!!). This is not used in MixConsole window only.
But I suppose, “system” shortcuts should be superior to the other one.
SOLVED
at least a good work around…
Just hit “alt+h”.
This selects the Help tab up on the menu bar, from there you can use the arrow keys to scroll to other menus. No mouse needed. The best part of this is that when you use a mouse and you’ve scrolled down a menu list, you have to mouse all the way back up to go the next menu tab… with arrows, you just move to the right or left.