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Patch reliability is unclear, but widespread attacks make patching prudent. Go ahead and patch, but watch out for potential problems. |
Hi, does anyone know how to turn off the CAPS LOCK key on the left just above shift under Windows XP? I am forever hitting it instead of shift or tab and it is usually sometime before I realise. Consequently I end up with a lot of typed text rEVERSED – aggghh!
I suppose I could physically remove the key, but turning it off through a software switch might be better.
Thanks, Mike C
There is a way to do it without installing software and without disabling it altogether. I personally hate the ‘CAPS ‘key and have turned mine into a ‘SHIFT’ key since that is what I intend to hit below it but nail the ‘CAPS’ key instead. You have two options and that is to disable it altogether and turn it into a dead key or the other option is to turn it into a ‘SHIFT’ key since that is what usually is being aimed for.
I’ve provided two ways:
1) Attached is a simple registry key which you simply unzip, double-click and then reboot
2) If you know how and are comfortable changing registry entries, follow this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layout
You may or may not see the REG_BINARY value of Scancode Map on the right hand side. If you don’t have one, create one, but make sure it’s REG_BINARY. Into this you will enter a string of Hex based numbers telling Windows what you want to remap. The order is as follows – anything that follows a // is a comment and should not be typed. This example will remap the caps lock key to the left shift key.
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
// This is required by Windows – it will always be 0’s
02 00 00 00 2A 00 3A 00
// the first word is the number of remappings you are going to use, plus the null terminator; I have one mapping plus the null, hence the 02 00 00 00. The other word of 2A 00 3A 00 is the remapping of the key itself – caps lock’s scancode is 0x3A (shown as 3A 00) and that is mapped to the left shift key (scancode 0x2A, shown as 2A 00). If you are at all familiar with Hex numbers, this will make sense. If you wanted to map caps lock to a null key instead of 2A 00 3A 00 it would be 00 00 3A 00 and so on. If you wanted to map more than just 1 mapping, you would change the 02 00 00 00 to reflect it and add more words to the list, always in the form of “Target key, Key to Remap”.
00 00 00 00
// This is the null terminator that is required – always 1 word and always all 0’s.
If you follow the instructions above and enter in only these numbers, you will effectively make the caps lock key think it’s the left shift key.
If you change the 2A to 00 you will disable the caps lock key altogether. There’s a whole article in the knowledge bank at Microsoft on this, if you want more information on this; I just wanted to pluck one key so that’s all I’ve done.
Now just reboot! 
There is a way to do it without installing software and without disabling it altogether. I personally hate the ‘CAPS ‘key and have turned mine into a ‘SHIFT’ key since that is what I intend to hit below it but nail the ‘CAPS’ key instead. You have two options and that is to disable it altogether and turn it into a dead key or the other option is to turn it into a ‘SHIFT’ key since that is what usually is being aimed for.
I’ve provided two ways:
1) Attached is a simple registry key which you simply unzip, double-click and then reboot
2) If you know how and are comfortable changing registry entries, follow this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlKeyboard Layout
You may or may not see the REG_BINARY value of Scancode Map on the right hand side. If you don’t have one, create one, but make sure it’s REG_BINARY. Into this you will enter a string of Hex based numbers telling Windows what you want to remap. The order is as follows – anything that follows a // is a comment and should not be typed. This example will remap the caps lock key to the left shift key.
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
// This is required by Windows – it will always be 0’s
02 00 00 00 2A 00 3A 00
// the first word is the number of remappings you are going to use, plus the null terminator; I have one mapping plus the null, hence the 02 00 00 00. The other word of 2A 00 3A 00 is the remapping of the key itself – caps lock’s scancode is 0x3A (shown as 3A 00) and that is mapped to the left shift key (scancode 0x2A, shown as 2A 00). If you are at all familiar with Hex numbers, this will make sense. If you wanted to map caps lock to a null key instead of 2A 00 3A 00 it would be 00 00 3A 00 and so on. If you wanted to map more than just 1 mapping, you would change the 02 00 00 00 to reflect it and add more words to the list, always in the form of “Target key, Key to Remap”.
00 00 00 00
// This is the null terminator that is required – always 1 word and always all 0’s.
If you follow the instructions above and enter in only these numbers, you will effectively make the caps lock key think it’s the left shift key.
If you change the 2A to 00 you will disable the caps lock key altogether. There’s a whole article in the knowledge bank at Microsoft on this, if you want more information on this; I just wanted to pluck one key so that’s all I’ve done.
Now just reboot!
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