Control Key

Control Key

Re-map the Mostly Unused Caps Lock Key to another Key in Windows

We can disable the caps lock key or reassign the same to any other function with the help of a registry hack. In fact, you can re-map any key with any key by using this trick. However, registry hacking is not considered as a safe practice. You should have a backup of the registry file before performing any trick with the Windows registry. If you feel uncomfortable in performing this, you should consult an able business computer support provider.

Understand how the Windows key re-assigning performs – Windows operating system does not have any default setting that allows disabling of any key. In this case what we need to do is a remapping of an unnecessary key to something which does not exist so that the key can be completely disabled. To perform this activity manually, we need to open the file named regedit.exe and look for the following key present in it.

HKEY_ LOCAL_ MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Control Keyboard Layout

Against the key, there is a binary data format in the associated Scancode Map key where the important parts are displayed in bold and some colors. It is:

00000000 00000000 02000000 00003A00 00000000

Now we will see how this actually works:

In the map key, the first sixteen zeros meant nothing, the bold faced 02 represents what are the number of keys that are going to be re mapped +1 (it actually represents the data length). The zeroes in bold face with orange color is the key which Windows is supposed to map the caps lock key to. In this case it is 0000 that means nothing. The bold faced digits in blue color signify the key which is being mapped. In this case the key 3A00 is meant for the caps key which we need to remap. The remaining zeros (8 in numbers) represent nothing and are called null terminator. You can do the mapping between many keys by increasing 02 to the corresponding numbers of keys to be mapped and adding the colorful bold blocks in the map key's middle. 3A00 here in the mix represents the scan code. As an example, if we want to disable caps lock key and then remap the scroll lock key into the caps lock key, the following map key:

00000000 00000000 03000000 00003A00 3A004600 00000000

This process seems complicated but actually it is fairly easy without any tech support help once the user starts working with this. After we have seen the internal functionalities of the registry keys, we can go ahead with downloading the zip file containing the following files:

ChangeCapsToControl.reg Changes Caps Lock to be a Control key

ChangeCapsToShift.reg Changes Caps Lock to be a Shift key

SwitchCapsToScrollLock.reg Disables Caps Lock and swaps Scroll lock to be Caps Lock

KillCapsLock.reg Disables Caps Lock

DisableKeyboardRemap Uninstalls the preference by deleting the key

Once you apply one of the registry files present in the zip, you need to reboot the PC. If you want to uninstall, you can use uninstall registry tweak or can easily delete Scancode map key entry.

To download the tweaks, click on: howtogeek.com/geekers/KeyboardMappings.zip

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Hi, with my PC I hold down the control key Ctrl, and roll the mousewheel, to alter the font size?

How do I alter the font size on a notepad, there is a 'FN' function key, but what do I use to alter the txt size on the screen. GOOGLE's too big to fit on the page! Thanks.
There's no wheel on the mouse like the normal mouse.
Thank you AJ you sorted that out for me, it's got the kids of my case! Thanks again.

Control key and + or - key (to get the plus it is ctrl plus shift plus equals
AJ

Ctrl Z - Space Dementia