martyt
11-17-01, 07:12 AM
I have been looking for a way to add a Windows key to my old but nice keyboard. There are some software solutions to this including a shareware program and a old Win95 Powerkernel add on which won't work in Win2K and WinXP.
The following outlines how to kill the Insert key which I did after adding the Windows key. Others may want to kill this key and therefore I an posting this here.
I believe this trick only works for Win2K and WinXP.
I searched for some reference to key remapping and finally found these two links:
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/tef/wintools/#keyremap
http://www.microsoft.com/HWDEV/input/W2kscan-map.htm
To do this remap you need two things. You need the Keyview program noted in the first website. And you need to know how to convert numbers to base 16 (also known as hexadecimal).
To find the code of the key or keys you wish to change one uses the Keyview program. Then this value for the key has to be converted to base 16. A friend has pointed out that you can use the Windows calculator to do the base 16 conversion.
So in regedt32.exe you go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Keyboard Layout
Then in the right pane right click and when "New" pops up make a new "Binary Value". Rename the new value to "Scancode Map".
To kill the Insert key the value must be:
00000000 00000000 02000000 000052E0 00000000
After entering this value you must reboot. If you are not comfortable in doing registry edits and you are running XP, you should make a restore point before this in system restore so you can go back to your old registry without any trouble.
The reason that my wife and I decided to kill the Insert key is that we often hit it by accident when doing word processing. It then causes trouble for us when deleting and adding to our documents until we toggle it off. We haven't missed it and won't put it back in place unless we do!
To kill the Insert key and also add the Windows key in place of the Right Alt key the value of the code to be added to the registry is:
00000000 00000000 03000000 000052E0 5CE038E0 00000000
The following outlines how to kill the Insert key which I did after adding the Windows key. Others may want to kill this key and therefore I an posting this here.
I believe this trick only works for Win2K and WinXP.
I searched for some reference to key remapping and finally found these two links:
http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/tef/wintools/#keyremap
http://www.microsoft.com/HWDEV/input/W2kscan-map.htm
To do this remap you need two things. You need the Keyview program noted in the first website. And you need to know how to convert numbers to base 16 (also known as hexadecimal).
To find the code of the key or keys you wish to change one uses the Keyview program. Then this value for the key has to be converted to base 16. A friend has pointed out that you can use the Windows calculator to do the base 16 conversion.
So in regedt32.exe you go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Keyboard Layout
Then in the right pane right click and when "New" pops up make a new "Binary Value". Rename the new value to "Scancode Map".
To kill the Insert key the value must be:
00000000 00000000 02000000 000052E0 00000000
After entering this value you must reboot. If you are not comfortable in doing registry edits and you are running XP, you should make a restore point before this in system restore so you can go back to your old registry without any trouble.
The reason that my wife and I decided to kill the Insert key is that we often hit it by accident when doing word processing. It then causes trouble for us when deleting and adding to our documents until we toggle it off. We haven't missed it and won't put it back in place unless we do!
To kill the Insert key and also add the Windows key in place of the Right Alt key the value of the code to be added to the registry is:
00000000 00000000 03000000 000052E0 5CE038E0 00000000