Application Key - How to Disable

[Don Enderton]

This is a highly technical question; if this is the wrong group, please
point me to the right one:

Please tell me step by step what changes to make in the registry in Windows
XP to disable the "application key" which is the key between the right
Windows key and the right Ctrl key.

Our keyboard is constructed in such a way that we often mistakenly press the
application key while trying to press the right Shift key. We never,
otherwise, use the application key and want to make it dead.

Some technical information is here but I can't translate that into
instructions I can follow to do what I want:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/Scancode.mspx

Thanks in advance to anyone who can and will help.

(Otherwise I shall have to purchase a different keyboard, one shaped such
that it will be harder to hit the application key by mistake. This keyboard
came with a new Gateway computer and someone designed it who is not a typist
but likes its looks...so the application key is not lower than the shift
key - instead its surface smoothly blends into the shift key. Not good.)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

This is a highly technical question; if this is the wrong group,
please point me to the right one:

Please tell me step by step what changes to make in the registry in
Windows XP to disable the "application key" which is the key between
the right Windows key and the right Ctrl key.

Our keyboard is constructed in such a way that we often mistakenly
press the application key while trying to press the right Shift key. We
never, otherwise, use the application key and want to make it dead.

The keys I always want to disable are the Capslock key and the Insert key,
neither of which I ever want to use, and both of which I sometimes press
accidentally.

Sharpkeys, at http://www.randyrants.com/sharpkeys/, is a useful little
program to disable or reassign keys like these.

 

[Don Enderton]

Ken, thanks, that worked. Hopefully it didn't make any other changes
(unwanted ones) at the same time.

Someone else actually now has written (in another group,
microsoft.public.win2000.registry ) a key for me to add, and I'll go in now
and see if that's the same key SharpKey created.

- Don

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken, thanks, that worked. Hopefully it didn't make any other changes
(unwanted ones) at the same time.

You're welcome. Glad to help. I've been using Sharpkeys for quite a while,
and have never run into any problems with it. I think it's a very
straightforward simple little program.

 

[Stan Brown]

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 02:05:09 GMT from Don Enderton

Please tell me step by step what changes to make in the registry in Windows
XP to disable the "application key" which is the key between the right
Windows key and the right Ctrl key.

Our keyboard is constructed in such a way that we often mistakenly press the
application key while trying to press the right Shift key. We never,
otherwise, use the application key and want to make it dead.

I strongly recommend Autohotkey at http://www.autohotkey.com . It's
free, and very well documented.

While you *can* use it for nothing more than killing the Apps key,
I'll bet once you've got it downloaded you'll find it very useful for
storing repetitive text.