Numlock key not active after start-up

[Huib]

Hi,
On my old ME pc the Numlock is active already before i have to give the
password to login.

On Vista that isn't te case.
Although i don't think it is Vista related i have no idea where to look.

Regards
Huib

 

[P. Di Stolfo]

Hello,

* in BIOS, you can enable the option to enable NUM lock at startup.
* http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000792.htm

Please tell us if it worked.

Greetings,
P. Di Stolfo

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// http://blog.lysorp.com - small Windows Blog in German language
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Guest]

P D S

Good advise, however, the NUM lock will not engage
until the VISTA system loads it's first setting.
Happens all the time here.

down
under

 

[Huib]

Hi,
Thanks for the advice but within the Initialkeyboardindicators i expected a
0 but the is a number 2147483648 mentioned.
What is the meaning of it, can i just overwrite it with a 2
Further i suppose i have to put "2" (a two between quotes"

Please your final advice before i do the change.

Regards
Huib

 

[Huib]

Hi,
I changed it to 2 and it know ok
What the number may be, i don't know.
Thanks
Huib

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Hi,
On my old ME pc the Numlock is active already before i have to give the
password to login.

On Vista that isn't te case.
Although i don't think it is Vista related i have no idea where to look.

Regards
Huib

By default, the NumLock key is turned off as Vista starts, and
keeps it off until someone logs in and initializes a user profile. Vista
will remember the NumLock's last state, meaning that if you log out with
the NumLock on, it will automatically turn on the next time you log in;
If you log out with the NumLock off, it will be off the next time you
log in.

If one needs the NumLock on _before_ logging in, a registry edit
can be used to change Vista's default behavior (Article is about WinXP,
but works for Vista, as well):

How to Set the NUM LOCK State at Logon in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314879



--

Bruce Chambers

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[Joe Morris]

Windows (at least since NT, possibly 9x or ME but I don't recall) ignores
the initial setting of NumLock as controlled by BIOS and sets it based on
Registry values.

Thanks for the advice but within the Initialkeyboardindicators i expected
a 0 but the is a number 2147483648 mentioned.
What is the meaning of it, can i just overwrite it with a 2
Further i suppose i have to put "2" (a two between quotes"

Please your final advice before i do the change.

The number "2147483648" is the decimal equivalent of 0x80000000. Why MS
uses a RegSZ (text string) to hold a number which needs to be translated to
a binary value is a mystery.

A bit of experimentation shows that you can turn on the NumLock latch during
login by changing the setting of InitialKeyboardIndicators from 2147483648
to 2147483650 (which is 0x80000002) in the HKU\.Default\Control
Panel\Keyboard key. (Just edit the final "48" to "50".)

I don't know the significance of the leading one-bit so I suggest not
disturbing it.

As for the quotes, you'll need them if you change the setting via a script,
but not if you directly edit the setting using RegEdit.

ObWarningOfDireConsequences: The Registry Editor is an extremely dangerous
tool, without an UNDO option, and with immediate commit of any changes you
make. Be very certain that you know what you want to change, and that
you've actually told the editor to make that change, before you click the OK
button. An "OOPS!" moment might be a non-event, it might immediately crash
the system, or it might set up a time bomb that goes off at some future time
(usually when you are working on irreplacable data...).

And be wary about believing anything you are told about changes to the
Registry (or any other part of your system) that you receive from someone
who you have no affirmative reason to trust -- me, for example, since I
doubt that you have any idea who I am or what my credentials might be. If
you have a system that you can afford to lose you might want to try a change
on it before applying it to your production system.

Joe Morris

 

[cvp]

The number "2147483648" is the decimal equivalent of 0x80000000.

...<snip> ...
I don't know the significance of the leading one-bit so I suggest not
disturbing it.

The leading bit is VERY significant. It means "leave the numlock (and other)
state(s) alone".
"0" means "set the states off".
XP had the latter default; Vista has the former.
It's an important distinction to me since my motherboard bios (supermicro)
has no capability to set the numlock status.

 

[Joe Morris]

The leading bit is VERY significant. It means "leave the numlock (and
other) state(s) alone".
"0" means "set the states off".
XP had the latter default; Vista has the former.
It's an important distinction to me since my motherboard bios (supermicro)
has no capability to set the numlock status.

h'mmm...where was this documented? After reading your note I verified that
it works as you described; here's the report matrix:


BIOS regedit NumLock
setting (hex eq.) at login

off 80000002 on
off 80000000 off
off 2 on
off 0 off

on 80000002 on
on 80000000 on
on 2 on
on 0 off

So...with the high bit not set, the '2' value in the low byte (let's not get
sidetracked into a discussion of byte order...) controls the NumLock setting
at login. With the high bit set, NumLock will be on if *either* the BIOS
setting establishes that condition *or* if the low '2' value is set. (Test
environment was Vista Enterprise under VMWare Workstation v6.)

Reminder for anyone planning to use this info: the Registry setting
(HKU\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard[InitialKeyboardIndicators] is a REG_SZ
(text string) data item, and is for this particular item is a string of
decimal digits. Hex 80000000 is entered as 2147483648; hex 80000002 is
entered as 2147483650.

Thanks for the info.

Joe Morris

 

[cvp]

Joe,

Where is it documented?

Right here in this newsgroup! < g >

I had searched for info to try to derive the difference in operation between
XP and Vista but couldn't find anything. So... after a little trial and
error (maybe it sounds more scientific if I call it a heuristic approach) I
stumbled on to the answer.

The leading bit is VERY significant. It means "leave the numlock (and
other) state(s) alone".
"0" means "set the states off".
XP had the latter default; Vista has the former.
It's an important distinction to me since my motherboard bios
(supermicro) has no capability to set the numlock status.

h'mmm...where was this documented? After reading your note I verified
that it works as you described; here's the report matrix:


BIOS regedit NumLock
setting (hex eq.) at login

off 80000002 on
off 80000000 off
off 2 on
off 0 off

on 80000002 on
on 80000000 on
on 2 on
on 0 off

So...with the high bit not set, the '2' value in the low byte (let's not
get sidetracked into a discussion of byte order...) controls the NumLock
setting at login. With the high bit set, NumLock will be on if *either*
the BIOS setting establishes that condition *or* if the low '2' value is
set. (Test environment was Vista Enterprise under VMWare Workstation v6.)

Reminder for anyone planning to use this info: the Registry setting
(HKU\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard[InitialKeyboardIndicators] is a
REG_SZ (text string) data item, and is for this particular item is a
string of decimal digits. Hex 80000000 is entered as 2147483648; hex
80000002 is entered as 2147483650.

Thanks for the info.

Joe Morris