Wireless KB - no Numlock indicator

[Terry Pinnell]

For my new PC I chose a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. A poor
choice now that I realise it obviously has no Numlock LED indicator
due to the battery limitation.

I've just installed MS Flight Simulator, a birthday present from my
son. Its flying controls vary significantly depending on whether
Numlock is enabled or not. Anyone know of a simple way I can access
the Numlock status please? I could then write a macro to toggle a
small message window. Or maybe there's a freeware program that does
this simple job? That would be marginally preferable to pressing
Numlock to see what happens to my aircraft ;-)

 

[Keith W]

For my new PC I chose a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. A poor
choice now that I realise it obviously has no Numlock LED indicator
due to the battery limitation.

I've just installed MS Flight Simulator, a birthday present from my
son. Its flying controls vary significantly depending on whether
Numlock is enabled or not. Anyone know of a simple way I can access
the Numlock status please? I could then write a macro to toggle a
small message window. Or maybe there's a freeware program that does
this simple job? That would be marginally preferable to pressing
Numlock to see what happens to my aircraft ;-)

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

For my new PC I chose a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. A poor
choice now that I realise it obviously has no Numlock LED indicator
due to the battery limitation.

I've just installed MS Flight Simulator, a birthday present from my
son. Its flying controls vary significantly depending on whether
Numlock is enabled or not. Anyone know of a simple way I can access
the Numlock status please? I could then write a macro to toggle a
small message window. Or maybe there's a freeware program that does
this simple job? That would be marginally preferable to pressing
Numlock to see what happens to my aircraft ;-)

I have not tried this program but here is a link to a freeware program that
puts indicators in the system tray, next to the clock, that might help you
out. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/systrayindicator.html

 

[badgolferman]

Did you install the Logitech Setpoint drivers? An on screen message
is displayed when Capslock, Numlock, F mode, etc are toggled. Also,
MSFS is run with Numlock off, so you could set the BIOS to make
that the default.

This is exactly the way my Microsoft wireless keyboard operates. There
is an onscreen display the comes on momentarily to show the CAPS LOCK
on NUM LOCK has been depressed. I haven't changed the batteries in the
keyboard or mouse since I bought the set, been more than 6 months. My
only gripe is there is no way to enter the BIOS or SAFE MODE without a
wired keyboard.

 

[Bob]

Have you tried using the F Lock key (top RH of keyboard) to access all the
F1 to F12 functions?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I have not tried this program but here is a link to a freeware program that
puts indicators in the system tray, next to the clock, that might help you
out. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/systrayindicator.html

Exactly what I wanted, thank you!

(At present, directly after installation, all 3 indicators - Num Lock,
Caps Lock and Scroll Lock - are together in System Tray, at the left
of the existing ones. That's ideal, so hope that arrangement survives
reboots.)

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Did you install the Logitech Setpoint drivers? An on screen message
is displayed when Capslock, Numlock, F mode, etc are toggled. Also,
MSFS is run with Numlock off, so you could set the BIOS to make
that the default.

Guess I didn't then, as I get no such messages. But the tool suggested
by GlowingBlueMist does the job even better.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Can your macro do this on an overlay as the game is using?
If not it would seem likely the game screen would minimize
destroying the playability.

Therefore I suspect it would have to be an indicator inbuilt
to the game code, and that the easiest solution would be
having a second keyboard around for gaming. Wired keyboards
also have less lag making game control more responsive,
though I suspect it matters less on Flight Simulator than it
might on some fast(er) paced games.

Before seeing GlowingBlueMist's suggestion and installing that handy
tool I actually got stuck in and wrote the macro, which works fine. On
using a hotkey combination (had to look hard for one still unused by
FSX!) it pops up a small message window headed 'NUMLOCK Status'
containing either 'ON' or 'OFF', and I then hit Enter (or click OK) to
close it. That appears on top of whatever FSX window is active.

I found it quite helpful, especially as I'm a raw FSX beginner (and
have also installed an add-on called DBS Walk And Follow which also
makes use of NumPad, but quite differently to FSX!), but it's now
redundant of course. It's far better to see the status at a glance at
any time. Could have used that couple of hours yesterday learning to
fly instead ;-)

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

Exactly what I wanted, thank you!

(At present, directly after installation, all 3 indicators - Num Lock,
Caps Lock and Scroll Lock - are together in System Tray, at the left
of the existing ones. That's ideal, so hope that arrangement survives
reboots.)

If the program needs to be started each time you reboot and it is a .COM or
..EXE program you can put a shortcut to it in:

"C:\Documents and Settings\(your user account name)\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup" folder and it will be run every time your computer
gets rebooted. This will activate the program for just this user profile.

If you want it to be run regardless of which user logs into the system you
would put it in the startup folder of the "C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" folder.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

If the program needs to be started each time you reboot and it is a .COM or
.EXE program you can put a shortcut to it in:

"C:\Documents and Settings\(your user account name)\Start
Menu\Programs\Startup" folder and it will be run every time your computer
gets rebooted. This will activate the program for just this user profile.

If you want it to be run regardless of which user logs into the system you
would put it in the startup folder of the "C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" folder.

Thanks. It's odd. In the settings for Systray Indicator I had
yesterday enabled 'Launch Systray Indicator at Windows startup'. This
morning my PC had rebooted automatically (to complete a Windows
Update) but the 3 tray icons were not displayed. (I have re-displayed
them by re-starting Systray Indicator.)

The option is still enabled, but it has not placed an entry in either
of the Startup folders. Nor can I see it in Autoruns. I've emailed the
author, as that seems a minr bug. I'll add it to Startup (all) myself.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Have you tried "NumCapsScroll Indicator"

http://www.vasileios.gr/freesoft/num_caps_scroll.htm

What I like most is that it's a single icon (instead of three) in the
systray .

Great, thanks Kendall, that's even better. Duly installed, replacing
SystemTray Indicator.

 

[H-Man]

For my new PC I chose a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. A poor
choice now that I realise it obviously has no Numlock LED indicator
due to the battery limitation.

I've just installed MS Flight Simulator, a birthday present from my
son. Its flying controls vary significantly depending on whether
Numlock is enabled or not. Anyone know of a simple way I can access
the Numlock status please? I could then write a macro to toggle a
small message window. Or maybe there's a freeware program that does
this simple job? That would be marginally preferable to pressing
Numlock to see what happens to my aircraft ;-)

I had the same problem, only with the capslock. We are using an
accounting/business package that requires we use caps for everything. Don't
ask, it's a PITA but the package works really well. I wrote a program that
allows one to turn caps on or off as is required. We start our program from
a batch file then that sets the key state first and then calls the program,
and turns caps off on exit.

If you think this would be helpful I could reprogram for NumLock, it
wouldn't be too terribly difficult to do. This way you'd be sure the
NumLock is set before the program starts, should be transparent to you
then. Let me know if this is something you'd like and I'll work it up as
soon as I can.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

I had the same problem, only with the capslock. We are using an
accounting/business package that requires we use caps for everything. Don't
ask, it's a PITA but the package works really well. I wrote a program that
allows one to turn caps on or off as is required. We start our program from
a batch file then that sets the key state first and then calls the program,
and turns caps off on exit.

If you think this would be helpful I could reprogram for NumLock, it
wouldn't be too terribly difficult to do. This way you'd be sure the
NumLock is set before the program starts, should be transparent to you
then. Let me know if this is something you'd like and I'll work it up as
soon as I can.

Thanks H-Man, appreciate the kind offer. You probably missed K3's
suggestion and my reply. That neat little program is doing the job
sweetly here.

 

[badgolferman]

No board should need a wired keyboard for bios or safe mode.
See if there is a USB keyboard setting in the bios, and if
not you should be able to use a wireless PS2 (or some USB
keyboards can use a PS2-USB adapter).

Uhh, how do I get in the BIOS with my keyboard now?

 

[H-Man]

Thanks H-Man, appreciate the kind offer. You probably missed K3's
suggestion and my reply. That neat little program is doing the job
sweetly here.

Okay, no sweat.

I modified the program I had done earlier to cover the num lock and scroll
lock keys anyway. It started out as a simple play exercise.

If you started the Flight Simulator with a batch file or a cmd script, you
could guarantee that the NUMLOCK was definitely off when you started the
program, you would not have to make the adjustment. Either way, if you have
a solution that works for you, that is the main thing.

Cheers, have a great weekend.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

You're Welcome!

Hmm, second thoughts! While looking into something else I noticed just
now that some 20% of the entries in ProcMon were:
C:\Program Files\Vasilios Applications\NumCapsScroll
Indicator\Data.ini
Hundreds of them.

I then checked XP Task Mgr and found that the
NumCapsScrollIndicator.exe process was responsible for more I/O than
all other processes except Explorer and my AVG virus/scanning program!
The cumulative CPU usage was 5th highest (in a list of 51).

So something looks very screwy there. I'll try emailing the author.
Reckon I'll go back to SystemTray Indicator, despite the disadvantage
of 3 icons. (My email to its author at (e-mail address removed) bounced back
as invalid BTW.)