At work I have a Windows PC. I don't have much personal experience with Windows which is why I am asking.
I want to remap the caps lock key to function as a control key. Ideally, on a per-user basis as sometimes other people use the workstation and I don't want to confuse them.
-
Was able to install Auto Hot Key. A test script worked. However I couldn't find working instructions about how to do this specific remapping. Example scripts I found seem to have some conflict between v1 and v2 of AH.
-
I don't have admin access however I could probably ask for something, but it would have to work immediately without a lot of fooling around. I will not be granted admin access to try a bunch of things til I find something that works.
What's the best way?
11 Comments
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
The Microsoft PowerToys Keyboard Manager tool should allow you to do this.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/keyboard-manager
You will probably need admin access to install it, however.
Edit: Actually, apparently you don't? I just installed it on my work PC here, and did not get any UAC prompts or anything. It can indeed reassign your caps lock key -- I just tested this, and it works. (I mapped it to left ctrl.)
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y
I tried installing Power Toys a while ago but the version of windows is too old to support it.
somnuz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y
Thanks I will do this!
Does this first line mean anything? I didn't install anything except the basic AH package:
somnuz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y
ah OK thanks!
I will try this when I am at my workstation.
glimse@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Not at my PC to confirm this https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-do-i-reassign-hot-keys-for-my-keyboard-703f897c-ad72-db5d-8e64-0928873d712f#
There is (or used to be) a Power Tools utility for it, too
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y
Oh sweet if there was a native windows option that would be best.
Tho I feel like I might have tried this and it didn't work somehow. I will try again when at my workstation.
somnuz@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 2y
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y
somnuz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 2y
That's interesting I didn't know that. I used to share workstations with someone from indonesia who had what seemed like very strange habits of employing caps lock constantly. I assumed it was just a personal weirdsy but maybe it was due to use of caps lock in another linguistic context.
However, I know for a fact that it doesn't do anything I need. I've had it remapped for a couple years on personal machine without issues.
Thanks for telling me though, because I will be sure not to fallback to the registry or another method that changes behavior system-wide. Would not want to prevent anyone else from using the device.
somnuz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
I don't see how it would be a problem unless you reassigned it while caps lock was enabled, in which case you would have to reboot (or temporarily revert your remap) to turn it off.
I can think of precious little software that actually requires caps lock for anything, and otherwise for normal typist tasks you can just use shift. I never use caps lock for anything, personally. (Ditto with num lock. My keyboard has a full number pad and a full set of arrow/insert keys. There is no reason for my number pad to ever not be a number pad.)
somnuz@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
imaradio@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 2y
At home, once in a while caps lock turns itself on somehow. I have a shell alias to fix the problem:
Should this happen at work I was thinking to either temporarily disable the application that is doing the remapping, or use some sort of onscreen keyboard to inactivate the caps lock.
door_hater@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
I use SharpKeys for that
https://github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys