What to do when you don't
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September 29, 2006
Locking Up the Windows Key
Dear Larry,
I’m always opening the Start Menu accidentally by hitting
the Windows key when I mean to hit the Ctrl key. Is there a way to make the
Windows key non-functional, short of breaking it?
R. S.
Dear R. S.,
Please don’t break your keyboard! There is an easier way.
Well, maybe not easier, but certainly less damaging!
The purpose of the Windows key is exactly as you’ve described
it: It’s a shortcut to clicking the Start button. I can see how you might find
this key a nuisance. If you carefully follow the procedure below, you’ll be able
to disable the Windows keys altogether. (There are ways to disable one key
versus the other, but let’s keep things simple.)
1. First, click Start, Run, then type REGEDIT in the box, and
click OK.
2. Before doing anything else, press the Left Arrow key on
your keyboard 15 times.
3. Near the top left corner of your screen, you should see the
words My Computer. Click the plus sign to the left of these words.
4. Now click the plus sign to the left of the word
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
5. Next click the plus sign to the left of the word SYSTEM.
6. Click the plus sign to the left of the word
CurrentControlSet.
7. Click the plus sign to the left of the word Control.
8. In the long alphabetized list, click on the words Keyboard
Layout (not Keyboard Layouts).
9. Click on Edit in the menu bar, then click New, Binary
Value. Immediately type in the words “Scancode Map” (without the quotes), and
press the Enter key.
10. You should now see the words Scancode Map on the right
side of your screen. Double-click on these words now.
11. A new window should appear containing four zeroes in a row
(0000). Press the zero key on your keyboard 16 times exactly. This should cause
8 pairs of zeroes to appear to the right of the 0000.
12. Below the 0000, you should now see the numbers 0008 with
nothing to the right. Type 03 and then press the zero key 10 times exactly.
Next, press 5 B E 0. If you did everything correctly, you should see the
characters 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 to the right of 0008 (plus some periods and
other characters).
13. Last row! Below the 0008, you should see the numbers 0010
with nothing to the right. Press the zero key four times (0 0 0 0), then press 5
C E 0, and press the zero key eight times. You should see the characters 00 00
5C E0 00 00 00 00 appear in the third row.
14. With nothing to the right of 0018 in the fourth row, click
OK. Close the program and restart your computer. Your Windows keys should now be
dead!
15. If you ever want to bring your Windows key back to life,
repeat steps 1-9, right-click on the words Scancode Map, then click Delete, and
confirm by clicking Yes.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
