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Miscellaneous Software

Disable the Windows Key, Make a Function Key Start the Calculator, and More

SUMMARY: Disable problem keys and remap unused keys to potentially useful alternatives with this Windows freeware utility.

When playing a game in full-screen, wish you could disable the Windows key so the "Start" menu does not appear? Does your pinkie finger accidentally hit "Caps Lock" when reaching for the letter "A", causing ALL WORDS TO APPEAR CAPITALIZED? Are you a laptop user that wishes you could have dedicated buttons to open your home page, pull up a calculator, and other functions that those with multimedia keyboards have?

KeyTweak, a free keyboard remapper for Windows NT and above, may help. With this utility you can completely disable most keys (the "Fn" key found on most laptops cannot be disabled), or you can remap keys, allowing you to remap unused function keys to features such as:

Remapping function keys with KeyTweak

* Calculator
* Eject
* Email
* Macintosh Keypad =
* Media Select
* Mute
* My Computer
* Next Track
* Play / Pause
* Power Off
* Search
* Sleep
* Stop
* Volume Down
* Volume Up
* WWW Back
* WWW Favorites
* WWW Forward
* WWW Home
* WWW Refresh
* WWW Stop

Note that if you have a multimedia keyboard, it may come with some keys that cannot be remapped by this utility such as Messenger, My Documents, or My Pictures buttons.

KeyTweak can be downloaded at the following address:

* KeyTweak: http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

This tip was written regarding KeyTweak v2.3.0 running on a Windows XP machine. Features, information, and screenshots for other versions / operating systems may vary.