PC: Global Keyboard Assignment Change?

Factual Questions
1

Hi- I checked the Computer Question sticky and I can’t seem to google what I need here, so:

I just got a new laptop (Thinkpad t60 widescreen with XP, lovely) and I like everything about it except a very odd key placement design in the lower left of the on-board keyboard.

There is a Fn key just to the left of the **Ctrl ** key, just squatting there like an uninvited interloper, and my keyboard shortcuts are now all over the place, since I normally find the Ctrl key by touch relative to the shift key and the entire keyboard. It’s very annoying.

Posited: I’d like to swap the **Ctrl ** key for the Fn key throughout the OS, and for all applications. Is there a way to do this in XP without buying a keyboard mapping utility?

Thanks in advance.

2

Found a fantastic freeware program called KeyTweak, which does this logically, efficiently, and with a very elegant “teaching” process. This program edits the Windows registry assignments for keys.

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

In limited use this is working fine.

3

But it does not solve my problem :slight_smile:

Apparently the Fn key can’t be remapped because it does not hit the registry scancodes (which makes sense now that I think about it).

Last gasp- can anyone help with this? I guess I’ll have to grin and bear it.

4

I’m sure it’s possible. Do you have a screwdriver and a soldering iron?

5

Nice. I was hoping to avoid opening up my new laptop. I use the ctrl key VERY frequently though, so I’m getting close.

6

Sorry, I know of a program that’s supposed to be able to do it for Macintosh OS X (from what I read in a Macintosh magazine), but that obviously won’t help you.
I notice though that the developer has an e-mail address listed, maybe he would have a tip for you.
http://doublecommand.sourceforge.net/

7

Just chipping in to say that my parents laptop has this, and it drives me up the wall.

Do the people who design these things ever actually use computers themselves!?

8

The issue appears to be that the keyboard mapping for Fn exists outside the OS- it essentially changes the output of the function target keys before windows ever sees it. So unless I can alter the keyboard driver or change the mechanical connections between the keys and their circuitry, I am SOL. And I don’t think I’m enough of a badass to attempt either of those on my own.