Q. How can I permanently (for some value of ‘permanently’) disable the num lock key?
Here is a link to a microsoft community support page with a number of links to solutions for you problem.
Shit. Same question, just for F1 (Help).
That drives me fucking nuts. Going to look at the solutions now.
Pull the key off the keyboard and stick in a drawer.
The you’ll keep tapping the stub. Which is sharp. And dropping crumbs and crap inside your keyboard through the gaping hole the key cap normally plugs up.
Keycaps on laptops are not nearly as removable as those of the original PC Model M keyboard.
This gave five links to basically the same solution. It’s simple enough. You have to make a change to a setting in the registry. Unfortunately it doesn’t work when I make the change and when I reboot it goes back to the old value.
This, however, does work.
This page has a method that requires some cut-n-paste and messing with extensions and permissions but doesn’t require downloading anything.
It also has the “download and open a zip file” option if you prefer that instead.
There’s a local group policy setting that is causing the registry to automatically “repair” itself on reboot.
And there is probably something that will break if I reset that policy. Still, why doesn’t it work when I change the setting in the first place?
Probably requires refreshing the registry, which rebooting does, but it also triggers the automatic “repair.” Try changing the registry again but instead of rebooting, open the Task Manager and just restart Windows Explorer.
The policy can be switched off, but there’s legit computer-bricking potential in doing it. Probably not worth it.
I just did that. The value remained but it still doesn’t work. Oh well, I appreciate your help.
Are any of the given solutions actual solutions to the question? I ask because I went through this with my previous laptop. Instead of showing how to disable the key, they showed howto tell the computer to default to num lock being off after a reboot, which doesn’t help anything.
In any case, I ended up following the advice I got in the thread (I’m nearly positive) I started a few years ago and just pried the button off. I still bumped it, but not nearly as often. I haven’t done it on my new laptop yet*. At least this computer shows something on the screen for a few seconds when it’s turned on or off (same with caps lock), so I know I bumped it and can fix it right away.
After using an adding machine constantly, every day, for the last 20+ years, I use my number pad a lot.
*Also, this num lock key has a little on/off light seemingly built into it. I don’t yet know if that’ll make prying it off a problem.
It’s not clear in the first couple of links but you are supposed to change the value to 1. Changing it to 0 or 2 makes it either initialize to ON or OFF (I don’t recall which is which). Changing it to 1 disables it entirely.
The key on my laptop doesn’t have a lighted indicator which is what’s frustrating. If it had the light, it wouldn’t be nearly as frustrating.
It may depend on your laptop’s manufacturer, but look into a way to do it in BIOS…if it’s possible, I’d think it should be an easy fix, at least for me it was (see below). Though, as a disclaimer…whenever messing around with BIOS, be very careful and be sure you know what you are doing. It is always best to contact the manufacturer to know for sure if it’s enabled to change what you’re looking to change, and then how to do it properly, etc.
My experience was that I had to swap the Fn and Ctrl keys on my laptop, and I did that in BIOS. I had gotten a used Lenovo laptop, and the Ctrl key was 2nd in from the bottom left instead on the very left end of that row. Drove me nuts, as I use Ctrl all the time in my art programs, and I kept hitting the Fn key. The Ctrl button is smaller (it still is the Fn key but works as Ctrl), but I’m happier with it on the end.
How about glue?
I used to have a keyboard where I’d often whack Caps Lock by accident. But it was also a key I used a lot legitimately. So a full disable wasn’t what I wanted.
The solution I came up with was to use a built-in Windows accessibility feature called “toggle keys” to make a noise each time I hit Caps Lock. If it was deliberate, the noise wasn’t too intrusive. But if it was inadvertent, the noise would stop ME BEFORE I’D TYPED A WHOLE SENTENCE OR TWO OF ALLCAPS BEFORE LOOKING BACK AT THE SCREEN TO NOTICE MY MISTAKE.
Anyhow, from Windows Settings go to the “Ease of Access” category, then scroll down to the “Interaction” section and choose the “Keyboard” option. In there, turn on “Use Toggle Keys”.
It might not be a perfect fix, but it’s easy to try.
Thanks. I was easily able to get it to work but I normally have my volume off for other reasons. For anyone else, it’s very easy to try.
I would suggest installing Microsoft PowerToys and then using the Keyboard mapper. You can map Num Lock to, say Right Shift. I tested that, and it worked for me–Num Lock was disabled.
YES! Thank you so much. That was super easy.