# What's the most useless key on the keyboard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 7, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717 "2006-05-07T01:31:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/41 "2006-05-07T16:19:34Z")
The Windows keys, if you have them, are definitely the most annoying keys. I’ve loaded up on Windows-key-free keyboards; hopefully I’m set for life. I also find the entire numpad completely useless. I never use it. I guess it comes from learning to type on an actual typewriter. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/42 "2006-05-07T16:29:52Z")
My least-used key is probably the Scroll Lock key. Don’t think I’ve ever touched it. There are also three keys at the top of my keyboard - one has a light bulb, one is a clock, one is “zzz”. I don’t even know what they do, so I just pretend they’re not there. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/43 "2006-05-07T16:40:30Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > I’m pretty sure I’ve never once used the ‘Scroll Lock’ or ‘Pause/Break’ keys for anything. > > Exactly. Not only have I never used them, I haven’t succeeded in finding out whether they have any use. :rolleyes: The Scroll Lock key turns the little light on and off. 😃 My vote goes to the Numlock key. Is there ever any situation where you want the numlock off, as long as you have a full-sized keyboard? At least the other keys don’t impair the function of your keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/44 "2006-05-07T17:19:15Z")
Scroll Lock and Print Scrn are often used as latches for KVMs (my current one uses Scroll Lock). The key I use least is the Windows Menu key - the one between Alt Gr and Ctrl, not the one which brings up the Start Menu. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/45 "2006-05-07T17:46:51Z")
> [@Phantom Dennis](#): > > Nah, you have to us the “fn” key to get those. As far as I can tell, the numlock does absolutely nothing on this laptop, aside from existing. Does numlock not then toggle the pseudo-number pad into the cursor key role? ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/46 "2006-05-07T17:58:38Z")
The freaking pound (as in, British money, not #) key that is apparently standard on keyboards over on this side of the Atlantic. Because they for some reason switched it all around so that it’s over the 2, so that the @ is someplace else, and enter is tall and skinny instead of long and wide, and there’s just no reason for that. ---
**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/47 "2006-05-07T18:05:18Z")
Not [this one](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v340/if6was9/NEWKEY02.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/48 "2006-05-07T19:02:59Z")
> [@dwalin](#): > > I’ve used everything except the scroll lock, Print Screen/Sys Rq (whatever that is), and the key on the bottom that looks like a cursor highlighting a line of text on a page. I don’t even know what that one is, let alone what it does. (I’m also not sure whether there’s a real distinction between the two.) I believe the second button to which you’re referring is the same one **Mbossa** mentioned - it brings up the context menu (the same one you get when you right-click your mouse in Windows). As **Mbossa** said, “This would only be useful if I suddenly lost my right mouse button.” Given the uses others have mentioned for the keys I don’t use myself, I’m hesitant to offer any new ones - except that I don’t use the function keys much at all at home. At the office, we still use applications that use almost all the function keys, as well as Pause/Break. I still don’t use that Context Menu key at all, though. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/49 "2006-05-07T19:12:44Z")
Oh, I’ve thought of another. My dad got this newangled(at the time) keyboard for his system in the early 90s. It had this horrible misfeature called the “Program Macro” key. You could use it to program macros into your keyboard and have them recalled later(so with the touch of one button, the keyboard could issue Ctrl-S Ctrl-Q, for example). It sounds great in theory, but in practise the keyboard acts as if it’s possessed at random intervals. My mom has the keyboard now and she must have accidently entered a macro while she was typing a letter. Whenever she accidently activated the macro all of this wonderful text will suddenly fill the screen. The keyboard had an even worse misfeature called the Remap key. You could use it to switch the meanings of any two keys on the keyboard. Can you imagine how confusing that could be? Even worse, to reset the keyboard you had to hold the Ctrl, Alt and “Program Macro” keys at the same time. You were out of luck, though, if someone had remapped the Ctrl or Alt keys… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/50 "2006-05-07T19:27:35Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > :rolleyes: > The Scroll Lock key turns the little light on and off. > > 😃 > My vote goes to the Numlock key. Is there ever any situation where you want the numlock off, as long as you have a full-sized keyboard? At least the other keys don’t impair the function of your keyboard. There are a few times, mostly in older games, where the full pad is useful. Instead of having to hit two keys, up and left, to go to the upper left, you can hit just one key, the 7/Home key on the number pad. Try it sometime in NetHack and see how many moves you save over time learning to go diagonally. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/51 "2006-05-07T19:33:59Z")
On a regular keyboard, I use the number pad all the time. I can touch type pretty well, but never really got the number row down without looking. I can however, ten-key. So the number pad is much faster for some things. Plus, I seem to recall playing Tetris was much easier assigning the left, right, up, down, rotate & drop keys to the number pad. ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/52 "2006-05-07T19:56:07Z")
> [@Miss Purl McKnittington](#): > > I can’t believe all you people use the Insert key for something besides accidentally hitting it while reaching for delete, and then losing an entire paragraph of your term paper because you’re so into typing. Thank heavens for undo. > > Or maybe that’s just me. I use it pretty often, I am bad about changinf my mind on how a paragraph is worded and write over it. Really I am just too lazy to erase what is already there. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/53 "2006-05-07T20:13:55Z")
> [@](#): > > I can’t believe all you people use the Insert key for something besides accidentally hitting it while reaching for delete, and then losing an entire paragraph of your term paper because you’re so into typing. Thank heavens for undo. Yes please defend the existance of the insert key to me - what use does it have. Don’t get me wrong, insert is good, it is it’s opposite evil twin ‘typeover’ which has no justifiable use for a civilized society, it only brings grief and destruction to all it touches. By far the most useless key, and the most evil. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2006, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/54 "2006-05-07T20:39:31Z")
The Windows key, though I’m tempted to snark that it’s merely as useless as Windows itself is. 😉 I used to think the scroll lock key was even more useless, but ever since I started using two PCs and a KVM switch that uses Scroll Lock to toggle systems, it lost the crown. ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/55 "2006-05-08T00:46:32Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SysRq), “Introduced by IBM with the PC/AT, it was intended to be available as a special key to directly invoke low-level operating system functions with no possibility of conflicting with any existing software.” Also, “Under DOS, malfunctioning foreground software could make the entire computer unresponsive. Third-party TSRs existed that used SysRq to provide a form of “panic button” to terminate the program and return you to the DOS command prompt.” However, as you point out, it’s currently obsolete. > > Seeing as how it actually doesn’t do anything, were it not for the fact that it shares the sometimes useful ‘Print Scrn’ button (which it didn’t always), ‘SysRq’ would certainly qualify as the most useless key on the keyboard. As it stands, I still vote for ‘Scroll Lock’. SysRq is actually used by Linux for certain functions. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/56 "2006-05-08T01:13:34Z")
> [@What Exit?](#): > > The Scroll lock is my most useless key. > The Windows key is very useful. > Windows E: Opens Windows Explorer > Windows Break: Pulls up the System properties, I’m work in IT an use this all the time. > Windows D: Reveal Desktop: Minimizes all windows to gain access to the desk top. > Windows R: Bring up the Run command > etc. Ditto that; immensely useful every day - can’t believe anyone would find it useless (unless they’re not running Windows, of course). Scroll Lock is now often used for KVM switches - where you have one mouse, keyboard and screen for two or more computers; typically you hith it twice in fairly quick succession, then hit a number corresponding with the machine you wish to view/control. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/57 "2006-05-08T02:42:54Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > I use the windows key a lot. In addition to bringing up the Start menu, it can be used in conjunction with other keys (like CTRL and ALT). Here are the things I use it for: > > [ul] > [li]Windows+M: minimize all (useful for those of you who surf a work who shouldn’t and the boss suddenly pops into your cubicle).[/li][li]Windows+F: Brings up the “Find” window when looking for files.[/li][li]Windows+R: Brings up the “Run…” bos, which I use on occasion.[/li][/ul] As far as I can tell, the Windows key just serves as a shortcut for bringing up the “Start…” menu. It’s the same as if you clicked the Start button and then typed whatever key you mention. For example, if I try Windows+E, I get the start menu up and the row for “Effective File Search” highlighted, and I still have to click or hit Enter for it to kick off. It seems to me then that there’s really no point to it at all; if you’re using Windows you definitely have and routinely use a mouse, and the Start button is always there one click away (unless your mouse dies). All the Windows key ever generally does to me is irritate me when I inadvertently double-key the Windows key while hitting the (left) Ctrl key while using the Emacs editor (my primary editor for programming). At least once I have gone to the trouble of remapping it to function identically to the Ctrl key. As mentioned by others, the seemingly esoteric keys for the tilde/backtick and pipe/backslash characters are crucial for UNIX shell scripting or Perl programming. Same goes for curly-brace and hard-bracket keys {[like this]}, though of course users of this board are familiar with needing the hard bracket keys to do the markups for **boldfacing text** and whatnot. **Scroll Lock** is pretty useless now. I used to use it many years ago in terminal emulation to connect to a VM/CMS mainframe host. And while I can see the point about the Insert key, I do frequently use Shift+Delete and Shift+Insert to cut and paste (instead of to copy and paste) text around. **Pause/Break** is a close second; I can’t remember the last time I’ve used that key. I have found it useful once or twice in the past to freeze my computer’s startup diagnostics on startup to figure out hardware problems (i.e., when the BIOS error messages would otherwise scroll up past the screen on booting up and then get cleared when Windows started up). All in all, I can say I have rarely or long ago actually needed to use the Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys (I also often use Ctrl+PrintScr to capure the current window and Ctrl+Shift+PrintScr to capture the entire desktop). And despite my complaints, I have actually found the Windows key useful exactly twice, when using a computer with a wireless mouse that stopped responding (despite fiddling with the “connect” buttons on the transmitter and mouse) and using the key to bring up the “Start” menu to be able to gracefully reboot the computer (which worked in terms of getting the mouse to respond again). No, I agree that the most useless key on a Windows keyboard is the one that’s the mirror image to the Windows key on the right side… The one that shows a mouse highlighting a menu. As far as I can tell, this just acts as a shortcut to a right-mouse-click menu operation in some editors/programs, and in others (such as the panel I am using right now on the SDMB) it does nothing at all. For that matter I never, ever use the right-side Ctrl key either, but that’s probably because I’m left-handed and will use the left-side Ctrl key even for keying Ctrl-L or Ctrl-P key combinations. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/58 "2006-05-08T02:48:29Z")
Many computer games that take up the whole screen have no way to minimize themselves – either you quit the game and go back to the desktop or you just keep playing. With the ‘windows’ key, I can just press that and briefly check mail for my dad or the time or whatever; this is particularly helpful in games like Diablo 2, where you save you progress in terms of experience and items and stuff, but if you had a boss down to 2 hp and saved and exited, you just had to go back out and do it all over again. (Of course, the game won’t necessarily pause, but you take what you can get…) I remember one time I was nearly dead in Diablo 2 and I pressed Esc, which takes you to the menu with the continue/exit-and-save/options stuff – but doesn’t actually stop the action, so I was killed. ---
**Author:** ![ice1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ice1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ice1000)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/59 "2006-05-08T03:55:04Z")
Pause/Break is great for stopping an Excel macro while it is running. Scroll Lock is also good in Excel if you want to move around the worksheet without moving the active cell from its current location. I have never used F11 or F12. Shoot…as soon as I wrote that, I pressed F11. It actually does something in Firefox! Removes title bar and taskbar. F12 however does nothing. F12! Useless. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717/60 "2006-05-08T04:57:42Z")
For me, the tilde key is very useful: it toggles the keyboard between English and Japanese. The most useless keys? I don’t think the ‘Print Screen / Scroll Lock / Pause|Break’ trio has ever been used on my computer. The most anti-useful keys, as in the ones that actually make me less productive? Insert and Caps Lock. I don’t think I have ever intentionally used overwrite mode, but I’ve accidentally typed over text hundreds of times. Similarly, I’ve never had to type so much in upper case that it was worthwhile to use Caps Lock instead of Shift. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-useless-key-on-the-keyboard/355717.md?page=4)