Solved Disable NumLock key to prevent accidental turn off

[kiwichick]

Hi there, I have an Acer Aspire 5741 which has a number keypad. It also has a Num Lock key that I am constantly hitting by mistake and turning off my keypad (while going for the Del, Home, or Backspace keys, all of which are smaller than the NumLock key. Go figure). Is there a way to disable the NumLock key but not disable the keypad, or have the keypad permanently 'on' regardless of hitting the NumLock key? Cheers.

 

[Petey7]

Not 100% sure it will work in 7 but there is software you can install that will do it for you.

Set or Unset NUM LOCK in Windows Freeware

EDIT: Never mind. Decided to try it myself and it won't run. I'll play around with it a bit and look for more options as well.

 

[richc46]

Welcome

First, let me make it quite clear that I do not know if this will work and second I do not believe in hacking the registry. If you must, however, make a system restore point and back up the registry
Toggle Keys at Startup - Vista Forums

 

[Petey7]

Okay, found a tutorial on how-to-geek. You should be fine doing what it says as long as you read the instructions carefully. You do need to do some registry tweaking for this.

Caps Lock Key - Enable or Disable

and

Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista - How-To Geek

 

[Petey7]

richc, after trying to see if your fix would be easier, it seems that the link you provided is for XP only. Also, I decided to take a look at the registry on my dads XP computer. 2 is the default number, so the fix does not seem like it would work.

 

[richc46]

I said that up front, I did not mislead.

 

[kiwichick]

Hi guys, thanks for such quick responses. I'll check out your link Petey7 and get back to you.

 

[kiwichick]

Hi Petey7, I checked out "Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista" but it's all about killing Caps Lock and there isn't really anything there about Num Lock, except for someone else wanting the same thing as me I may have missed something of course so if I'm wrong please point me in the right direction. Cheers.

 

[Bill2]

An easier way is to see if Sharpkeys lets you do it.

RandyRants: SharpKeys 2.1.1

or Keytweak.

Download KeyTweak - Freeware Software - Tucows

 

[Petey7]

Sorry, that was due to a lack of reading on my part. I should have payed more attention. I've gotta say this is starting to annoy me a little. I'm not going to rest until I find the solution to this (I want to be able to do this too).

 

[Petey7]

I tried the keytweak software and found that it works on my computer perfectly.

 

[kiwichick]

Hi Petey7, You, me and the rest of the computing world by the look of the google searches Everyone would love to be able to turn it off. Why we even have a Num Lock key is beyond me. Who would want to turn their keypad off for heaven's sake? Sort of defeats the purpose of having one doesn't it?

In regard to richc46's "Enable/Disable Numberlock at Login" yes, 2 is the default but there is another setting 1 = Disable Num Lock which is what we would like to be able to do. The registry entry can be changed to 1 but it won't hold - on computer restart it resets itself to 0.

Thanks for input Bill2. I'll check them out.

 

[kiwichick]

Fan-Freaking-Tastic!!!!!

Bill2 you rock!!!!!!! KeyTweak is perfect!!!!

Now how do we tell the rest of the world

 

[Petey7]

Join thousands of web sites telling as many as possible. Or just book mark the link and let people know when it comes up somewhere. It will get around eventually.

Also, how do we get this marked as solved??

 

[richc46]

Join thousands of web sites telling as many as possible. Or just book mark the link and let people know when it comes up somewhere. It will get around eventually.

Also, how do we get this marked as solved??

Upper right, the triangle, click on it. Type solved and moderator will take care of it.
Rep for taking the time to learn procedure.

 

[balesmachine]

disable numlock key for good.

Most people overthink this problem. I solved it by taking a pair of needle nose pliers and pulling the actual key off my keyboard. So simple, so fast. Now I cant hit the key if I wanted to. If I do need it at some time, I can pop it back on.

Steve

 

[boohbah]

Most people overthink this problem. I solved it by taking a pair of needle nose pliers and pulling the actual key off my keyboard. So simple, so fast. Now I cant hit the key if I wanted to. If I do need it at some time, I can pop it back on.

Steve

dd th sm thng wth vwls n kybrd, wh nds thm!