Enabling Alternate Functions of Function Keys

[skuddle]

How do I make the Function keys do their alternate functions (the ones that are printed on the keys)? I'm using a Toshiba Satellite C850 with a Win 7 Home 64-bit operating system.

 

[strollin]

Pres and hold the FN key and then press the desired F key.

Did this laptop come with Windows 7 installed or did you install Win 7 in lieu of the OS that was originally installed? There may be a keyboard driver even a software application that needs to be loaded to make the alternate functions work.

 

[skuddle]

I tried holding the FN key down while pressing several of the function keys (one at a time) but nothing happened. Somehow "Function Lock" has been enabled and I can't find a way do disable it.

 

[skuddle]

Sorry for the delay in responding.


The laptop came with Windows 7 pre-installed from the factory, and the function keys have worked as I need for several years. I am trying to get the two volume keys (F7 and F8 I believe, I'm not near the computer at the moment) to work as volume keys.
I know the volume function is there, somewhere, because the front of the two keys shows a Volume Up and a Volume Down icon.

 

[Megahertz07]

Does the laptop has the original Windows installed?
To work, function keys (Fn) must have a software installed so if you reinstalled Win 7 and did not installed the software it wont work

 

[skuddle]

In 2019 I bought and installed the Windows 7 Home software direct from Toshiba. I received the software on four diskettes. The installation took a couple of hours IIRC.


I don't understand your last sentence. You wrote, "so if you reinstalled Win 7 and did not installed the software it wont work". What software were you referring to?


When I reinstalled Win 7 from the diskettes I kept a rather detailed log of exactly what I did. Near the end of the log is a section that I called "Windows Features". I will take a look at the "Windows Features" on the laptop to see if anything relates to the function keys, and I will report back in this thread what I found, if anything.


Thanks for your help, and please let me know what software you had in mind when you replied to my post.

 

[Megahertz07]

I have a Sony Vaio laptop that came to me with no OS. Originally it had Win 7 Pro. So I installed Win 7 Pro and it worked fine but some features like the Fn keyboard functions and charge control wasn't working. So I went to the Sony site of my laptop model and found the applications to make them work.

If you Google Toshiba fn key driver you will see what I mean.
Found this Toshiba Function Key Utility but don't know if it apply to your model.
If you want me to search, provide the model ID