Configuring the keyboard: How to change the key assignment
If you want to reconfigure the assignment of your keyboard, e.g. deactivate a key or assign a new character to it, there are two options. We'll show you how to reconfigure the keyboard manually using the registry or with clear software.
Reconfigure the keyboard
There are several ways to reconfigure your keyboard. For small changes, we have detailed instructions that will help you further. If you are an advanced Windows user who prefers to customize the registry to your needs, read on in the next paragraph.
- If you just want to change the language of your keyboard, the guides will help you add a Russian keyboard and change the keyboard language in Windows 8 and Windows 7.
- If only your keyboard is blocked, you can quickly fix the error yourself.
- You can also deactivate Caps Lock and activate the number pad.
- Probably the easiest way to reconfigure a Windows keyboard is the SharpKeys software: you can use it to reassign keys.
- However, if you do not want to install any additional software on your PC, you will find detailed instructions for advanced users in the next section.
Reconfigure the keyboard manually
To ensure that your keyboard does exactly what it is supposed to do every time you press a button, you can create a "scan code map" in the registry that assigns new commands to the individual keys. This is not easy, but in principle the following steps are necessary. A detailed description to create a new scan code map or to extend an existing one can be found in the picture gallery.
- The first thing you have to do is open the registry.
- Navigate there to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Keyboard Layout" and create a new binary value, which you call "Scancode Map" and open with a double click.
- The file begins with a series "0000", behind which you now write: "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00". As you type in values, dots or characters appear in the right column that you can simply ignore.
- In the second line, a row "0008" also appears, behind which you now write "aa 00 00 00". The expression "aa" stands for 1 + the number of keys that you want to reassign. So aa = 03 means you use two keys.
- Now there are eight blocks for each key, which are structured as follows: "zz zz yy yy", where the four z are replaced by the 4-digit scan code of the new assignment and the four y by the scan code of the key that you want to reassign, A list of useful scan codes and a complete list of all scan codes can be found in the next paragraph.
- "00 00" stands for a complete deactivation of the key, which is particularly useful for loose keys.
- Ignore the four characters in the left column and the eight characters in the right column that appear as you type.
- Write "00 00 00 00" at the end.
Scan codes of all Windows keyboards
Scan codes are given in four-digit hexadecimal codes. They are practically the address of every key on the keyboard. You can download a complete list from the Microsoft website. The exe file contains a Word document (DOC) in which all scan codes are listed from page 21 to 25. The most important codes and some other examples show you like this:
- 01 00 = [Esc]
- 2a 00 = [Shift] left, 36 00 = [Shift] right
- 3A 00 = [Caps Lock]
- 45 E0 = [Num]
- 46 00 = [roles]
- 02 00 to 09 00 = [1] to [8] in the series of numbers above the letters
- 0A 00 and 0B 00 = [9] and [0] in the series of numbers above the letters
- 0E 00 = [backspace]
- 0F 00 = [tab]
- 10 00 to 19 00 is the top letter line from [Q] to [P], 1A 00 = [Ü] and 1B 00 = [+]
- 1C 00 = [Return]
- 39 00 = [Space]
- E0 1C = [Enter]
- 52, 4F, 50, 51, 4B, 4C, 4D, 47, 48, 49, each with "00" behind them = [0] to [9] on the number pad
In further articles we will show you how to change the language in Word and create a heart symbol with the keyboard.
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Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Keyboard Layout (1) and create a new binary value (2) by right-clicking.
Name this "scan code map". If a REG_SZ file with the name already exists, edit it. At the end of the picture gallery we show you how to expand existing scan code maps.
The file always starts with the string "0000" (a). Now type in "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00" yourself (b) and do not worry about the characters that appear in the right column (c).
Now specify how many keys you want to reassign (a). Remember: "02" stands for a key, "03" for two and so on. Behind it comes an eight block (b1 and b2) for each key. You end the entry with the code "00 00 00 00" (c).
First write the four-digit scan code for the new character you want to assign to a key (a) and then the scan code for the key that is to execute this command. How to assign a desired character to a key.
If the "Scancode Map" binary file already exists, simply increase the value of the keys to be reassigned (a) and write your eight-digit code before the last eight zeros (c) to reassign another key (b ). In this example, the key [1] is simply deactivated using the letter ("02 00"), using "00 00".
