Use Shift-Button to Turn off Caps-Lock, XP

By Thomas on March 19, 2010 (4 Comments)

Are you still struggling with hitting CAPS-LOCK, when you were really trying to use the Shift-Button ? mAKING the text look all WEird ?

No, no, don’t bring out your hammer or get violent with your keyboard… That will only make things worse.

Back in the even older days when Typewriters ruled the office, you released the Caps-Lock button by pressing down the Shift-Button, thus it was never activated longer than needed.

This registry tweak will allow you to do just that. If you press Caps-Lock by mistake, then the Shift-button will shut it off for you. This should reduce the chances of you typing whole sentences or paragraphs SHOUTING at the reader.

NOTE!
This tip is for Windows XP users, but you might get it to work in newer versions of Windows as well

This involves editing the registry, but that shouldn’t be a problem for you, now would it :-) If you’re new to editing the registry, start here.

Open the Registry Editor (regedit)
Locate the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Keyboard Layout
In the Right pane add a new DWORD Value, name it: Attributes
Double-Click the DWORD value you just made and enter: 00010000
Click OK
Exit RegEdit and Reboot your Computer

NOTE!
You might experience that you cannot turn off Caps-Lock with Caps-Lock anymore, only one of the Shift-Buttons.

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

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Comments

David WN

Well, using the shift key to unlock the capslock key seems… a little redundant, since the capslock key is a toggle key anyway and hitting it either turns it on or off. What I’ve done on my last (six? seven?) keyboards is simply pry the capslock key off, pack it with high density foam (I have tons of the stuff from old hard drive shipping blocks) and replace the key. Now, if I REALLY want to use the capslock key, I can do so by pressing hard on the key to turn it on/off. Normal typing doesn’t effect it at all, so accidental triggering of capslock just doesn’t happen.

Bob’s your uncle.
David WN

Well, using the shift key to unlock the capslock key seems… a little redundant, since the capslock key is a toggle key anyway and hitting it either turns it on or off. What I’ve done on my last (six? seven?) keyboards is simply pry the capslock key off, pack it with high density foam (I have tons of the stuff from old hard drive shipping blocks) and replace the key. Now, if I REALLY want to use the capslock key, I can do so by pressing hard on the key to turn it on/off. Normal typing doesn’t effect it at all, so accidental triggering of capslock just doesn’t happen.

Bob’s your uncle.
David WN

Well, using the shift key to unlock the capslock key seems… a little redundant, since the capslock key is a toggle key anyway and hitting it either turns it on or off. What I’ve done on my last (six? seven?) keyboards is simply pry the capslock key off, pack it with high density foam (I have tons of the stuff from old hard drive shipping blocks) and replace the key. Now, if I REALLY want to use the capslock key, I can do so by pressing hard on the key to turn it on/off. Normal typing doesn’t effect it at all, so accidental triggering of capslock just doesn’t happen.

Bob’s your uncle.
Davak72

Thank you so much for this post. It is probably one of the most useful I’ve ever read. (and I’ve read a lot of forums :) ) This also works in Windows Vista.

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