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Windows: remap caps to control (work computer) (lemmy.ca)

submitted 6 months ago by imaradio@lemmy.ca to c/techsupport@lemmy.world

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At work I have a Windows PC. I don't have much personal experience with Windows which is why I am asking.

I want to remap the caps lock key to function as a control key. Ideally, on a per-user basis as sometimes other people use the workstation and I don't want to confuse them.

Was able to install Auto Hot Key. A test script worked. However I couldn't find working instructions about how to do this specific remapping. Example scripts I found seem to have some conflict between v1 and v2 of AH.
I don't have admin access however I could probably ask for something, but it would have to work immediately without a lot of fooling around. I will not be granted admin access to try a bunch of things til I find something that works.

What's the best way?

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[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Sorry for asking but is there any reason why caps lock? Because.. You are a lucky winner of “choosing one of the most problematic keys to remap” award..

[–] imaradio@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have small hands that makes certain key combos involving ctrl difficult/uncomfortable to reach
at home I have caps lock remapped and therefor I am constantly using it by muscle memory
Even before I had remapped it at home, I would sometimes enable it by accident which is annoying
in previous versions of windows (I think windows 8?) I could disable caps lock entirely in a system setting but it seems they have removed this option from more recent version
it's right there

[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Okay, all makes sense. When you are using the keyboard a lot, your comfort is most important. The worst part about Caps Lock is that it is more embedded into the system inner-workings, as for example — it is used for certain crucial shortcuts, especially when using Chinese language.

[–] imaradio@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's interesting I didn't know that. I used to share workstations with someone from indonesia who had what seemed like very strange habits of employing caps lock constantly. I assumed it was just a personal weirdsy but maybe it was due to use of caps lock in another linguistic context.

However, I know for a fact that it doesn't do anything I need. I've had it remapped for a couple years on personal machine without issues.

Thanks for telling me though, because I will be sure not to fallback to the registry or another method that changes behavior system-wide. Would not want to prevent anyone else from using the device.

[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago

Your idea to use AHK script is probably the best and least intrusive. You sit down, run the script, whatever you need can be in it, you can actually really tune your input experience with some AutoHotKey magic. I catch myself adding a few more lines every year as new ideas come.

Just remember to unload the script when you are ending your work and the next person won’t even know about it.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I don't see how it would be a problem unless you reassigned it while caps lock was enabled, in which case you would have to reboot (or temporarily revert your remap) to turn it off.

I can think of precious little software that actually requires caps lock for anything, and otherwise for normal typist tasks you can just use shift. I never use caps lock for anything, personally. (Ditto with num lock. My keyboard has a full number pad and a full set of arrow/insert keys. There is no reason for my number pad to ever not be a number pad.)

[–] somnuz@lemm.ee 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I was asking because it is actually a problem for two reasons, one is that capslock has more states than other keys, plus it is more complicated to tinker with via AutoHotKey, they even documented it nicely ~~buuut.. the official method did not work for me — I just tested it.~~

~~I did it in a hurry so there might be “me” problem somewhere too.~~

Okay, it works.

[–] imaradio@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 months ago

At home, once in a while caps lock turns itself on somehow. I have a shell alias to fix the problem:

UNCAPS='xdotool key Caps_Lock'

Should this happen at work I was thinking to either temporarily disable the application that is doing the remapping, or use some sort of onscreen keyboard to inactivate the caps lock.