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Remap Your Keyboard

I'm a big far of IBM ThinkPads, but my one complaint about them is their lack of a Windows key. Is there a way to map the Windows key onto another key on the ThinkPad's keyboard?

Kulvir S. Bhogal, Fort Worth, Texas

In Windows 2000 and NT 4, you can change the function of various keys to suit your needs. One of the many possible uses of this hidden feature is to add the convenient Windows key to an IBM ThinkPad. For more on Windows key shortcuts, see "The Windows Key: A Fast Worker." Remapping your keyboard requires that you be willing to brave that esoteric compendium of Windows hardware and software settings, the Windows Registry. And ThinkPad users must also be willing to give up the use of an existing key that will function as their new Windows key.

First, a word of warning: Making careless changes to the Registry can cause serious problems, up to and including the inability to start Windows. If you decide to sacrifice one of your Ctrl or Alt keys to get a Windows key and if you typically use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to see the Windows log-on screen (as in Windows 2000), a mistake in executing this tip could make it difficult for you to guess what keys to press to return to Windows.

Consequently, apply this tip with care, and be sure to back up your Registry before you begin. To back up in Windows NT, choose Start, Run, type rdisk, and press Enter. Click Create Repair Disk and follow the on-screen prompts; for more information, click Help. For assistance on backing up your Registry in Windows 2000 and XP, choose Start, Help, click the Index tab, and look for the topic 'Registry, Backing Up to Repair Directory' (in Windows 2000) or 'Back up System State data' (in Windows XP). In Windows XP, you can set a System Restore point; see the Windows XP Help system for details.

The easiest way to add the required codes to the Registry is to create a Registry script file in Notepad and merge this file into the Registry. For example, to use your left Alt key as your Windows key, log in to Windows as the administrator, start Notepad, and on the first line of a new file, type REGEDIT4 (in Windows NT 4) or Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 (in Windows 2000 and XP). Press Enter twice, and type [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]; press Enter. Type "00000409"="KBDUS.DLL" (including the two sets of double quotes) on the next line, and then press Enter. Now type "Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,5B,E0,38,00,38,00,5B,E0 and press Enter. When you're done, the result should resemble the lines shown in FIGURE 2.

The last four pairs of hexadecimal numbers contain the codes for two individual keys: the left Windows key (5B,E0) and the left Alt key (38,00). The general form is "Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00, Source key, Destination key, Source key, Destination key. To swap two keys, the last four pairs follow the pattern 'Key A, Key B, Key B, Key A'--meaning, "Key A becomes Key B, and Key B becomes Key A."

To make more changes, enter, at the end of the number string on the same Scancode Map line, an additional four pairs of numbers using the Source key, Destination key pattern and separating the pairs with commas. See FIGURE 3 for a list of common keyboard "scan codes" that you can substitute in this line.

Once you've set up the Notepad file to remap the desired keys, save the file with a name such as "keyfix.reg", including the quotation marks so Notepad won't add its default .txt extension. Exit Notepad, find the .reg file you just saved, right-click its icon, and choose Merge (or double-click the icon). Click Yes to confirm and OK to acknowledge the change. Then restart your computer.

If you want to start over, or if you decide you don't like the new key arrangement, you can return to your default keyboard map. To do so, choose Start, Run, type regedit, and press Enter. In the tree pane on the left, navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout path. With the Keyboard Layout folder icon highlighted in the left pane, select 00000409 and Scancode Map in the right pane and press Delete. Click Yes to confirm the deletion; then exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer.