Disabling the Caps Lock Key: An update
Date: February 22, 2024
In early January, I wrote about my annoyance of the existence of the Caps Lock key on our modern keyboards. When are they used? How often do you find yourself yelling after accidently hitting it? I said I would do a follow up, and here it is. Two words: Power toys.
No caps lock
Power Toys is a wonderful little utility written by Microsoft. It has several useful functions to customize your Windows experience, including keyboard mapping. A guy at work told me he remapped the caps lock key to his escape key. That sounds like a great solution, but I use my escape key for other things (particularly at work since I have to use Powerpoint at work - escape bails out of a slide show).
I chose to disable my caps lock key and I have not missed it for one moment. Since I did this around the 10th of January on all of my computers I use regularly, I've had a long enough period of hands-on time to see if it made any trouble for me. Not at all. In fact, I switched over to a new computer for my home use and was annoyed almost immediately when I realized I hadn't installed Power Toys yet. I'm going to be making myself a list of software I use all the time - I have a list of strange things that only developers, videophiles and geeks use. They are often forgotten when I switch to a new computer. I think moving to a new computer will be a future article here....
In summary:
- I do not miss my caps lock key
- Powertoys is a great solution for keyboard mapping and other stuff - you do not have to have admin rights to install it either (so I was able to put it on my work computer too).
- I still maintain that there is no use for this key in modern times.
Until next time, keep on enjoying life. If you aren't having fun - you're doing it wrong.