How to remap special keys on my keyboard

Possible Duplicate:
How can I remap a keyboard key?

I have a mute button on my keyboard, which I use a lot. I also have three buttons I never use...Internet...Email...Search. Is there a hack that a novice user like me can do to get one of those three useless buttons to put my computer into "standby" mode?

Patriot

Posted 2009-11-19T20:57:19.113

Reputation: 631

I thought this was dupe as well, from the question title alone. However, this asker wants to know specifically about using those other useless buttons on his uber-extended keyboard. – JMD – 2009-11-19T21:11:47.710

what brand and model of keyboard? – Snark – 2009-11-19T21:13:43.277

The keyboard that came with my eMachines computer...Keyboard Model# KB-9908 – Patriot – 2009-11-19T21:15:48.327

Answers

Okay I found it!

Here(archived), is all what you can find about key remapping. Keytweak(archived) work fine for me, is a free keyboard remapper for Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7. It makes use of Microsoft's Scancode Map registry key to remap your keyboard.

alt text

This thing lets you remap one of your Internet / Email or Search keys to a sleep key !

It may not work for your keyboard model, make sure you have the latest driver.

user8228

Posted 2009-11-19T20:57:19.113

Reputation:

1Neither link works any more. – gvee – 2017-12-19T08:48:51.973

According to virustotal.com, Key Tweak does have a trojan :(. Here is the analyzed result of the installer http://www.virustotal.com/file-scan/report.html?id=ddb0bad2a358191d2ee4ac8b8d359cc15e66a8dce6a49a8a6cd3b008f5345c1e-1286451622

– Nam G VU – 2010-10-07T23:59:04.960

Confirming dead link – G-. – 2019-02-19T15:45:22.103

@Revolter - You win the checkmark. A great piece of software, but I'm having one helluva time finding the right keyboard driver. Although my computer is an eMachines, the motherboard has been replaced. Googling the drive # gets lots of links. Haven't found one yet that works without trying to add something else to my computer. But it's a fun project so far. However, I've spent too many hours on it already. Don't know if it's worth the effort to continue, just to remap one stinking key. But I can see "Keytweak" coming in handy down the road. Thanks a million. – Patriot – 2009-11-20T13:24:47.730

I don't know a way to remap an existing key such as the shortcut ones - however you can do the following :

Open up notepad or any text editor and write :

%windir%\system32\rundll32 powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState

Save this anywhere (can be in any folder) as anything you like as long as it has an extension of .cmd or .bat

Next, make a shortcut to this script from anywhere and right click it. Set up a shortcut key - can be anything, but try not to use something that another application does - using a combination (2 or more) of Ctrl+Alt+Shift along with another key.

Now, whenenver you type this combination, you should go in to suspend.

alt text

William Hilsum

Posted 2009-11-19T20:57:19.113

Reputation: 111 572

I like it! Neat – Guy Thomas – 2009-11-19T21:38:24.070

If you're willing to put a little time into it, you may be able to pull it off with AutoHotkey. See How to catch special application keys?

Once you have the proper code for your key, I think you would put something like this in the AHK file:

[keycode]::Run %windir%\system32\rundll32 powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState

To build on Wil's answer, that is.

Nathaniel

Posted 2009-11-19T20:57:19.113

Reputation: 3 966

In many cases, Sharpkeys should be able to recognize the keys. This isn't really a separate application to interpret your keys, it's really a frontend for remapping the keys in the registry, which means you only need to do it once, and can then remove the program if you don't want to do it again. It could do with better roll-back features, however, so back up your registry before using it.

With this solution, you should not have to worry about your keyboard driver or anything like that.