How can I remap Capslock on Windows 7 without thirdparty software?

I just upgraded to Windows 7, and I'm trying to reconfigure everything to my liking. Under Windows XP, I had remapped the Capslock key to behave as a Control key (I spent a long time with Solaris keyboards, and grew to like it).

In XP, I did this as a system-wide setting via the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,1d,00,3a,00,3a,00,5d,e0

It is my understanding that Vista and 7 have a better way to do this - Something that works on a per-user basis instead of machine-wide. I recall coming across several pages to that fact when I first looked up how to do it in XP.

However, my google-fu is failing me, and I can't find how to do it. I've searched this site too, and all I've found is thirdparty software recommendations. Is there a native way to do this in Windows 7?

Tim

Posted 2011-09-13T00:03:32.873

Reputation: 422

Answers

How to remap or disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista. Lucky for you, I ran across this yesterday.

From that site, here's the regkey to turn Capslock into a Ctrl key:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

SgtOJ

Posted 2011-09-13T00:03:32.873

Reputation: 6 843

+1 I was about to add a link to this - http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-the-Capslock-Key-in-Windows I couldn't find a neater way to do this either...

– Nick Josevski – 2011-09-13T00:53:10.233

I thought vista/7 introduced a better keymapping mechanism, but this works. – Tim – 2011-09-13T20:16:41.137

Thanks for a solution. Updating registry solution worked for Windows 8 Pro x64 too. – vvladymyrov – 2013-01-28T17:33:23.207