Can HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout -> Scancode Map be used to "redefine" the keyboard layout on Windows?

Question

On a computer where I have full admin rights, I changed the keyboard layout with the following registry entries

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout] 
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,3a,00,3a,00,01,00,1d,e0,5c,e0,00,00,00,00

which worked fine and as expected.

Now, on another computer where I don't heve the necessary privileges to change HKLM entries, I tried the same thing under HKCU:

REGEDIT4 
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout] 
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,3a,00,3a,00,01,00,1d,e0,5c,e0,00,00,00,00

Unfortunatly, on this computer, it has no effect (that I could notice). I have rebooted the computer. The registry key was registered through regedit, and I can seem them with regedit.

So, canHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout -> "Scancode Map" be used to redefine my keyboard layout, especially if I don't have the necessary rights to change HKLM.

Answer 1

Even though the following is an archived paper, I believe it's still valid for Win7: Scan Code Mapper for Windows.

The following disadvantages are recognized:

• Once the map is stored in the registry, a system reboot is required to activate it.

• The mappings stored in the registry work at system level and apply to all users. These mappings cannot be set to work differently depending on the current user.

• The current implementation restricts the functionality of the map such that mappings always apply to all keyboards connected to the system. It is not currently possible to create a map on a per-keyboard basis.