Kill thE CAPSLOck Key!!! Mac, Windows, and Linux Versions

How many times a day do you look up from the keEYBOARD ANd see tHIs?! Or worse, notice it AFTER you hit return on an Instant Message or Facebook comment?? Several? Dozens??

Me too!!

It is a far worse problem for us less than expert key boarders, when compared to you pro touch typists. It wastes uncounted hours that it takes to backspace and correct those darned errors!! And I hate it. hATe it! HaTE it!!!

This time I decided to do something about it. I jumped on the Internet and googled “How do I kill or disable my caps lock key?”. Because I have Linux and Windows machines in addition to my iMac, I had to do a little extra hunting around but I did find everything I needed.

The iMac solution was easiest. Turns out that OS X has a simple way to disable or change the Caps Lock along with the Command (Windows key), Option (Alt), and Control keys.

First Step:

Go to the Apple Icon at the top left (default) of your screen, click it.

Click on System Preferences.

Click on Keyboard in the Hardware row.

Click on Modifier Keys

This view shows the current settings for the Caps Lock, Control, Option and Command keys.

The arrows allow you to set the respective keys to the following five (5) states. Setting the Caps Lock key to “No Action” will disable it!!

Eureka!!

Hit OK and the problem is solved!!

No more Caps Lock key madness!!

Windows and Linux use differing methods as demonstrated below..

The Window's version takes a registry change. Doing it manually is a little tricky but I found a site that listed registry additions that are easy. Click and done!! Just remember to reboot your machine to make the changes active.

If you haven’t backed up your computer, now might be a good time to do it. I ran these on Windows 7 and also on Windows XP professional both native and using virtual machines in VMWare and Parallels. All worked!

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-caps-lock-key-in-windows-

Down lower on that page, you will see Download Keyboard Mappings Registry Tweaks. Click there and download the registry tweaks.

Open this zip file and there are the tweaks, appropriately labeled. Click on the one you want and let it do all the work. Viola!! Caps lock killed or remapped as you like it!!

Name of File What it does

ChangeCapsToControl.reg - Changes Caps Lock to be a Control key

ChangeCapsToShift.reg - Changes Caps Lock to be a Shift key

SwitchCapsToScrollLock.reg - Disables Caps Lock and Scroll lock to be Caps Lock

KillCapsLock.reg - Disables Caps Lock

DisableKeyboardRemap - Uninstalls the preference by deleting the key

Linux allows you to modify the Caps Locks behavior by going into Keyboard Layout too!! Thanks Ryan for reminding me.

Systems Settings, Keyboard Layout, Options, Caps Locks key behavior, set radio button to Caps Locks Disabled!! Works in Ubuntu...

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Here is the method to modify the Caps Lock key in Linux. I use Ubuntu but it should work for the other variations of Linux.

If you want to disable Caps Lock in Ubuntu you need to type the following command in your terminal. I’ve tried it using a few Linux variations including Ubuntu.

I also tried it using VMware and Parallels. Interestingly, it works great in both and has no effect on the Mac side and the Mac side does NOT effect the Linux side. Nice fix.

To remove the Caps Lock Key type:
xmodmap -e “clear Lock” or xmodmap -e “remove lock = Caps_Lock”

To reinitialize the standard behavior of the Caps Lock Key type:
xmodmap -e “add Lock = Caps_Lock”

Hurrah!!!!

I love these changes with all my operating system versions. No more text LOOkInG liKe THis!!! 

If you have any questions or issues, please feel free to ask here for help.

ENJOY!!! (Typed using shift!!)