Why would I want to do that?

      In my case, because I frequently hit the CAPS LOCK key instead of the TAB or Shift key and that annoys the ^#% out of me.  Rather than prying the key off of the keyboard, I decided to change it to a SHIFT key.

How can I do that?

    Easy.  First, download KeyTweak, a small, easy to use keyboard remapper.  Run the installation exe and then go to the start menu, all programs, and run Key Tweak.  The KeyTweak window will show an image of the keyboard.  Select the key you wish to remap (as you hover over it KeyTweak will reveal its current mapping).  For me that was key 30.  KeyTweak showed me that this key was mapped to Caps Lock.  Click on the key to be remapped.  Now choose the new mapping for that key from the drop-down list.  I selected Left Shift.  Next click Remap Key.  The remapping request is shown in the Pending Changes box.  You can now order more changes if you wish.  When you are ready to apply the changes, just click Apply.  You will need to reboot the computer for the changes to take effect.

    I recommend that you read the manual too, as KeyTweak can do more than what I have described here.

My Other Key Remappings

• OK, sometimes, although rarely, it is handy to have a CAPS LOCK key available.  Accordingly I remapped the NumPad * key to CAPS LOCK.
• The cheap keyboard I got with my Acer PC has a tiny backspace key.  I frequently hit the adjacent Insert key when intending to hit the backspace key.  I solved this problem by remapping the backspace key to be an insert key.
• OK, sometimes, although rarely, it is handy to have an Insert key available.  Accordingly I remapped the NumPad - key to Insert.

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This page most recently revised on 21. November 2008.