Killing the "Insert" key.
 

I'm looking for a simple, FREE tool that allows me to kill the "Insert" key. I dunno how many times now I accidentally press it when I meant to hit the backspace.


I've Googled, and Download.com'ed it, and I can't find anything that's free (no nags or anything) and just makes the "Insert" key simply not do anything.

All I want is some free, itty-bitty utility that simply starts with Windows, and kills the “Insert” key. I'd prefer to not even see it's running (such as an icon in the tray), but I'll take what I can get.

Does anyone know of anything that fits this description? Or, could anyone program such a little app for me? I promise that if you do, I'd make you famous.




I suppose I could always physically remove the key, but I’d rather not resort to such a measure.

I just removed mine. Seemed easier than looking for a program. I know many people who have done the same. Maybe some sort of keyboard mapper?

What exactly does the insert key do? Is it like an appendix where no one knows what the hell is does, but people suspect in the past it did something amazing?

it inserts! DUH! lol j/k! I have no clue either

The only thing i ever use the insert key for is to toggle overwrite or insert mode in most word processors.

Instead of pushing the text aside if you typed in between two characters, it overwrites the characters.

I cheated. Got an old IBM keyboard. One of its advantages is that there are some keys that are wider on it. Left Shift ia about 2.2X wide and Backspace is a double wide key, RIght Shift key is 2.6X wider than the rest, Enter is about 2.2X wide. Space between right side of main Alpha-Numeric board and the arrow keys and the Insert\Home\PageUp row is about 2/3 of a key wide and the edges of th keys are all tapered left to right and top and bottom (not quite like the Piramyd fro Cheops, but definitely pyramidal in general use. One thing, if you NEED Windows special keys you might do better with a Keytronic keyboard, spacing is similar although the enter key is a left-rotated L instead of a wide Enter key like the IBM has.

One hint I used to stop hitting keys too far to right, is MOVE body LEFT. My center of body is aligned with the B key and not M. I have to REACH further to get to INSERT key, so almost never hit it.

But, yes, a character mapper would work fine. I think they were available for Windows 98 and down, have not seen a good one for XP. Essentially, it lets you tell the computer to treat the keycode it thinks is INSERT as if it were BACKSPACE if you want, by allowing you to alter the code at input time in the driver for the keyboard. Or, just position keyboard further to right if possible. Left edge of keyboard is even with my LEFT side, and keyboard stretches way to right. Monitor (my little 17" NEC LCD Panel) is centered on B key also, so that works fine. Left edge of viewing area on LCD is even with left edge of keyboard. Also, keyboard is VELCROed down, it will not slide around on my kinda slippery Lifetime Table used for desk. So I sit down with monitor centered and keyboard is right also, all the time.

John.

OMG I ahte when it does that when i am typing a long essay and it starts to overwrite!! now i know how to fix it! You rock! :Rocker: Now when it happens i wont be so >:screwed:

Seems to me that the Insert key is kind of a mode key. You press it and it switches between a mode where typed characters replace present characters, and the normal mode where typed characters are inserted between present characters.

What I want to know is what does the Scroll Lock key do?

Edit: Holy crap, where did all those posts come from? :eek2:

Scroll Lock was to be used back in the days of dirt to allow you to scroll the screen with the arrow keys.

As for the Insert key, Prime had it right.
Also, Shift+Insert is the same thing as Ctrl+V.
I use Ctrl+V nowadays but the first paste function I learned was Shift+Insert.

I believe the old IBM keyboard has 2.304x wide left shift, 2.5903x wide right shift, 1.926x backspace, and enter was either 2.7389x or 2.1996, depending on the year. 1986 and prior were the larger ones.

My keyboard is shifted so far right that it's out in the hallway. I've resorted to using telekinesis to avoid hitting the wrong keys.

But telekenesis can also be inaccurate as there's a 15.623423098481235% chance of error and a variance of approx 6.525 per cent based on the humidity tieds and teh price of tea in china of course its far more accurate using TK because psychomotor responses in teh muscles arent suseptible to errors any more and my friend whos a keyboard repair technician says its the most accurate way to type.

My Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard has the insert key up next to the F12 key. Keeps it out of reach of normal typing.

EDIT: Anyway, try this, this, and this. Nothing specifically mentioning the Insert key but maybe you can find a way using these avenues.

... or you could just buy a Natural keyboard :)

See pic below for where my "Insert" key is. It isn't even active unless you have the "F lock" key pressed ;)

Plus, the keyboard is ergonomic.. and once you get get adjusted to it.. it's a damn sight easier on the hands than a normal cramped keyboard :)

Ok, this may be a dumb Q, but Shorty, when you buy a keyboard in the UK, does the 4 key (above the letters) double as the UK pound or is it the $?

hahahha you guys are awesome.

Anyway, I also have the weird oriented middle block with the insert key way above, it's l33t, a lot different than the like 6 key horizontal style block, but i definitly like the big Delete key better, gets used the most of any of them anyway! Let me demonstrate with a fuzzy picture:

(you actually don't have to get a "Natural Keyboard", all microsoft 'multimedia' keyboards are set up this way, even the regular ones like mine ;)

The 4 key still has the $ attached to it, the 3 key has the £ attached.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:



You wouldn’t believe how many keyboard remappers there are that either A: Will not remap the Insert key, or B: Do not work with Win2K/XP.


It's times like this I wish I knew C++. :banghead:

Well since hitting ctrl-c in a default configured unix app is generally bad (generally something along the lines of close now!) I find the insert key very useful. Ctrl-ins copies and Shift -ins pastes on all my boxen.

How would you type # w/out resulting to alt combos?

Here's how my US keyboard looks:
(First character is top row, second character is bottom)

~`
!1
@2
#3
$4
%5
^6
&7
*8
(9
)0
_-
+=

if you never use it, super glue the key in place.

Here is what we have on a UK keyboard

¬`
!1
"2
£3
$4

Then its the same as yours the # key is over by the enter key under the ~ key just above the right shift key.

to fix the insert key prob stick a drawing pin through a piece of sticky tape and tape it, pointy end up, on to the offending key. You will soon learn where it is.
Please, don't thank me, just doing my bit.

The scroll lock key also messes with some stuff in excel spreadsheets...quite annoying. :d

That "F Lock" is ****ing annoying. Especially when getting used to it and playing BF1942. The damn thing resets itself too. I hate it with a passion now :rant:

I remember I had just bought my MS Multimedia KB...

"Why aren't the F'ing function keys working?!! ....Oh..."

Scratch off the "s" and it becomes ..... inert. mwuahahaha.

Haha, I was thinking of doing that as well...

nobody got my joke ... how disappointing.

I did. And I laughed too. I just didn't want to admit to it. :p

I just sorta went -> :rolleyes:

;D........:rolleyes2.........;D............:shakehead.............;D

:crazy:

tough crowd!

Hey guys, there's a way to remap the codes yourself in the registry. I did it more than a year ago. Since my keyboard is an old Model M, I remapped right alt to windows key. Also remapped scroll lock to mute - very useful. Anyway, if insert has a keycode, the same thing can be done for it. The registry hex codes are kind of difficult to get it right, but once it's done it's done.

... After writing that little bit I decided it wasn't worth making someone else learn all the tricks to it. So here's a registry file that will disable insert. It should be noted that this replaces the keymapping instead of adding to it - it doesn't read the registry or anything. So if you have anything for "scancode map" this will erase any weird mappings you or a program have made.

Anyway. Say goodbye to insert.

[edit] BTW, have to reboot before it takes effect :)

Hey, thanks! Where you learn to do this? Sounds like usefull information.

What's "Scancode map"?

Yep Shorty, Thats what I use and have never hit the insert key. BTW, I love the natural keyboard layout. It's so comfortable, and I can't get used to straight keyboards anymore. They feel quite strange to type on now, and I make all kinds of mistakes. lol

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout\"Scancode Map" is a hex mapping of keys. So you can change the input for anything on your keyboard (each key has a scan code, and I mapped Insert's to null in that reg file). Dunno where I came across it the first time, I must have searched for a while on getting alt to be a windows key.

THANK YOU!!!!!111 This is actually BETTER than what I was looking for!

How did you find the hex code for each key?

In essence, the older character mapping software did this. Nominally, all keys are ASCII on a normal keyboard if you factor in the ALT and CTRL and SHIFT offsets.

Take ASCII value, convert to hex, you have the keycode. A programmers multibase translating calculator will convert for you. Try Programmer's Heaven for one, they are out there inexpensively, and the better Ti's can also do this in a not-so-direct manner.

If you want to do this manually, you work right to left, and remember four binary bits per hex digit and that it is easiest that when doing by hand that you first take decimal to binary and then rebuild hex digits from that if you want hyper-simple calc path.

Lets take ASCII 127 (yes I am cheating). 127 is binary 11111111 so that calcs to hex FF (highest decimal value that hex 0F (or just F for hex digit discussion's sake) is, is 15 (16 possibles including 0 decimal) and that is four bits (8+4+2+1 in decimal by place of bit position which progresses bigger to left from right). Lets now take 63 decimal-- that is more than one hex digit, it is over 16-- so lets take this to binary.

Conversion from decimal to binary is an iterative calc, goes like this:
we are working right to left, so I will invert the process for you:

64-1 is 63 with a 1 remainder
63-2 is 61 with a 10 "
61-4 is 57 with a 100
57-8 is 49 with a 1000
49-16 is 36 with a 00000 Result is even, no remainder, but need 0 as place holder.
63-32 is 31 with a 100000
31-64 does not compute to a positive, but is 16 +15.

So, now we have an addition problem.

_00101111
+00010000
+00001111
yeilds
01000000 binary and that is right as 64-1 (to allow for 0 being valid) is 63.

that help some??? Take extended ASCIIvalue , convert to binary. Now for hex conversion.

Left digit is binary 0100 and that is hex 4. Right digit is binary 0000, hex 0. Conversion complete when we marry hex digit results to 40.

Welcome to PART of what you will be doing with IPV6 addressing, which takes binary IP octets and uses HEX instead as well as allowing different number of Hex digits per hextet structure of IP definition, but that is a different starting point. :D

If you are familair with boolean ANDing logic, will show you the left to right method if you want, which is what I use internally, but this is above method is easier to program into a HUMAN brain,IMHO.

Rule set, boolean, for left to right is:
If negative, lead 0.
If positive AND even, lead 0.
If positive AND odd, lead 1.
AND, subtract left to right bitwise using byte size leftward progressive padding chunk steppingss to get correct hex result for a Modulo 8 machine if converting to hex. Modulo 16 machines get 2 byte chunking\padding, modulo 32 bit machines are far in the future in pure sense but take a 4 byte chunking. Right now most hardware is building larger words from Modulo 8 or Modulo 16 RAM storage,and RAM is not truely Modulo 32 yet.

HTH. John.

I looked at a couple examples on the Internet as well as the one I made a long time ago, cuz I knew this would work for Insert... it sounded like exactly what you needed. Then I checked MS's page to confirm the format. I didn't know where to get the key codes (was planning to google it thoroughly) but fortunately the MS page had a link I hadn't noticed. It was a document and how the key codes work and it had a table of them. Anyway, glad to help ya :)

Could ya linky me? :p

Sure, have fun :)
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/...kscan-map.mspx

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Just found this thread doing a search. Tried the link above but it's been moved.

I'd like to remap the F1 key to the same command as Winkey+M (Minimize all windows) so I can get to the desktop with one fell swoop.

This is for my now infamous 9x DAW (95 explorer, 98SE core, ME system file upgrades)

Is there a resource that someone can point me to or, can someone make a .reg for me (shameless ain't I?)

Thanks.

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Linux, Unix, and BSD consoles (like BASH, the Bourne Again SHell) still use Shift-Insert and Shift-Delete for paste and cut (or copy instead of cut, depending on shell). BUT, I learned them in DOS before DOS apps got Ctrl-C, Crtl-X, Ctrl-V also.

Look at the key layout on an IBM Netvista Professional keyboard. Nice wide backspace key (1.5X nomral key width) and to its right is 1\2 keys worth of nice plastic keyboard top, THEN the Insert key to right of that. Some Logitech keyboards also use this layout, and some Keytronics keyboards have similar ideas of separating the INSERT and its mode or file position hopping cousin keys from the backspace key. You are not alone in this respect of accidentally hitting wrong keys, by any means. MY bugaboo is hitting A and Caps Lock at same time....

So, yet another way to solve the problem is get a new keyboard that has things spaced to suit you (that way you can have the function keys, just not bump into them by accident as often), and keys for functions either spaced away from "normal" keys or extra-wide keys for functions. IBM base keyboard layout is one that has been in use since the late 70's and in some cases the keys folks complained about in that layout got separated by a bit of space or adjusted in key width also.

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Why would you want to remap the Windows Help Subsystem call default key (that is what F1 normally does) to Minimize-ALL (I do not understand this one, that func key is one I use a lot to look up detailed things)??? Try, for minimizing an open Window in older Windows O\S versions (not in Linux, there it is an up\down scrollbar controller sequence), Ctrl-- (that is control key and - key at same time). Once mouse cursor is on the desktop, try Ctrl-M or CTRL-ALT-M or Ctrl-Shift-M and see what happens.... The Windows key is essentialls what older Windows responded to with a Ctrl-ALt-(plus a key) sequence.

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Hi Straight_Man

My install is very small less than 40 MB. I stripped out everything I didn't need. This is a very dedicated computer that only records/mixes digital audio (DAW). In fact the F1 key dosen't respond to anything. But since it is a win95 explorer, there is no quick launch bar and no minimize all/show desktop shortcut. I'd really love to be able to minimize all/show desktop with that fat "doing nothing" F1 key though. :)

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Straight_Man, I just put it together that I know you by your old name. That's the third name change I think since Icrontic (?). Anyway nice to see you.

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Three names, 4 or 5 bans. :rolleyes:

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

Where in a Computer Science degree does that lesson fall, Straight Man? Because I love computers, but your little lesson has the distinction of being the first thing I have ever read that made my head throb AND my eyes bleed at the same time. If that was intro theory, I'm glad I stuck with Micro-Biology.

But it was interesting. Base conversions are neat to try...

Re: Killing the "Insert" key.
 

It's ok, his posts have that effect on everyone.