Disabling Windows Key

[LordBane]

Is there a way to disable the windows key while playing BCM? There have been a couple times when I accidently hit it and it boots me out to my desktop.

Thanks

[Guest]

pop it out of the keyboard. That key is useless anyway.

[Guest $iLk]

Now now... the Windows key is useful as a hot key if you combine it with certain letters on the keyboard.

[Urza]

I can make it stop working, but it'll take all the other keys along with with it: Unplug the keyboard!

[LordBane]

Lol that's not quite what i meant guess there's no way to do it then huh?

[Urza]

Seriously, there may be way to do it in windows, keyboard properties, I think. I know I did it somehow, because mine don't work anymore.

EDIT: I just looked at it, here's how you do it:

Control Panel > Keyboard > Options Tab

It's right there.

[ 04-06-2002, 13:39: Message edited by: Urza ]

[Rattler]

Now Wait a minute guys. Wasn't there a program that disabled the Windows Key? Wasn't it called Winkey? It might have been only for DOS but I distinctly remember installing it when playing BC3K, WAAAYYYY back then!

Which can be found here: http://virgin.relcom.net/INFO/SKEY/key

[ 04-09-2002, 18:12: Message edited by: Rattler ]

[Urza]

I didn't know the windows key did anything in DOS.

[Rattler]

As I recall, it didn't do anything in DOS that was beneficial. What it did do though was, while playing BC3K, when accidentally depressed, caused multiple failures within BC3K. This often resulted in immediate crash to desktop and out of the game that you had worked so hard in getting to the point that you were. That's where the origin of Save, Save Often sprang from if memory once again serves me correctly. Derek would know for sure though as he's the one that introduced us to the Winkey program as a solution.

[Joel Schultz]

I may have a potential solution. I've been reviewing some articles and found one that may be relevant to your problem. Although it says it applies to WinNT and Win2K there's a chance that it may apply to your OS (WinXP).

The article was dated 1/28/2000; WinXP wasn't around yet but is supposed to have the same kernel as Win2K, so I am going to hypothesize that what works for Win2K will work for WinXP.

I'll try to run an experiment soon (maybe even today!) and verify this. If it works out, I will post a workaround.

TTFN

---UPDATE---

Drat it, the only XP machine around here had an evaluation copy that had expired. No experiments today, or in the forseeable future.

But, so as not to keep you waiting, you may wish to try the advice in these articles at MSDN:

DISCLAIMER: the article requires editing your registry and rebooting your computer. To undo the change in the registry to restore the Windows key, delete the value it asks you to add and then reboot. Also, the article was written before WinXP, and may not apply. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AT OWN RISK. I do not take any resposibility for the result.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;EN-US;q216893

This is kind of the "nuke the keyboard" solution. If you are not comfortable editing the registry, and you are worried about not being able to repair the computer should you screw up the procedure, don't do it!

All things considered, it probably would be better if BCM knocked out that key itself, perhaps controllable from the INI. Knocking out a key for another application from outside the application is not the easiest thing to do, unless you're willing to go the "global nuke" route of registry editing.

[ 04-12-2002, 12:24: Message edited by: Joel Schultz ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

We should probably just disable this key in a future patch.

[Kartoffel]

It's nice when you dont have to worry about that... (my keyboard doesnt have a win key on it)

[Papi]

Strange, I have Vivanco multimedia kbd and never had problem with windows key, no matter how many times I hit it while playing, it does nothing.

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Papi:

Strange, I have Vivanco multimedia kbd and never had problem with windows key, no matter how many times I hit it while playing, it does nothing.

---

That means the keyboard is broken

[Rip]

The answer is here along with other handy tweaks.

Windows 2000 Tweaks

[LordBane]

I was hoping for an easy way, just to disable it in BCM, not in all of windows

[Joel Schultz]

That website's solution is the same as the one found on Microsoft's MSDN, the "nuke the keyboard" solution.

[Urza]

Are you saying that you actually USE the windows key? *snicker snicker*

[LordBane]

well ya, WIN+F brings up find files dialog

WIN+R brings up the RUN menu. Lots of usefull little things for that key.

[Urza]

Nothing a few mouse clicks can't do.

[Joel Schultz]

... and let's not forget "Win-D": minimize every app and jump to the desktop. I can't get through a single day without doing that about a dozen times.

quote:

---

Nothing a few mouse clicks can't do.

---

(Move mouse-Click start-move mouse-click find-move mouse-click files)

(Win-F)

The keyboard is faster than the mouse. And many of us are lazy.

Besides, haven't you heard for real-time strategy games a saying that goes sorta like this: "Show me someone who plays a game only using the mouse and I'll show you someone who gets their butt handed to them by someone who plays also using the keyboard." (All else being equal)

[Urza]

Ahem. First, I don't use "find" often enough to remember any sort of keystroke for it, as I always know where my files are . Second, I hate RTS games.

[ 04-26-2002, 12:16: Message edited by: Urza ]

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

---

... and let's not forget "Win-D": minimize every app and jump to the desktop. I can't get through a single day without doing that about a dozen times.

---

I right click on the taskbar and select minimiza all windows...

I make alot of typos, so using too many shortcut keys is more problematic than moving the mouse around

In rts games I use the shorcut keys when I want to queue alot of stuff in a factory or build several iterations of the same structure.