Loads of keyboards and laptops include buttons which allow you to skip or pause tracks, launch your web browser or simply alter the volume. When I moved to the Microsoft Arc Keyboard I was surprised by how much I missed some of these keys, specifically the skip and pause track options (note – the Arc keyboard does have volume controls built in). So what can you do about it?

I don’t know about you, but there’re plenty of keys on a keyboard that I hardly use,for instance why are there so many function keys?! I decided that it was high time I changed them to something more useful. However I had no intention of running some resource hungry, flea ridden monstrosity of a background application to do it. There is in fact a much better (and easier) way. (Windows only I’m afraid, although I’m sure there are similar methods for other operating systems).

What a specific key does is defined in your registry, if you’re hardcore (or arrogant… don’t come crying to me), you could fire straight into regedit and start changing values. A much better method uses a program I discovered called Key Tweak. It does the changes for you using a pretty intuitive UI, making it both easier and safer than regedit.

Install and run (if it asks for admin privileges be sure to say yes) and you should be presented with a window like the one to the left. I suggest you use the half teach mode (found at the bottom), this allows you to press the actual key you want to change, and then simply select from a list what you want to it be remapped to.

It’s all nice and simple, you’re best off playing rather than me trying to explain it here. One feature of note is the ‘Restore All Defaults’ button, if everything goes belly up you can always hit that to be put back where you started.

I’ve found it to be pretty useful, the down side is that the remap options are relatively limited, but it beats having some resource hungry program running in the background. As always please leave any questions or thoughts in the comments below.

P.S As a final note you could always use this for a computer prank (not that I endorse this in anyway…), for instance I hate it when people use Caps Lock instead of shift, I reckon it could be quite entertaining setting Caps Lock to ‘Power Off’!