Re-map keys in XP or Vista with SharpKeys

After all of my raving about the Asus Eee PC, it's only fair to rant about my biggest gripe: the placement of the right-side Shift key. I could rag on the size of it too, but as we say in the world of mobile tech, life is full of compromises. Anyway, I was counting how many times I hit the up arrow key instead of the Shift key. I lost track somewhere around 847... or was it 848?

I'll be prying off both keys to give them the flip-flop and since I'm currently running Windows XP on the Eee, I figured I'll have to some digging in the registry for the keys to work correctly in their new homes. Or... I could just use SharpKeys, a free key-mapping application for Windows XP and Vista. SharpKeys provides a simple GUI and does the heavy lifting on the registry for you.

(via How-To Geek)

Update: All iS RiGhT WiTh ThE WoRlD AGAin. Oops... I got carried away now that I'm hitting the right button... carry on.

Comments

[PJE]

Hi kevin,

While you're at it why don't you swap the Down and right arrow keys...

I had a computer in the 80's that had that cursor key arrangement.

[Mickey Segal]

For years I've used a similar program called TradeKeys from PC Magazine to turn off the CapsLock key. It is at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,19645,00.asp
SharpKeys has been updated more recently, but TradeKeys seems to work fine as well.

[tums]

I´m going to sneak in a question here, if anyone doesn´t mind?
I need to use this app to remap some keys so I can get nordic characters on my OQO model 02. It´s bought in the US, and has a custom OQO keymap. Anyone know how I can get nordic characters "into the system" in the first place, and then map them with sharpkeyes?

[Harold]

By the way, with the default linux install, you can use this hack to remap the keys:

http://www.eeewiki.org/howto:moveshiftkey

In addition to moving the shift key over, it puts the up/down arrow keys on top of each other, and the left/right keys beside each other. Although that is moving more keys, it makes more sense aesthetically.

[Jan-Kristian]

tums: In Windows you can just add any keyboard language you want through the control panel. That way you'll be able to enter Scandinavian characters (although you'll have to memorize the new layout).

[gork]

I was going to say, this type of thing is EASY to do on Linux. I have done it myself when the Windows key was added many years ago. It initially wouldn't do anything, but I mapped it to something else at the time. Damned if I can remember what I mapped it too.