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[Rex_Nex]

Bay12 Life Advice forum! What would I do without you!?

Anyway, does anyone know of any utilities I can use to disable specific buttons on my keyboard? It is a HP Pavilion laptop, but I was looking for any kind of general programs that will stop the computer from responding to certain keys. The laptop keyboard comes with many buttons I really dislike; a row of "shortcuts" conveniently placed next to keys I hit all the time, a wireless button that will disconnect me from the internet instantly if I tap it right above the minus key, etc.

[LordBucket]

any kind of general programs that will stop the computer from responding to certain keys.

Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator

Also, worst case, a butterknife can be used to pry the keys off. Every laptop I've ever tried it with allows you to pop them right back in place if you want them back.

[Thief^]

Special keys like the wifi on/off one are probably handled either in hardware or the system's bios, which would mean they can't be disabled in software.

[Starver]

If it's an "Fn+F#" combo, perhaps, but IME many laptops with absolutely dedicated "Media Keys", which may or may not include one labelled for WiFi on/offability have a service or other background process dealing with such extra-clavical buttons.

May or may not be relevant to OP's model, of course.  Check to see if there's a configuration utility.  Intended to change what program the envelope/email button opens up (if that applies) It could be that you can set it to "do nothing" as well.  If not, you might be able to at least find that by disabling the MediaButtons service (whatever it might be called) from starting up (however it does) the whole lot become moot.

OTOH, there are some manufacturers who do tie it much more firmly into the hardware.  There should still be a configuration utility (unless it gets tied into "Whatever program opens .eml files" through the device driver (<-which might be worth looking at disabling altogether, if that exists) and whatever method it uses to push the OS into opening the required programs) and this should still have a "do nothing" option.


Or, perhaps what I should have done is said that while I don't really remember how HP Pavilion machines are set up, I could search and see...  Well, looks like most people are complaining when they don't work, but perhaps those pages have a "this is currently turned off/disabled, re-install it" that can be reversed to "this is what you need to turn off/disable, or uninstall".  To get that, try "HP Pavilion media keys", or some variant thereof, via your favourite search engine.  (Model number might be useful to tie it down.)  Although it's possible that this might bring up on-screen "media key" things as well.  I'm not entirely sure that's the correct term, but it's what I use when I try to convey what I think you mean.

[Rex_Nex]

Thanks for looking that up for me Lord, but after playing around with it, I dont think it will help my problem. It only changes generic keys, not manufacturer-specific layouts.

Starver, thanks. I am indeed having issues with the media keys; email, browser, printer, etc. shortcuts. I'm currently googling around for any discussion on how to change them (which might lead to being able to change them to do nothing at all, like you said), but I havent found anything as of yet. I do find it somewhat disheartening that computer manufacturers dont plan on the fact that not everyone will be happy with their keyboard layout; a simple piece of software to disable/enable keys would make this so much easier.

Regardless, thanks everyone I'll keep digging around, I'll let you guys know if I manage to fix it.

[Starver]

Just so you know, I've got a multimedia-enabled peripheral PS/2 keyboard for a standalone machine, at home.  (Not a choice, just was the one I picked up from the pile when I was getting bits together.)  I'm often hitting the button that opens up the calculator app, being at the corner that it's easiest to pick the keyboard up with.  But for some reason I hadn't even thought of solving my own problem...  (Not so inconvenient.  Alt-F4 is as easy to hit in order to remedy it.  Mind you, Windows-R, C-A-L-C-<Enter> is almost as easy to do as deliberately seeking out and hitting this key, but that's just one of my ingrained muscle-memory settings, although way behind the one for the command prompt. )