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Let's be honest: when was the last time you used the CAPS LOCK key on your keyboard? On my keyboards most of the time it's hit by accident causing only problems and frustration.

Is there a utility for Windows (and Mac) which allows the key to be reassigned? For example, it would be a nice shortcut if it worked as a combination of keys ALT + TAB on Windows or CMD + TAB on Mac.

CAPS LOCK

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91% accept rate
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YES, PLEASE TELL ME - HOW CAN I DISABLE THIS DARNED THING!? ;-) – Chris W. Rea Jul 16 '09 at 2:32
CapsLock might be the most useless key nowadays. '[Lenovo Vice-President David] Hill called “Caps Lock” a frustrating hangover from typewriter days, a key that can introduce garble, emulate shouting or foil password entries without the user noticing.', insidetech.com/news/articles/… – VolkerK Jul 20 '09 at 9:42
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8 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

You need Autohotkey and this script:

;Deactive CapsLock key 
$CapsLock:: 
return

Autohotkey is THE most powerful way to do this sort of thing on a WIndows PC. Also see this page for more details on re-mapping CAPS,

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Very nice, thank you! As soon as I have time I'll look into it. – splattne Jul 15 '09 at 14:40
1  
Was coming to suggest the same thing. I've remapped CapsLock to Escape to aid in Vim editing :D – Andy Jul 18 '09 at 11:37
I've remapped Caps to LCtrl. It was a lot more natural for my hand go to the left that turn -60degres and extend the little finger to grab the LCtrl key. After months of this change the pain that i was felling to doing that repetitive movement was gone completely – voodoomsr Aug 14 '11 at 16:57
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up vote 8 down vote

on Mac: You can reassign the caps lock key under "System Prefs" -> "Keyboard & Mouse" -> "Special Keys".

i assigned it to CTRL

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On Snow Leopard, it's "System Prefs" -> "Keyboard" -> "Modifier Keys". – Marcel Levy Nov 1 '09 at 21:22
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This is so damn simple, why do we need an app for this on Windows? – WTP Jul 6 '11 at 14:01
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up vote 8 down vote

I've used SharpKeys (for windows) to remap CapsLock to ESC.

Works great for vim. VI-style editing really shines if you can keep your fingers near the home row at all times.

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This is the best tool I have come across in over 6 years of disabling the caps-lock key, mapping my IBM Model M's right ALT key to the Windows key, etc. It simply records to the registry the necessary changes, but has a nice interface to facilitate that effort. And it isn't installed as an app, it is a simple utility. – Jason Bunting Jun 19 '10 at 4:26
Too bad Windows-7 is not supported. – WilliamKF Apr 15 '11 at 4:21
@WilliamKF: I am using SharpKeys on Windows 7. It works fine. – wcoenen Apr 15 '11 at 8:14
@WilliamKF: I'm also using SharpKeys on Win7. Chek that you execute it with administrative permissions. – voodoomsr Aug 14 '11 at 17:00
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up vote 5 down vote

Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows XP / Vista is an awesome guide on how to remap the caps lock (or any other) button.

Aditionally, Lifehacker has a really good guide on how to remap or disable it entirely.

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Thanks for the SharpKeys link! Sadly, there seems no way to map a key to a combination of keys in the program (I read the FAQ). – splattne Jul 15 '09 at 13:07
@splattne for map a combination use Autohotkey. It is extremely simple to do it, for example: CapsLock:: SendInput !{Tab}, it will send Alt Tab when you press the Caps – voodoomsr Aug 14 '11 at 17:02
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up vote 3 down vote

Here's how to swap the Caps Lock key with left Ctrl:

Windows

  1. Click Start > Run
  2. Type "regedit"
  3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
  4. While Keyboard Layout has focus, go to Edit > New > Binary Value
  5. Enter "Scancode Map" as the name

  6. Enter the following as the Data:

    0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0008: 03 00 00 00 3A 00 1D 00
0010: 1D 00 3A 00 00 00 00 00

  7. Exit the Registry Editor

  8. Log out and log back into Windows

Linux

  1. Create a file in your home directory called .xmodmap if it doesn't already exist

  2. Paste the following lines into the file:

    remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L

  3. Add the following line into ~/.bash_profile

    xmodmap ~/.xmodmap

Source

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It should be noted that most graphical environments on Linux offer a way to set the caps lock key behavior in whatever keyboard configuration tool it offers. It can also be modified in the standard keymap for the console. – greyfade Dec 27 '11 at 23:45
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up vote 2 down vote

I use Billy Mays Caps Lock. Now whenever I accidentally hit the Caps Lock key instead of getting frustrated I hear a quick Billy Mays pitch, which always puts a smile on my face.

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up vote 1 down vote

SysInternals' Ctrl2Cap will work on older Win machines, too.

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up vote 1 down vote

Swapping it with a different modifier key (I like Ctrl) is supported by Mac OS: 

keyboard control panel -> modifier keys
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