Any cool programs that take advantage of “Scroll Lock”?

Question

I never use the scroll lock key nor the caps lock key. I just discovered this, which made me think, is there anything else I can do with the leds? Let me know if you have any suggests. (windows only please)

Answer 1

See wiki article on this topic.

Answer 2

It's not really a program for your computer, but many KVM devices take advantage of the mostly unused key as a trigger for changing your keyboard/video/mouse from one computer to another.

Answer 3

Excel uses it (and I think Excel is cool) If you hit scroll lock then move around the sheet using the usual page up / down or arrow keys then you see different parts of the sheet, but the active cell remains unchanged.

This is great when troubleshooting or checking formulas and results, as an easy way to move around your data while still staying in one place, which is then easier to return to (eg press scroll lock again to turn it off, press right arrow , left arrow and Excel will bring the active cell back into the visible window).

Answer 4

Lotus Notes actually scrolls with the arrow keys when you enable the scroll lock. Normally the arrow keys would make the cursor around the note, but with scroll lock it moves scroll bars even if they don't exist.

This is the ticket to madness if you don't happen to know you enabled scroll lock.

Answer 5

Scroll lock is, for the most part, a relic from the early days of computing. A lot of modern programs treat is as a spare hotkey. Take Synergy, for example. It's a program that allows you to control multiple computers with a single input device. Scroll lock is used to disable "screen hopping" temporarily.

I can't really think of any programs off the top of my head that actually uses the key as it was intended. If you're interested, you can always create your own functionality, say, with AutoHotkey.

Answer 6

The Linux TTY does. It locks the scroll when the output cursor hits the bottom.

It's not at all useful, though.