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OK, it's happened one time too many and I'm sick of it. Whoever designed my keyboard put three additional keys up at the top, just to the right of F12, you know, where PrintScreen, ScrollLock and Pause usually go? These three say Wake Up, Sleep, and Power. And they're right there, where you can easily hit them by accident, and if you accidentally hit either of the last two, there's nothing you can do. No override, no "are you sure" dialog box, just my system immediately putting itself to sleep. I want it stopped, and I'd prefer to do it without having to buy a new keyboard.

Is there some way I can tweak the Windows registry or mess around in some control panel setting somewhere to dummy out those two keys? I'm a decent programmer, and not averse to writing some code to fix it if that's what it takes, but I'd prefer not to have to. Does anyone know how to fix this?

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You may be able to use The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to remap those keys to nothing.

Other than that, maybe Superglue and/or butter knife.

Good luck

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  • Re "maybe Superglue and/or butter knife": Or maybe a protective cover of some kind (permanent or removable) Nov 28, 2023 at 23:11
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Some people seem to think the power options only work for the physical buttons on the Desktop or Laptop, but they also work for keyboard hotkeys.

Go into Control Panel -> Power Options -> System Settings. Here you can change what happens when each button is pressed:

alt text

You probably want to set them to do nothing when pressed, or maybe prompt you. If the keyboard came with additional software, you may need to configure it in there.

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  • No, this is a laptop. I'm using an external USB keyboard because it's larger and provides better tactile feedback. But I've already got the laptop's reactions to the built-in power switch configured via this to do exactly what I want it to do. I need a solution specifically involving the keyboard. Jan 5, 2010 at 4:51
  • If you set them to do nothing, it won't work for the keyboard?
    – user1931
    Jan 5, 2010 at 4:54
  • It probably will work. But if I set them to do nothing, then I also lose the ability to put the laptop to sleep via the laptop's built-in power button. As you noted above, this control panel lumps them both together. Jan 5, 2010 at 4:56
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    On the plugged in options, does it have the option ask me what to do ? You can have it prompt you if you want to shut down. My initial thought was autohotkey, but I'm afraid this keyboard hotkey interception is driver level, so I don't think AHK will intercept it before it gets to the OS.
    – user1931
    Jan 5, 2010 at 5:11

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