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Is is possible to assign Home/End/PgUp/PgDown to combinations of Fn+arrow keys in Windows 8.1 (I have HP Elitebook 8540p if that matters)?

Motivation: in particular I like keyboard of my current laptop a lot, but it's time to move on - and there are quite some offers of new laptops that don't have separate Home/End buttons, which I tend to use a lot, even when typing this question. Instead, I am supposed to use Fn+arrow keys as Home, End, PgUp and PgDown. Before buying such laptop, I wanted to try whether I can live with it, or whether I should only focus on laptops with these keys separate.

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Fn is not a key that generates a scan code so no one knows about its existence except for the keyboard controller. If you press Fn along with another key that has the Fn function symbol on it then the keyboard controller will convert that combination to the real scan code and send to the OS.

As a result if on the keyboard Fn+arrow does have some function, like changing brightness or volume then you can assign Fn+arrow to Home/End/PgUp/PgDown by remapping the brightness 🔆☀ or volume 🔉🔊 keys to them. But the HP Elitebook 8540p's keyboard isn't one of them. And I believe HP never puts any Fn functions to the arrow keys

HP Elitebook 8540p keyboard

However it does have Home/End/PgUp/PgDown at the top row like any laptops with a numpad (the red rectangle above). It also has those keys in the numpad (the green rectangle)

In fact what you said "there are quite some offers of new laptops that don't have separate Home/End buttons" is incorrect. All the laptops I've ever seen have those keys, just at different locations. Personally I despise any keyboards that require me to use 2 keys for Home/End/PgUp/PgDown because I use them extensively, so I've always tried to look for laptops with them on single separate keys. However, it's time to move on - and there are quite some good deals for laptops without those on separate keys so I tried the ones with a numpad and was quite happy with that, just turn off numlock by default and I can navigate with single key presses. I don't like to reach the keys on the top row which requires me to move my hand a lot. It's also lucky that I hate laptops smaller than 15.4", and a lot of new big laptops have a numpad

If you really just want to use Fn+arrow then you're out of luck, unless those generate some hidden scan codes that doesn't show on the key label. You can use AutoHotkey or various other tools to check. See Finding the scan code of FN Key. If they don't then you have to choose another combination, like Ctrl+Alt+arrow, Win+Alt+arrow or CapsLock+arrow

There are a lot of questions about this on this site

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  • Is this answer still valid in Windows 10? I guess yes but worth checking
    – Taladris
    Nov 29, 2020 at 7:43
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    @Taladris it's not related to any specific Windows version, because as I said from the first sentence: the OS never knows about the existence of the Fn key. You must use workarounds or a different key
    – phuclv
    Nov 29, 2020 at 7:59
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    I ended up just remapping Ctrl plus Up/Down arrows instead (using AutoHotKey) - not ideal, but workable. This is what I added to the AutoHotKey script (you'll need to replace \n with a newline), plus the analogous ones for down (e.g. send +{end}). ; On Ctrl + Up, send home \n ^up:: \n send {home} \n return \n ; On Ctrl + Shift + Up, send home & highlight text \n +^up:: \n send +{home} \n return
    – Blue Raspberry
    Dec 29, 2020 at 13:17
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    Can't add newlines to comments, but for my previous comment, this link has a more readable version.
    – Blue Raspberry
    Dec 29, 2020 at 13:37
  • It's hard to upvote an answer that tells me what I don't want to hear. But—here—take it before I change my mind
    – Joel Christophel
    Nov 2, 2021 at 23:11
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As far as I know the fn key on laptops is not reported as a keystroke - rather the keyboard has specific keys which you can use with the fn key to produce a different keycode. I discovered this by checking what was reported when the key was pressed, which was nothing, as opposed to other modifier keys like Alt or Shift which have a scancode of their own.

In summary: No, it's not possible because the fn key isn't a key in its own right and is only valid in combination with the specific keys (as printed usually in blue on the keytop for those specific keys).

Hope this helps!

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