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My home laptop doesn't have any lights or indicators to show that I've got numlock, caps lock or scroll lock on. The only indication I get is when a program tells me I got caps lock on when entering a password, and that's just for caps lock. It's possible I missed this indicator somewhere, but there is no indicator near the button and no indicator above the keyboard.

I use Windows 7, with an Acer Aspire 2528 (I think, haven't checked the serial number recently, but it's a few years old by now, from 2010). I'm looking for preferably a built-in message from Windows which will tell me if I got numlock or caps lock enabled.

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    I can't believe such question exists.
    – setzamora
    Jan 20, 2014 at 12:06
  • @Joset Why, exactly? I doubt my laptop model is the only one without indicator lights.
    – Nzall
    Jan 20, 2014 at 12:14
  • because the fastest way to know is by following what @gladiator2345 said
    – setzamora
    Jan 20, 2014 at 12:19
  • 1) @gladiator2345 doesn't account for shift-lock; 2) You don't always have a text field to enter keys into, while the effect can differ based on the state of these lock buttons.
    – Nzall
    Jan 20, 2014 at 12:25

6 Answers 6

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Simplest method:
Type one character, then press 4 on num pad:

  • If a character is typed in the field, then num lock is on.
  • If cursor moves to left then num lock is off.

When num lock is off 4 works as left arrow key.

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For Windows 10 with no num lock indicator light, you can go to SETTINGS, EASE OF ACCESS, KEYBOARD, USE OF TOGGLE KEYS, TURN ON SOUND so that a sound will alert you when caps lot, num lock, etc is on. I didn't realize this until after I brought my laptop home. I never thought to ask at Best Buy either. HP you did a disservice when you don't have this as a simple basic on the laptop for this model.

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Use the native Windoze "on screen keyboard": open CMD and type osk or just type "osk" on Cortana search. There is an options key on the on screen keyboard that you have to open and click "turn on numeric pad". Voila ! You will have all indicators you need.

But I agree, it's rather intrusive... I'd rather have a small all always running to tell me that and I could just glance at it. My problem is that my external keyboard HAS the lights, but I'm on a Macbook and thanks Apple, the num lock doesn't lite up; my last resource is the "osk"

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download Keyboard indicator for your tray from

http://roidayan.com/2015/06/here-is-keyboard-indicator-v1-6/

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  • 1
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    – bwDraco
    Jun 24, 2017 at 22:02
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If you have Microsoft Office installed, start Excel and check the status bar, it lists all the lock keys if they are on. Right click on the status bar to check which keys are indicated, you can check and uncheck them.

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On LINUX, You can try getting info with xset:

xset q | grep Caps

Result:

00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    on     02: Scroll Lock: off

For more options, see https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/207766/20661

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