thoth's Journal: Remapping Keys

Recently my left pinky started to ache. I was at a loss until I reached for the CTRL key and felt a stabbing pain. It seems I have a bit of RSI.

So I thought, why not remap CTRL and CAPS LOCK? Try that for a while and see if it helps.

This is no problem on OSX. Keyboard Preferences -> Modified Keys; done.

This is no problem on Linux. Specifics vary, but it can also be done. (For me using Fedora, it involved installing the gnome tweak tool and using it).

This is a pain in the ass on Windows. There is no built in preference for it. Instead, you get to EDIT THE REGISTRY and REBOOT. WTF?

So at work, I have 5 computers. 3 are under my control, so I can do this operation. 2 are not, they are "corporate managed" systems, where I'm not administrator, and editing the registry is disabled as well via group policy (so no trying to use HKEY_CURRENT_USER). The SysInternals tool "Ctrl2Cap" is also blocked.

Fortunately, those 3 computers I control are also the ones I do most my typing on.

Gizmos in the control panel do let you turn on sticky keys, toggle keys, filter keys, all this great (?) stuff, but not swap CTRL and CAPS LOCK. Goddamn.