The pesky capslock and inserts keys on Windows computers

It is a complete mystery to me why computer keyboards even have a capslock key. Old timers like me have a theory that in the old fashioned days of typewriters there was a practical reason, but surely there is no reason for it now. See capsoff for a history lesson. Nowadays it is just a key that you hit by accident. At home I use the Happy Hacking keyboard. That's right, I spent extra money to get a keyboard that doesn't have the capslock key!

For several years I have using registry hacks to disable the capslock key. It is one of the first things I do when setting myself up on a new machine. But until recently I didn't know what to do about another pesky key: the insert key. That's the key that makes typing either insert or overwrite according to the current setting. The current setting is not displayed so you only find out if you have hit it by accident when you notice that the last few characters you typed overwrote instead of inserting. Unlike the numlock key, the insert key has no feedback to tell you its current state. So this is another key you might want to disable. I couldn't find a registry hack for that but recently I found a great program for Windows called SharpKeys. This does allow you to turn off the insert key and, of course, the capslock key. So I now resolve to use SharpKeys whereever I go from now on. I hope you find it useful too.