Credit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
As a de facto standard, most keyboards have 104 keys. While most of these keys are quite useful, there’s one key that I find completely unnecessary. I’m talking about the Caps Lock key. Here’s why I think so and what I did to turn it into one of the most useful keys on my keyboard.
Why add Caps Lock in the first place?
Before understanding why the Caps Lock key makes little sense these days, it’s important to know why it was introduced to keyboards in the first place. The origin of the Caps Lock key dates back to the typewriter era, long before modern keyboards or even computers existed.
The early typewriters were only capable of producing capital l…
Credit: Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek
As a de facto standard, most keyboards have 104 keys. While most of these keys are quite useful, there’s one key that I find completely unnecessary. I’m talking about the Caps Lock key. Here’s why I think so and what I did to turn it into one of the most useful keys on my keyboard.
Why add Caps Lock in the first place?
Before understanding why the Caps Lock key makes little sense these days, it’s important to know why it was introduced to keyboards in the first place. The origin of the Caps Lock key dates back to the typewriter era, long before modern keyboards or even computers existed.
The early typewriters were only capable of producing capital letters. The ability to type lowercase letters was introduced in later versions of the typewriter by placing two symbols or letters on each type bar. To switch to uppercase, you had to hold the newly introduced Shift key. While it wasn’t a problem to type a single letter in uppercase, issues began to arise when there was a need to type long strings of uppercase letters.
You see, holding the Shift key required constant mechanical pressure, which used to tire the finger when typing long strings of capital letters. To tackle this issue, a new key was added to typewriters, labeled Shift Lock, or simply Lock in some models. This key acted as a mechanical latch that locked the Shift in place, eliminating the need to keep holding the Shift key. Press the Shift Lock key, and the typewriter would continue producing capital letters until the Shift Lock key was pressed again.
Considering the usage of the Shift Lock key, it was replicated on computer keyboards as well, although it was renamed to Caps Lock. However, unlike the Shift Lock key on typewriters, which modified the function of every key, including letters and other characters, the Caps Lock key on computer keyboards only affects letters.
Why is Caps Lock the most useless key?
Computer keyboards have changed a lot over time. Unlike typewriters, modern keyboard switches are usually very soft to press, and some modern keyboards even follow ergonomic designs. Lighter switches allow you to keep your preferred finger on the Shift key, which, for me, is the pinky finger. So whenever I want to type even a long string of uppercase letters, I gently press and hold the Shift key with my left-hand pinky finger while typing the required letters with my right hand and the remaining fingers of my left hand. Unlike typewriters, holding the Shift key for a long time doesn’t put any strain on my pinky finger, because modern keyboards require far less mechanical pressure.
The worst part about the Caps Lock key is its placement on keyboards. There have been many times when I’ve pressed the Caps Lock key (thinking it was the Shift key) while trying to type a single uppercase letter. As a result, I end up typing an entire STRING OF UPPERCASE LETTERS when I only meant to capitalize one.
Aside from capitalizing letters, which most users do with the Shift key, the Caps Lock key has no significant use case at all. Windows does allow you to use the Caps Lock key as the narrator key, but that’s a very niche feature. There’s also an option to use the Insert key for this purpose.
Furthermore, the Caps Lock key doesn’t modify the function of other keys on your keyboard. For instance, you can’t press the Caps Lock key and then the number 4 key expecting it to type the dollar sign instead of the number 4. Instead, you need to press the number 4 in conjunction with the Shift key if you want to type the dollar sign in your document.
For all these reasons, I think the Caps Lock key is the most useless key on my keyboard. It doesn’t have any exclusive function and is just taking up valuable space.
How to turn Caps Lock into something useful
While Windows and macOS have yet to make a strong decision about what to do with the Caps Lock key on their keyboards, Google took the bold and right step a while ago. It removed the Caps Lock key from Chromebooks and replaced it with a Search key.
Anyway, on macOS, you have the built-in option to disable the Caps Lock key completely so you don’t end up pressing it accidentally. It’s also possible to remap it to any other important key. However, this functionality isn’t built into Windows.
You’ll need to use key mapping software to remap the Caps Lock key to any other key on Windows. While there are plenty of options you can try, such as AutoHotKey and MapKeyboard, I personally prefer Microsoft PowerToys.
If you don’t have it installed, download it from the Microsoft Store. Then, launch Microsoft PowerToys, click the drop-down icon next to “Input/Output” in the left sidebar, and select “Keyboard Manager.”
Turn on the toggle next to “Enable Keyboard Manager,” and click the “Remap a Key” option.
Click the “Add Key Remapping” button, then click “Select.” Press the Caps Lock key and click “OK.”
Click the “Select” button under the To Send section and choose the key you want to remap it to. I’ve replaced it with another Shift key because, as I mentioned earlier, I often used to press it thinking it was the Shift key. Now that I’ve actually remapped it to the Shift key, I won’t accidentally type an entire string in uppercase when I only intend to capitalize a single letter.
That said, you can remap it to any key of your choice. For instance, you might remap it to a key that isn’t functioning properly on your keyboard or even assign it a custom keyboard shortcut. My younger sister, for example, has remapped the Caps Lock key on her Windows PC to the Win+Shift+S shortcut that activates the Snipping Tool. Now, whenever she wants to take a screenshot, she simply presses the Caps Lock key instead of using the long Win+Shift+S combination.
Interestingly, it’s also possible to replace the Caps Lock key with a specific phrase that you often use. To do this, select “Send Text” from the To Send drop-down menu. Then, in the text field that appears, type the phrase you want to assign to the Caps Lock key.
Once you’ve reassigned the Caps Lock key to a function of your choice, click “OK” at the top to confirm your changes. Now, whenever you press the Caps Lock key, Windows will perform the actions you’ve remapped it to.
I would have really appreciated it if Microsoft had replaced the Caps Lock key with the Copilot key on its new AI PCs instead of giving the Copilot key a completely new place on the keyboard. Anyway, considering that Google has already gotten rid of the Caps Lock key and a large number of users have replaced it with something else, it probably won’t be long before Microsoft encourages OEMs to completely remove the Caps Lock key from keyboards altogether.