I recently discovered a utility called KeyTweak, developed by Travis Krumsick, which is available as a free download and runs on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. KeyTweak, currently up to version 2.3.0, is a free keyboard re-mapper tool for Windows that lets you reassign the codes pressing a key usually generates.

 

For the low down on how it works Travis explains it this way “Simply put, KeyTweak is just a front-end interface for editing a particular registry key. Microsoft did the low-level heavy lifting by creating this registry key. KeyTweak makes the editing of it a little less geeky.”.

Why would you want to remap the keys on your keyboard? Well, if you have a laptop with a dodgy key it could benefit from being moved (e.g. a function key, or CAPS LOCK perhaps). Also, think about how often you might use some of the keys on your keyboard – the Right Alt key or Ctrl key for example – why not reprogram them to be more useful say to launch your favourites, power down the computer, or mute the sound.

The application works in two modes, a Full Teach Mode and a Half Teach Mode. The Full Teach Mode is useful if you want to swap two keys or move a key function whilst Half Teach Mode is useful if a particular key is not working as it lets you choose from a drop down list. A number of speciality buttons are also available to assign actions to keys such as browser based back, forward, stop, reload and home buttons and media functions such as mute, volume up, volume down, play, stop, and eject CD.

Once you have made changes to the KeyTweak program you will need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

To learn more and download the free application visit the KeyTweak homepage.