One day I came into our office and found that a keyboard on the table of one of our leading developers was broken. Several buttons were missing. Horrible black gaps where keys used to be. We all were astonished. Who would commit this foolish crime? Soon, Mike, the keyboard owner, appeared and explained that he had broken the keyboard himself. The previous evening, he had lost a significant portion of his code by pressing one of the extended keys accidentally. After that, he got a screwdriver and picked out all the extended keys!

Thrilled with Mike's case, we decided to study less radical opportunities to solve this problem. Virtually all modern keyboards come with a set of extended keys: a pair of Windows Logo Keys and power control keys. Multimedia keys are normally hard to be pressed accidentally. They are small and located relatively far from the standard keys. The most dangerous extended keys are located within the standard key areas. These are Windows Logo keys, Caps and Num Locks, Insert and Power Control keys. You can easily touch them when typing or when playing games. Pressed in combination with other buttons, they can cause unpredictable effects.

The most versatile and flexible software solution that we've found is called I Hate This Key (did they know Mike's story?) This handy utility sits in the system tray and allows you to control special key behavior. You can either disarm the Windows Logo keys completely or in full-screen applications only, e.g. in games. The program lets you make your Caps and Num Lock buttons safer. No need to disable them completely. You can choose from Doubleclick or Click and hold modes. This is especially important for wireless keyboards that have no Caps and Num Lock indicators. Insert can be automatically disabled in text editors, yet, it can continue to function in combinations (Ctrl+Ins, Shift+Ins etc.) Power Keys and F-Lock can be configured as well.

• Extended Keys Manager 1.0
  Control Caps, Num, and Scroll Lock Keyboard Keys with Keyboard Software Utility. Control Initial State of Extended Keys with Simple and Easy to Use Software Utility. The Keyboard...

• TogglesInTray 1.2.
  TogglesInTray is a user-friendly keyboard utility which allows you to display the state of your Caps Lock and Num Lock keys

• Keyboard Leds 2.3
  Lots of notebooks, netbooks and cordless keyboards have no indicators for Caps Lock, and Num Lock. Scroll Lock's bulb disappeared almost from any hardware for now. Keyboard Leds software solves this problem. The program lets you know the current...

• Clever Keyboard Indicator 3.0
  Features:* Display "Caps Lock", "Num Lock" and "Scroll Lock" indicators in the windows system tray (next to the Clock)* Allow the user to specify which indicators should be shown/hidden, set the indicators order and give ability to load custom icons for each indicator* Play a sound when "Caps Lock", "Num Lock", "Scroll Lock" status changed or "Ins" key pressed and allow user to select custom sounds* Play sound a notification when a custom combination of keys are pressed* Display OSD (on screen display) text when "Caps Lock", "Num Lock", "Scroll Lock" or "Ins" pressed * Display OSD text when a custom combination of keys are pressed* Select Font, Colors, Position, Transparency, Display Time and many other options for OSD* Turn on the "Num Lock" status every time when your PC starts up* Use PC beeper for all sound notifications (very useful if you do not have a sound card installed)* Suspend all sounds (silent mode)and more

• sMaRTcaPs 5.01
  sMaRTcaPs is a Windows utility that completely eliminates all of the annoyances with the Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Insert keys. With sMaRTcaPs, there is no more ruined work, saving you time, money, and frustration. And it works in the background for all of your Windows 98 and later applications.sMaRTcaPs prevents all accidental touches of these...

• KbdEdit 1.1.10.
  Keyboard customization under Windows has never been easy

• Keyboard LED Control 1.09
  Keyboard LED Control is a tool to control LED of the Numlock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock indicator lights on the keyboard, which can be controlled in the Numlock, Capslock, and Scroll Lock key state of being always on, always off or flash. Keyboard...