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Force Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock Keys Behavior Using Windows Registry

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Its a very common problem among Windows users. Whenever Windows starts, it automatically turns “CapsLock“, “NumLock” or “ScrollLock” keys On at login screen even if you turned the keys off before the login or boot screen.

If you want to permanently change their behavior, then you can use following steps to do so:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

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2. Now go to following key:

To change the behavior for currently logged in user:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard

To change the behavior for all users:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard

3. Now in right-side pane, change value of “InitialKeyboardIndicators” string value to any of following:

0 – Turn all indicators Off (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)
1 – Turn CapsLock On
2 – Turn NumLock On
3 – Turn CapsLock and NumLock On
4 – Turn ScrollLock On
5 – Turn CapsLock and ScrollLock On
6 – Turn NumLock and ScrollLock On
7 – Turn all indicators On (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)

Num_Lock_on_Login_Screen.png

4. That’s it. Exit registry editor and restart your system to take effect.

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Thanks to our active reader “Nitin Agarwal” for sharing this trick…

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Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

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Comments

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  1. on my windows 7 pro, i have the beep on for the caps but i would really like to have the little pop-up to show that the caps is on.
    how do i change that, if i can?

  2. on my windows 7 pro, i have the beep on for the caps but i would really like to have the little pop-up to show that the caps is on.
    how do i change that, if i can?

  3. ^^ Its shown by your multimedia keyboard software. If you got a setup disc with your keyboard, you can install the software to see the alerts.

  5. Thanks. It has been annoying that my laptop has a separate numeric keypad, but no way to have the system start up with the Numlock activated, until I found this very nice article.

  6. @VG

    I’ve tried following your instructions on a new Windows 8 computer, and I have set the “InitialKeyboardIndicators” registry value to 2 in both the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard” and “HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard” sections, but it is not working for me.

    I did some testing and found out that if I turn off the Hybrid Shutdown feature, then NumLock stays on like it is set to. Is this a bug with Windows 8, or is there yet another registry value I have to set to keep NumLock on after Hybrid Shutdown?

  7. ^^ Hybrid shutdown is similar to hibernate feature. It stores current state of Windows in memory, thats why its not working. You’ll need to disable hybrid shutdown feature.

  9. @VG

    If I hibernate the computer instead of using the hybrid shutdown feature NumLock will stay on, so I don’t think it’s related to hibernate feature.

    I guess I will just have to get used to it though as I like the Hybrid Shutdown feature.

  10. Does anyone knows how to turn on the Capslock on windows Mobile registry?
    Thanks in advance

  11. This information is incorrect. Doesn’t cover any BIOS related information or the fact that there is a difference between numlock at logon and numlock after logon. Also doesn’t cover several other important pieces of information. So other than being wrong and not covering the actual issue its a great.

  12. Is it possible to forever force numlock to be on? I constantly hit it when trying to hit backspace, which, in general purposes wouldn’t be so annoying if I wasn’t building number intensive spreadsheets. I see no reason to disable my keypad. Any way to just completely disable the option to toggle?

  13. ^^ You can use Sharp keys software to disable Num key action. In this way your Num keypad will always be On and accidentally pressing Num key will not toggle the functionality.

  14. THIS DOES NOT WORK. HOW DO YOU TURN CAP LOCKS ON. SO THAT WHEN YOU BOOT UP THE COMPUTER THE CAPS ARE ALREADY ON? YOU CAN PLAY WITH REGISTRY ALL YOU WANT THE CAPS LOCK WILL NOT GO ON. THE NUMLOCK WILL BUT NOT THE CAP LOCKS KEY.

  15. using windows 7 ultimate
    whenever i switch on pc the scroll lock get activated every time , i dont want this to happen every time , so suggest to deactivate automaticcaly

  16. My keyboar Windows7 has problem (Satellite S855-S5251)

    My Caps Lock (light on) : ” aaa – bbb …ect”

    My Caps Lock (light off) : “AAA -BBB ….ect”

    How to reset my keyboard to normal .Thankyou

  17. I have a new keyboard that illuminates when the Scroll lock button is pressed. It comes on by physically pressing the button or using the on-screen keyboard the Win7 has. I would like it to turn on automatically and I have tried the registry changes above with no success. Any ideas on how to proceed?

  18. I tried to activate numlock, but initialkeyboardindicater was: 2147483648, not 1, 2 or 3…
    (WIN10, ACER laptop).
    Can I replace the 10-digit number with a simple 2 without problems?

  19. Initial keyboard indicator is 10 numbers long: 2147483648
    (Toshiba; WIN 10)
    What are my options for forcing num lock?

  20. I have an HP laptop that I upgraded from vista to 7 pro, Don’t like all the Win10 stuff right now. They seem to like getting in everybody’s business now a days. Anyway I found a site that showed changing the string from 2147483648 to 2147483650 enabled the number lock key turned on at start up. It did the trick. I have read sited to change the long string to 2 and reboot but I don’t want to chance it until I understand what each number stands for in the string. But for now this is a fix that works for the HP. I had no way of changing things in the bios so I chose the regedit function, just remember you could mess things up if not careful.

  21. I have Windows 10 and made the adjustment to – Turn Num Lock On – yesterday and it worked after restarting. Today it does not and the – regedit – still has the changed setting. Why is today different?

  22. Followed the procedure for a W7 PC. apparently works but after restarting I find the the standard user number has reverted to 0. No problem with administrator login.

  23. Hi,

    How can I Permanently disable the Scroll lock key in Windows 7 Pro?

    I want this key disabled so that even if I happen to press it by accident,
    I do not toggle the Scroll Lock feature to “on”.

    I want “Scroll Lock” off, off, off . . . permanently!

    I don’t need this key, but its a real pain when it happens to get pressed
    and suddenly when I go to use my numeric keypad, the numbers don’t
    display as expected and I get the cursor jumping around instead.

    Thank you!

  25. WHEN I START COMPUTER MY KEYBOARD NUM LOCK AND CAPS LOCK KEY IS ALWAYS DISABLE WHAT THW PROCEDURE I COULD ENABLE WHEN I STRAT

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