SharpKeys 3.7

SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely. This official release includes support for up to 104 mappings, an extensive list of available keys, and a “Type Key” option to help when managing mappings. As it relies on internal support within Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 you must be running one of these OS’s for this Registry hack to work.

With the release of version 3.7, I’ve recompiled the most recent code that has been posted to the GitHub project. This version includes some bug fixes, “theoretical” support for triple byte keys and the Alt+GR key, and support for saving/loading the entire list of key mappings to/from a file. This feature has been asked several times but I’ve always directed people to export/import directly from/to the Registry using REG files but since it comes up often enough, I decided to add a couple of buttons to the UX. Save keys writes out the binary data represented by whatever keys are in the list and puts that information into a binary SKL file. This file can then be read back into SharpKeys using the Load keys button and selecting the stored SKL file. Please remember that regardless of how you build your list of key mappings – Add/Edit or Loading an SKL file – you’ll still need to write the changes to the Registry and then either sign in/out or reboot for the changes to take hold.

As always, I encourage anyone interested in working on the code to visit http://www.github.com/randyrants/sharpkeys for more project changes.

Download SharpKeys 3.7: MSI | ZIP | requires .NET Framework 4.0


48 thoughts on “SharpKeys 3.7”

    1. Oops. The updated FAQ file got there but not the binary. I’ve updated the ZIP package now. Sorry about that!

      1. Hey Randy, I love Sharpkeys! My only question is if it is possible to remap a function like fn+f1? I try to enter it but it says I have entered a key sharpkeys doesn’t know about.

  1. hi i just download the latest version to try and rid myself of the pointless AltGr function (left control and right alt combined) but sharpkeys isnt doing the job unfortunately :(

    1. What exactly isn’t working? Is it not being read by Type Key or is it in the list and the mapping just not working?

  2. i wish to remap my kb with diacriticals for a and e (french), but idon’t know the codes.
    can you help?
    peter

  3. Randy, I was hoping the SharpKeys could solve my two issues. It has solved one — making the AltGr on the right act like the Alt on the left — but I cannot seem to get the second one to work:

    On the (my grandson’s machine) the Win key is on the right, and the Fn key is on the left. I want to swap those so that the keyboard more closely resembles the US key board. Any help?

    1. Sadly, Fn keys don’t always get passed to Windows so Windows cannot remap them. Ironically, the other key you’re trying to map (Alt) cannot be identified by Type a Key because Windows eats it before my UI can reflect it. You can find the Alt keys in the list of keys under “Special”.

  4. Hi, Randy

    Many thx for your nice app! ;-)
    And, seeing your faq.htm, the timestamp seems we’re going on our future :-p

    “3.7 – 26-Dec-2018/3.7.0.0”

  5. Hi. It doesn’ work in my Asus Laptop.
    I’m trying to replace:
    “p” to “[”
    “backspace” to “=”
    and “vol up” to “home”

    No success at all. Followed all the steps

    1. Volume Up is often hard to map because it is often hardware based so Windows cannot remap it. That said, I’m not sure why the other keys cannot be remapped: after you’ve saved the mappings and rebooted, do the remappings show up in the UI?

  6. Greetings! Just downloaded sharpkeys37.msi to my Dell laptop running Win 7 32-bit to update the long-installed (and appreciated) version 36 and Windows Installer rejected it with “This installation package is not supported by this processor type. Contact your product vendor.” Thoughts?

    Thanks,
    George
    Arizona

  7. I’m having a slight issue with AltGr as well. It reads it fine when typing, and saves it in the list correctly, but then if you close the app, restart and reload it, the AltGr (E0_2038) entry has reverted back to the Right Alt value (E0_38) and the expected override doesn’t work.

    Other than that minor issue, great little app :D

    1. Please report this on the GitHub site – there are more devs working on the source (and since I don’t have a keyboard with AltGr) that can lend some help to fix this.

  8. Thanks Randy. I have had this issue of volume down button being continuously pressed. By using your software and mapping that volume down button to none, I have been relieved of that problem. Thanks man. Cheers.

  9. Hi Randy,

    I’m a longtime Mac user, and I just got a PC for video editing. I’m still using my Mac keyboard. I’d like to map the control key on my PC to the command key on the Mac keyboard, which I’ve done using SharpKeys. But when I go to copy and paste something, it doesn’t seem to work. Instead of control-C for copy, I’d like to use command-C like I would on a Mac. I restarted the computer to after setting up the change in SharpKeys. Any idea why, even though SharpKeys modified the keys, the functionality of copy and paste doesn’t work?

    1. I don’t think this can be done. I mean you’d have to remap the whole key and once that key is remapped, Windows should see it as the actual key. The problem here is that if you swap Ctrl and Win to be the layout of Command and Ctrl, Win+C still doesn’t copy. Sorry!

  10. It’s work great with my firth pc but for my second it can’t find the key for unable/desable my webcam can you help me ?
    My pc is a Lenovo ideapad 320 and the key is the one on the same button of F8.

    Sorry for my bad english and thanks you.

    1. Laptops often have hardware keys which cannot be remapped because Windows doesn’t get the commands, which means Windows cannot remap it. Might want to try AutoHotKeys which is an active remapper.

  11. This is really great. Thanks. I’ve just started using Windows 10 for gaming, though my programming work is all on Linux. Cap lock/left control swapping was my last hurdle.

  12. Hello Randy – I installed SharpKeys 3.7, and used it to re-map my single quote key to another unused key (I was having probs w/ the quotes key b/c i had somehow switched to American International layout). Biggest prob is that I use the single quote in my Win7 logon p/w and now I cannot get it to work. I\d at least like to uninstall SharpKeys and clear that assignment. But since it does not show up in C/P Programs as an .exe file, I cannot uninstall it from there.
    Hoping that you (or anyone else) can help with this. Many thanks, too.

    1. Uninstalling SharpKeys will not undo the remapping – you need to clean out the Registry for that. You should be able to boot to Safe Mode, run SharpKeys, remove all the remappings, and reboot to normal.

  13. Hi Randy,

    My backspace key no longer works so I tried using Sharpkeys 3.7 to remap to the right shift key at first, no dice. I then tried right alt, and finally the \ key and after saving and restarting each time the remap doesnt work. The shift, alt, and \ keys would just work like normal after restarting. The change is saved on the program. I’m running Windows 10 with .net framework 4 as instructed. Any thoughts? Thanks!

    1. If the remappings were still there when SharpKeys opened after the reboot, they were saved correctly, but I cannot say why Windows is not respecting the remappings. Might want to post the question over at GitHub and see if any contributors have suggestions.

  14. Hi Randy – Just want to say thanks. Sharpkeys fixes an issue on my Acer netbooks. I find these things great for travel but for some reason Acer decided to make keys [PgUp / Fn-Home] and [PgDn / Fn-End]. When writing I hit what should be the End key wind up on a new page instead of the end of a line. I just swap these keys in Sharpkeys to get [Fn-PgUp / Home] and [Fn-PgDn / End] and have way less frustration. Maybe useful for other Acer users.

  15. Hi Randy. Could you make SharpKeys support the key with code E0_1F6D? My new HP laptop does not have an insert key, and there is a special key (with an icon of a monitor on it) which I could use for insert function. Unfortunately this is the only key which’s original function I won’t miss later. Regards: Tamas

    1. Please post this one over at GitHub. Now that the product has gone open source, there are other people working on it, including seeing if HP specific keys can be remapped.

  16. Hi Randy,

    My Q key no longer works so I tried using Sharpkeys 3.7 to remap to the right menu key, thank you. At the corner of q key, there is @ symbol. Because of this key doesn´t work, I tried remap to the right Alt Gr, (On Sharpkeys from: special: Right alt (E0_38 Key: 2 @ (00_03) but it didn´t work. It always remap 2. How can I remap @ symbol?
    Regards.

    1. You can’t. You have to remap an entire key so the 2 and @ get remapped – you cannot remap just the @ with SharpKeys.

  17. Can you add 00_100 to the database? It is where the ESC button normally goes on this bluetooth keyboard and I want to map it to ESC.

    Thanks!

    1. Nope: 00_100 is a generic catch all key so there’s no telling what it would remap on a given keyboard much less multiple keyboards.

  18. Hi Randy,
    could you please add the letter ‘ñ’ ? it is a hassle to write, I think only spanish keyboards have it and I wolud like to remap some key here to that letter.
    Thank you.

  19. Hi Randy – great app!
    I used this some years back on a Win7 Bookcamp iMac with AZERTY French Apple keyboard. It worked a treat.
    I tried to use it recently with Windows 10 bootcamp to remap the @/# to the key, it claims the top left @/# (ISO extra key (00_56) is not supported and to check for updated version which I have tried.

    The keyboard is setup correctly as AZERTY (Apple French) – yuk!

    the current configuration is for:
    @ = Special: ISO extra key (00_56)
    = (00_29)
    It saves to registry but has no effect after reboot.
    Let me know of any ideas and thanks again!
    Br M

  20. Hey I got this annoying button on my HP Spectre laptop on the F1 slot with a “?” symbol, between esc and lower brightness, and all it does is opens internet explorer and bing searches “how to get help in windows 10” and I accidentally hit it all the time and it drives me insane. I tried to use sharpkeys to disable it, but the program said it doesn’t know that key. How do we get this key added to the library??!!

    1. Also, is there a way to disable the airplane mode button? The program doesn’t react when I press that.

  21. My [Dell XPS 9350] keyboard’s right arrow key stopped working, so I remapped my right shift key to right arrow using SharpKeys. Six months later, I finally replaced the keyboard, and I’d like to set it back to normal. But when I tried to remap the shift key, it remapped both shift and right arrow – SharpKeys doesn’t seem to be able to distinguish them anymore. How can I set the shift key to shift but the arrow key to arrow?

  22. Hello Randy, Great app !
    I’m using it on my new Dell Precision 7550, where the ‘Home’ and ‘End’ keys are also Fn11 and Fn12 keys. With your app, I’ve made these exclusively ‘Home’ and ‘End’, whether Fn keys are activated or not. This has completely changed my typing experience. I’m very gratefull, thanks !

  23. Hey Randy,

    Thanks alot for making SharpKeys public but I saw think I found an annoying limitation (at least for me).

    I reassigned the Up, Down, Left and Right Keys, which worked perfectly.

    But when I try using any of them in combination with Ctrl + Alt (for example Ctrl + Alt + Left arrow to select a whole word), it doesn’t work.

    I tried thought I would have to assign those combinations of keys myself but it looks like SharpKeys doesn’t handle it (when I click on the “Type key” button, it only selects the last key (for example the left key when I click on Ctrl + Alt + Left key).

    Do you think you can do anything about it?

    Best,

    Lolo

  24. Buen dia
    Quiero desactivar la tecla de grados “º” pero no aparece en la lista de . He visto unos que no estan identificados que inician con Unknow… puedes decirme a cual corresponde al código de grados o no está establecido en el listado. Gracias.

    1. Mucho gusto – lamento que no hablo español so I’ll answer in English. I don’t know of a degree key that is a “single” meaning that the whole key is just the degree symbol. On an es-ES keyboard, I imagine it’s like a ! or $ where it’s a SHIFT key of something. For that, SharpKeys cannot help as it moves the whole key but you might want to give Microsoft PowerToys a try as that can remap modified keys, like SHIFT+4 for $.


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