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How to Remap Keyboard Keys on Windows

By chunan

How to Remap Keyboard Keys on Windows

If one or more of your keys are broken or your favorite key is too far to reach normally, you can remap that key to a different button. You may also want to disable some keys to stop your PC from interfering with your gameplay, such as the Windows key.

Some exclusive and premium keyboards have special software that allows you to directly remap the keys. However, for any other general keyboards, you can use the Windows registry editor to remap.

This process requires some technical steps but we will easily guide you through every step of the process.

How to Remap Keys on Your Keyboard?

You can either use the registry or the Microsoft Powertoys to remap a key. Be careful not to remap the keys you need to log in to your Windows. You can always use the on-screen keyboard if you’ve done it already.

Using the Registry Editor

The registry is a Windows database that stores the most basic level of data. The registry contains keys that are the root or location of the Windows component. Similarly, values are the binary representation of the state of that component. 

Note: We advise being careful while tampering with the registry editor as any unwanted changes can cause serious damage to the operating system. So, backup your registry before making any changes to the registry values.

However, you will be fine if you just follow these step-wise processes.

  1. Press Windows key + R, type regedit and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
  2. Then navigate to this key from the left bar.
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout
    The keyboard layout key defines the layout or the location of each character on the keyboard.
  3. Right-click on the empty space in the right bar and click on New > Binary Value.
    new-scancode-map
  4. Rename it to “Scancode Map”
  5. Double click on the newly added registry key.
  6. We will now enter binary data on the newly added key to remap the keys. Even though it says Binary value, we need to input the hexadecimal representation of the keys. You can check the Hexadecimal key for every character on your keyboard in the table below.
0000 - -- Turn Key Off  0100 - Escape  0200 - Key: 1 !  0300 - Key: 2 @  0400 - Key: 3 #  0500 - Key: 4 $  0600 - Key: 5 %  0700 - Key: 6 ^  0800 - Key: 7 &  0900 - Key: 8 *  0A00 - Key: 9 (  0B00 - Key: 0 )  0C00 - Key: - _  0D00 - Key: = +  0E00 - Backspace  0F00 - Tab    1000 - Key: Q  1100 - Key: W  1200 - Key: E  1300 - Key: R  1400 - Key: T  1500 - Key: Y  1600 - Key: U  1700 - Key: I  1800 - Key: O  1900 - Key: P  1A00 - Key: [ {  1B00 - Key: ] }  1C00 - Enter  1D00 - Left Ctrl  1E00 - Key: A  1F00 - Key: S    2000 - Key: D  2100 - Key: F  2200 - Key: G  2300 - Key: H  2400 - Key: J  2500 - Key: K  2600 - Key: L  2700 - Key: ; :  2800 - Key: ' \"  2900 - Key: ` ~  2A00 - Left Shift  2B00 - Key: \\ |  2C00 - Key: Z  2D00 - Key: X  2E00 - Key: C  2F00 - Key: V    3000 - Key: B  3100 - Key: N  3200 - Key: M  3300 - Key: , <  3400 - Key: . >  3500 - Key: / ?  3600 - Right Shift  3700 - Num: *  3800 - Left Alt  3900 - Space  3A00 - Caps Lock  3B00 - F1  3C00 - F2  3D00 - F3  3E00 - F4  3F00 - F5    4000 - F6  4100 - F7  4200 - F8  4300 - F9  4400 - F10  4500 - Num Lock  4600 - Scroll Lock  4700 - Num: 7  4800 - Num: 8  4900 - Num: 9  4A00 - Num: -  4B00 - Num: 4  4C00 - Num: 5  4D00 - Num: 6  4E00 - Num: +  4F00 - Num: 1    5000 - Num: 2  5100 - Num: 3  5200 - Num: 0  5300 - Num: .  5600 - ISO extra key  5700 - F11  5800 - F12  6400 - F13  6500 - F14  6600 - F15  6700 - F16   // Mac keyboard   6800 - F17   // Mac keyboard  6900 - F18   // Mac keyboard  6A00 - F19   // Mac keyboard  6B00 - F20   // IBM Model F 122-keys  6C00 - F21   // IBM Model F 122-keys  6D00 - F22   // IBM Model F 122-keys  6E00 - F23   // IBM Model F 122-keys  6F00 - F24   // IBM Model F 122-keys    07E0 - F-Lock: Redo  08E0 - F-Lock: Undo    10E0 - Media: Prev Track  11E0 - App: Messenger  12E0 - Logitech: Webcam  13E0 - Logitech: iTouch  14E0 - Logitech: Shopping  19E0 - Media: Next Track  1CE0 - Num: Enter  1DE0 - Right Ctrl    20E0 - Media: Mute  21E0 - App: Calculator  22E0 - Media: Play/Pause  23E0 - F-Lock: Spell  24E0 - Media: Stop  2EE0 - Media: Volume Down    30E0 - Media: Volume Up  32E0 - Web: Home  35E0 - Num: /  37E0 - PrtSc  38E0 - Right Alt  3BE0 - F-Lock: Help  3CE0 - F-Lock: Office Home  3DE0 - F-Lock: Task Pane  3EE0 - F-Lock: New  3FE0 - F-Lock: Open    40E0 - F-Lock: Close  41E0 - F-Lock: Reply  42E0 - F-Lock: Fwd  43E0 - F-Lock: Send  45E0 - €  46E0 - Break  47E0 - Home  48E0 - Arrow: Up  49E0 - Page Up  4BE0 - Arrow: Left  4DE0 - Arrow: Right  4FE0 - End    50E0 - Arrow: Down  51E0 - Page Down  52E0 - Insert  53E0 - Delete  56E0 - < > |  57E0 - F-Lock: Save  58E0 - F-Lock: Print  5BE0 - Left Windows  5CE0 - Right Windows  5DE0 - Application  5EE0 - Power  5FE0 - Sleep    63E0 - Wake (or Fn)  65E0 - Web: Search  66E0 - Web: Favorites  67E0 - Web: Refresh  68E0 - Web: Stop  69E0 - Web: Forward  6AE0 - Web: Back  6BE0 - App: My Computer  6CE0 - App: Mail  6DE0 - App: Media Select
  1. Click on the empty space under ‘Value data’ and input eight “00” values, making it a total of 16 on the first line. 
    They are the ‘header’ of the scancode. The first 00 00 00 00 represents version information while the other 00 00 00 00represents Flags. 
    scancode-map
  2. Go to the second line and enter the number of mappings you want in XX 00 00 00 00 format. Replace the ‘XX’ with the number of mappings you want to do plus 1 in the hexadecimal system. The extra one represents the null value. For example, if you want to map two keys, you should enter ‘03’
  3. Then we finally enter the binary values of the keys we need to map.
    The first 4 values represent the location of the key we are mapping to, and the later 4 values represent the key we are mapping from. 
  4. Finally, add 00 00 00 00 at the end, which represents the null terminator.
    So if you want to map the Right alt button to the Spacebar, it will look something like this:
    registry-1
  5. If you want to map multiple keys at once, you will have to add multiple mapping keys before the null terminator. For example,
    registry-map-2-1
    This will map the Right alt button to the Spacebar ,and the Y key to the P key. Don’t forget to change the ‘XX’ value accordingly. 
  6. You can also swap two keys by using this multiple mapping technique. Just make two identical mappings and reverse the mapping position of one of them.
    registry-map-3
    This will swap positions of the ‘P’ key and the ‘I’ key.
  7. In case you want to disable a key, you can map the key to 00 00, which doesn’t refer to any actual keys.
    registry-map-4-1
  8. Restart your computer to apply these changes.

Using the Powertoys Program

Microsoft Powertoys is the official software that provides users with more Windows customization options. You can use the Keyboard manager to remap your keys.

Follow these steps to learn how to use it:

  1. Go to Microsoft PowerToys and download the app from the Microsoft store.
  2. Launch the Powertoys app and click on the three horizontal lines in the top left corner.
  3. Go to Keyboard manager.
  4. Click on Remap a key.
  5. Press the ‘+’ button under the key to add a mapping.
    powertoys-keboard-remap
  6. You can either click on the Type button to choose by pressing the character to be mapped or click on the dropdown arrow to select the key yourself. 
  7. Then click the Mapped To button to choose the key to map to. You can click on the + again to map more keys.
  8. Click on OK to apply the changes. 

How to Remove the Keyboard Mapping?

If you mapped the keys using the registry, follow these steps to disable them:

  1. Press Windows + R and type regedit to open the registry.
  2. Go to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout 
  3. Right-click and Delete the ‘Scancode Map’ key we made before.
    delete-scancode-map
  4. Press Yes to confirm and Restart your PC to apply the changes.

If you used the Powertoys app, press the delete button next to the key mapping to remove them and then click OK to confirm.

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