How to permanently remap a key in Windows 11 (Home)?

September 26, 2023 3:20 AM

I want to permanently remap the Windows key to Ctrl on my gaming laptop running Windows 11 Home. I am pretty technical and happy to go well under the hood but don't have deep understanding of Windows, as I am more of a linux/mac person.

Currently I'm using PowerToys but it doesn't stick -- most times I pick up the laptop I have to go into PowerToys and switch the Keyboard manager off and on again to reactivate the remapping. I have PowerToys set to run on startup and running as administrator. Is there something more permanent I can do?

posted by Rhedyn to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

I think AutoHotkey should do the job... fantastic tool to learn for other automation jobs as well. I have a script with it set up to run on startup and permanently provide several multi-keypress mappings to things like home and end keys which don't exist on my mini external keyboard.
posted by protorp at 4:29 AM on September 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I used the open source Sharpkeys to remap a couple of the "media" keys onto pageUp/down (which otherwise don't have dedicated keys on this laptop). It should work for remapping the Windows key as well. It's ultimately just an interface for editing the Windows registry, and I believe you need to reboot before any changes actually take effect.
posted by nobody at 5:51 AM on September 26, 2023 [4 favorites]

(By the way, if you're planning to give up the Windows key completely, note before you do that there are a bunchof handy keyboard commands tied to it. Win-E is the one I use multiple times every day (to open a new file browser window). Win-I opens system settings. Tap the Windows button once on its own and you can start typing the name of any program on you're computer you're looking to run. And I only just learned that Win-[#1-9] will jump directly to that numbered program as currently ordered in the taskbar, which can be a lot quicker than alt-tabbing if you have a lot of things open.)
posted by nobody at 6:14 AM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

AutoHotkey and then these rules to swap the keys, add this to an .ahk file and run at startup/login.

; switch the left control and Windows keys
LCtrl::LWin
LWin::Ctrl
posted by Lanark at 6:16 AM on September 26, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Autohotkey is great for more elaborate automation and scripting, but for this you really want the much simpler Sharpkeys, as nobody links to above. There are elaborate registry-patch hacks you can do for this kind of work but: don't. Use Sharpkeys.
posted by mhoye at 6:16 AM on September 26, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Sharpkeys working perfectly, thanks all!
posted by Rhedyn at 9:59 AM on September 26, 2023

Just to add a different solution altogether ... AIUI, you are mapping the Windows key to behave the same as the Ctrl key which is right next to it. Presumably this is because you are annoyed at Microsoft for shoving that key in there in the first place, because you have been mistakenly hitting it when you wanted Ctrl. This is especially annoying if you are old enough to remember when that spot had a gap that you could use to feel (register) the Ctrl-vs-Alt keys without looking, just like many of us do with the directional arrows on 102-key keyboards. In that case, may I suggest my personal solution? Pull the keycaps off the keyboard entirely. Literally take some needlenose pliers and pull those suckers right off. Wonderful :)
posted by intermod at 9:14 PM on September 26, 2023