How to Disable Caps Lock Key on Windows 10

Tired of accidentally pressing the Caps Lock key? Here is a simple way to disable caps lock on your keyboard on Windows 10.

If you’ve been using computers for long enough, you might have once, twice, or even frequently pressed the Caps Lock key accidentally. Moreover, it doesn’t do any favors that the Caps Lock key is right above the Shift key. When the Caps Lock is active, you will not only see a tiny little light on your keyboard turn on but everything you type is capitalized. Unless you are trying to yell at someone, using all uppercase words is not a good thing.

The problem is, Windows doesn’t offer any easy-to-find or use options to disable the Caps Lock key. However, using free software like AutoHotKey or registry tricks you can turn off the Caps Lock key on Windows 10.

Disable Caps Lock Key on Your Keyboard

In this post, I will show two ways to turn off the Caps Lock key in Windows 10. The first method uses AutoHotKey, simple and free software to create custom shortcuts and macros. But, you can do much more than that. In fact, I’ve recently written a quick guide on how to put a window always on top using AutoHotKey.

The second method uses a simple registry trick to disable Caps Lock key. If you don’t like installing software and don’t mind registry edits, follow the second method.

Jump to:

• AutoHotKey method
• Registry method

1. Disable Caps Lock Key with AutoHotKey

Using AutoHotKey you can do many things. One of those things is the ability to disable any key on your keyboard. In our case, we will disable the Caps Lock key using AutoHotKey.

1. First, download and install AutoHotKey.
2. After installing, right-click on your desktop and select “New -> Text Document“.
   
3. In the text file, copy and paste the below code snippet.

   ; Disable Caps Lock key
   SetCapsLockState, AlwaysOff
   return

4. Press Ctrl + S to save the file.
   
5. Close the text file.
6. Rename the text file to disableCapsLock.ahk. Make sure that you replace .txt file extension with .ahk. This file now becomes an AutoHotKey script.
   
7. Double-click on the newly created file.
8. The script starts to run. You can see it in your taskbar.
   

That is it. Try to press the Caps Lock key while the script is running and you will see that the Caps Lock won’t turn on. If you want to use the Caps Lock key, exit the script by right-clicking on the taskbar icon and selecting the “Exit” option. Alternatively, you can also pause the script temporarily by selecting the “Pause” option.

2. Disable Caps Lock Key Using Registry

Alternatively, you can also modify the registry to disable the caps lock key on your keyboard. Before making any changes backup the registry and then continue.

Automatic method:

To make things easier for you, I’ve created a .reg file that disables or enables the Caps Lock. If you want to, you can open the reg file with Notepad to see which key and value are being modified.

• To disable Caps Lock, download this file, extract it to the desktop, right-click on it and select “Merge”. Click on the “Yes” button in subsequent windows.
• To enable Caps Lock, download this file, extract it to the desktop, right-click on it and select “Merge”. Click on the “Yes” button in subsequent windows.

Manual method:

1. Search for regedit in the start menu and open it.
2. Go to the following location.

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

   

3. Right-click on the right-panel and select “New -> Binary Value“.
   
4. Name the value as “Scancode Map“.
   
5. Double-click on the value.
6. Type in the following binary value in the Value Data field.

   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
   02 00 00 00 00 00 3A 00 
   00 00 00 00

   

7. Click on the “Ok” button to save changes.
8. Close registry.
9. Reboot Windows.

That is it. You’ve successfully disabled the Caps Lock key on your keyboard.

If you like this article, do check out how to open the emoji keyboard on Windows 10 and how to disable reserved storage on Windows 10 to free up some space.