Disabling keys?

[Konrad]

Alas, I use generic and gaming keyboards which invariably all have lousy special keys for Sleep, Wake, and Power. Very annoying things to inadvertently press during normal use. Actually I hate them and every time I accidentally send my computer into a sleep/shutdown cycle I curse the ****ty bastards who invented these useless bloody keys. They override any OS settings which normally govern power saving features.
 
The Windows/GUI keys (Start, File) can also be annoying when inadvertently pressed, most especially when running Windows and/or when running fullscreen games.
 
Can anyone recommend any (not brand/model specific) methods or software to remap or disable these keys? I'm seriously thinking of severing the traces on the key matrix, though I'm willing to consider less permanent solutions first; especially where my employers may not approve of me modding their keyboards. I might even design an in-line controller device to filter out undesired scan codes (and perhaps install a little keylogger while I'm there.)

[washuai]

Well, Windows itself, lets you disable sleep, wake and power.  You can often disable them from BIOS (less so the power), which is generally part of ACPI.  You can get a physical key lock or use autohotkey to disable the windows key.

Microsoft Windows XP users

By default, Microsoft Windows XP will prompt you what to do when the power button is pressed on the keyboard. If you wish to change this setting, follow the below steps.

Click Start / Settings / Open the Control panel
Within the Control Panel click Power Options
In the Power Options Properties window, click the Advanced tab.
Under Power buttons, click the down arrow under "When I press the power button on my computer" and/or "When I press the sleep button on my computer" and select the action you wish to perform when pressing the key.

[Konrad]

You'll note that I already mentioned that. Already tried it in Windows OS. It doesn't work, at least not with my particular Windows (Win7 32-bit Ult, WinXP Pro, Win98SE) and keyboards.  Not as much an issue in ubuntu, of course, though it would be nice to replace that capitalistic Windows logo with Tux.
 
I don't recall any BIOS settings of the sort. What might they be called?
 
Physical key lock?

[washuai]

Ah, they don't let you be an admin on your own system.  Have you actually requested that they change the settings with an explanation of the effect on your productivity?  They might not let you set them, but they should be amenable to setting them for you.  As long as you're allowed to install auto hot key and if those keys send scan codes, then you should be able to disable them, through software.
Read my above edit - ACPI power settings for BIOS, CMOS- turn it off.

[Konrad]

I'm mostly talking about my own systems, where of course I have all the admin privileges I want (and take ownership of those that Microsoft has unwisely withheld).
 
I can certainly access all my BIOS and OS settings. I just don't recall ever seeing any BIOS options of that sort in all my years as a PC nerd/tech/gamer. Aside perhaps from ACPI or various bus controls for interrupt blocking/priorities or similar settings (none of which can be configured in this detail) or perhaps toggling "legacy keyboard" support (which is something else entirely).
 
The machines at work are a different issue ... handling the physical keyboard hardware will be probably be much easier than dealing with the tech guys, even assuming they'd care or know enough to solve such a trivial issue.
 
Again, ACPI normally works, and I would normally expect to be able to configure this behaviour in the BIOS or some Windows Control Panel applet - but in this instance (testing 4 different keyboards on 3 different PCs which can collectively multiboot 6 different OSs including 3 different Windows versions) the keyboard buttons seem to be hardwired to instantly sleep/shutdown every time.

[xwhatsit]

On Linux, xmodmap them to nothing.

From my ~/.Xmodmap:

keycode 180 =
keycode 105 = Multi_key
keycode 66 = Control_L
clear Lock
add Control = Control_L

Keycode 180 was causing me grief in Firefox. No, I don't remember what it did.

But then you said `games' and Linux is a Serious Business, so that might not help.

[Konrad]

Actually it does help.  When I'm doing linux, which covers ~40% of my exposure.
 
Duh.  Simple works better, I have no idea why xmodmap didn't occur to me.
 
Alas, I know of no similar solution in Windows.

[Rajagra]

I'm pretty sure KeyTweak can do this in Windows, or the equivalent registry mappings for doing it directly. Though if you remap the keys to do nothing, you may still need to check the BIOS doesn't act on them itself.