Bought a Filco... Thinking about converting Caps Lock to Ctrl

[insaneirish]

Hey all. Just bought my first 'real' keyboard (a Filco).

One thing that drives me absolutely crazy is having the Caps Lock key actually be Caps Lock. I spent quite a lot of time using keyboards where the Ctrl key is where Caps Lock is now on most keyboards.

Sometimes you can swap these via software and everything works a charm. However, at work, we use thin clients that connect back to our actual desktops in a data center. The thin client intercepts the keystroke too early on in the process to remap the Caps Lock key to Ctrl.

So, I'm thinking about a hard hack. Does anyone think it's feasible to unsolder the Caps Lock switch from the PCB and re-connect it to the pins for Ctrl? This would solve all my problems.

[alaricljs]

Have you tried AutoHotKey?  Unless your thin client is using DirectInput there is no reason for AutoHotKey not to work.

[mattdurham]

What OS are you operating under? Also what sort of OS are you connecting to? I have had some trouble in RDPing from OSX into a Win7 box and then accessing a XP VMWare instance. But other than that specific and fubar example I have had good look under a variety of platforms.

mattdurham

[Lanx]

hard hack it!

[n19htmare]

Scrape the traces and spaghetti wire it.

Pictures of how to open Filco and what's inside are here.

For future reference when I say "are here" that means there is an invisible link there.  This is not a sophisticated troll.

Mind Reader....

[Chobopants]

I love the new theme jokes, it brings some levity to the theme downgrade.

Also, re: the topic...

On OS X and Linux you can very easily remap the keys. I haven't done it yet in Windows because it's a bit goofier and less integrated to the OS.

[daerid]

You can do it with Registry Hacking. However, I find KeyTweak to be much easier for performing semi-hard key remapping

[Tony]

Autohotkey usually works, have you tried it?

[insaneirish]

Thanks all for the AutoHotkey suggestion. While registry remaps did *not* work, AutoHotkey did! No hard hack needed.

[alaricljs]

Great!  Thin clients are the future.

Or is it cloud computing?

Never can remember.

Thin clients accessing a cloud of boobs.

[insaneirish]

Great!  Thin clients are the future.

Or is it cloud computing?

Never can remember.

 
What's old is new again. I don't enjoy using Windows, but the thin client works well enough. I travel frequently between buildings in NYC and being able to pick up my desktop right where I left it is nice.

That said, I had the same ability 8 years ago on a Sun Ray terminal (which is where I picked up my habit of expecting the Ctrl key next to the A).