Talk:Windows key

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Where did that list come from? I'm running WinXP Pro, and Windows + N doesn't open notepad (along with other inconsistancies). DevastatorIIC 02:46, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

"Needs to be incorporated into another article, either "IBM PC Keyboard" or "computer keyboard." " GCW

Maybe add an explanation of "NT systems only" like "NT systems only (Windows NT, 2000, XP)" because somebody using Windows XP may not know that his Windows is "NT system"

IMHO the list must be just "externalized". Believe me but what key combinations do work depends on a lot of things, including policies, whether you have IntelliType installed and others. The only way to keep it accurate and up-to-date is to point to the Microsoft site. This was already in my todo list: in fact I have almost collected all the relevant links and I'll put them in the External links section ASAP. --Gennaro Prota 16:36, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Rewrote a paragraph

Ciao!

I also tried to clarify the whole paragraph about Windows and Linux. I rewrote this slightly confusing sentace. I hope everyone understands.

"Under Windows, it acts as a modifier key, with the available key combinations depending on a number of factors better detailed in the resources linked to below."

Actaully, the above sentance is a bit redundant because a section called "Windows key shortcuts" exists. Maybe one of us can merge the sentance about the modifier key into the section called "Windows key shortcuts"?

Keep up the good work everyone! --Starionwolf 22:35, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I finished cleaning up the page. I seperated the text about other operating systems for clarity. I also merged the seperate sentances about shortcuts together. I'll work on this article again when I have more time. --Starionwolf 02:48, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
Hi, honestly I didn't feel the article needed so much work. Anyway, I reviewed our guidelines and saw that while they provide for inline links, such as Firefox homepage [1] they don't seem to allow "inline lists" of links. Thus I stuck to our usual layout with the external links in a separate section. Please, don't change the article structure again. I've seen that you spent several hours on it, and it took me three hours to bring it back to the current status. I don't think so much work is worth the result: in the end it is not much different from the version you started with, and the improvements (if any) are minimal. Of course the matter would be different if we had substantially new information. Ah, as to the use with GNOME and KDE, we could add external links the same way we have done for Windows; however the situation in that case is much more complicated due to the amount of versions and the high configurability of Linux DEs. A couple of high-quality links would be ok but the section can —and should, IMHO— be kept to minimum, I guess, as Linux users generally know what to do with their system ;) Please, don't make major changes to the article without discussion, I wouldn't like to waste hours on it considering the relatively low importance of the topic. Cheers, Gennaro Prota 21:17, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Issues with first person shooters

It would be nice if someone mentions the terrible mistake of the position of the left windows keys with respect to most fps, since shift, ctrl and alt are used intensively within the game and the windows key tends to leave the game for the start menu. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.75.154 (talk • contribs)

  • It is referred to in "Issues and alternative designs"; just follow the "caused troubles" link. —Gennaro Prota•Talk 22:25, 5 December 2006 (UTC)


  • REQUEST PARAGRAPH RESTORE
I think that this paragraph was better in the WinKey entry. The problem of the WinKey was not just in early First Person Shooters, but any software that heavily relied on shortcut keys, including most graphic aplications and Maya (software). Yes, we pried out the keys. Why would we bury this history under trivia in "Modifyer keys" when it is unique to the WinKey?
It is also possible to disable the WinKeys entirely by modifying the Windows Registry. The WinKeys are powerful enough to take the focus away from an application, yet are often placed directly adjacent to commonly used modifier keys, making it easy to hit them inadvertently. While in some applications this behavior is merely distracting or annoying, in others (such as real-time games) it can be devastating. Some people find the placement of the WinKeys so unfortunate and simply pry the keys from the keyboard altogether. Some keyboard drivers (such as Microsoft IntelliType) allow users to easily disable the WinKeys.

--Knulclunk 00:12, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

  • Hi, didn't notice that your request was duplicated here; I replied on my talk page. —Gennaro Prota•Talk 22:22, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
  • I see your edit. Nice job, thanks. --Knulclunk 23:49, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Solution how to disable the Windows key without a reboot

I am a heavy user of the Windows key and I only want to disable it when I play a game and without a reboot. I found the solution: A little AutoHotKey.com-script: "LWin::return". When it is started, the left Windows key is immediately disabled without a reboot. And you can enable it at anytime by right clicking on the green "H" in the Windows try. But I also want to help people with the same problem who do not want to mess with Autohotkey. Therefore I provided an executable: http://helgehelge.de/DisableLeftWindowsKey.exe (This was generated with AutoHotKey's ahk2exe-compiler.)

I think we could make many people happy by putting it into the article.

HelgeHan (talk) 08:55, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Super?

Last time I checked GNOME refers to the Windows Key as "Super" and the menu key next to it as "Hyper". Shouldn't this have a mention in the article Whitehornmatt 14:23, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Apple keyboard mapping

The article states that Mac OS X maps the Windows key as the Command key, and the Alt key as the Option key. AFAIK this is incorrect (at least OS X 10.4.8 Intel does this differently): Windows key get's mapped to the Option ("Apple") key, while the Alt key becomes the Command key. This error is spanning across multiple pages. --NetRolller 3D 20:51, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Accessing the key programatically

Some information on how to access this key in software or using macros would be nice. For instance, the SendKeys method in Visual Basic *cannot* access this key, whereas some third-party extensions (such as this) can. 99.137.110.204 (talk) 17:24, 9 June 2008 (UTC)