Enable NumLock by default using Registry tweak

[Charger440]

Open Registry Editor.
Go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard

If you do not have this Registry key, then just create it.
Find the string value called "InitialKeyboardIndicators". In Windows 7, set its value data to 2. In Windows 8 and above, set its value to 80000002. A note for Windows 10 users: if your Windows 10 does not save the state of NumLock after the reboot, try to set the value "InitialKeyboardIndicators" to 2147483650. This will turn on NumLock on the logon screen starting from the next boot.

This is mainly for Windows 8 and 10 as Windows 7 seems to easily remember it.

Could this be added some place?

[Fred]

Hi Jim. That one's already been there a long time. In the System repair section, Reset NumLock ON at logon. I use it in all repairs.

The data for InitialKeyboardIndicators is 2, not 2147483650, and it's a REG_SZ value, not REG_DWORD, as we may easily presume. If 2147483650 works, it's probably because Windows only reads the first character (2).

0	NUMLOCK is off.
2	NUMLOCK is on.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lib ... 78657.aspx

[Charger440]

Fred, after I read this last night I went to manually change it and windows 10 had actually set the value 2147483648. There must be some reason it set the value that high on its own.

[Fred]

Or some other application changed it... Was it working that way? I've been setting it with "2" for a long time and it works fine.

2147483648 corresponds to HEX 0x80000000. Does not even contain 2 in a AND comparison.

(0x80000000 & 2) = 0 (C++)
BitAND(0x80000000, 2) = 0 (AutoIt)

[Charger440]

Fred,

I just checked my other win 10 computer and it also has the default value mentioned above ending in 648. I will try it with 2 and see what happens but so far it seems on windows 10 that 648 is the default value.

[Fred]

Yes, but isn't that value not disabling NUMLOCK? Most PCs I see, NUMLOCK is disabled by default. We need to change it to "2" in order for it to work. You'll need to test by trying to press keys from the numeric keypad into the password field.

[Brink]

There needs to also be a "turn off numlock at logon" option. A while back I used the "Reset NumLock ON at logon" on a laptop that had no 10key number pad panel. But numlock converts the & - * - ( - u - i - o - j - k - l - m - , - , - . keys to be a number pad. Then I had to search out the registry setting that Jim mentioned to turn it back off. The full set of parameters for HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard are:

0 - Turn all indicators Off (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)
1 - Turn CapsLock On
2 - Turn NumLock On
3 - Turn CapsLock and NumLock On
4 - Turn ScrollLock On
5 - Turn CapsLock and ScrollLock On
6 - Turn NumLock and ScrollLock On
7 - Turn all indicators On (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)

and of course the default setting of 2147483650

Fred, Could you include all these settings somehow in place of "Reset NumLock ON at logon" ?

[Fred]

I only see 3 options in your list:
1 - Turn CapsLock On
2 - Turn NumLock On
4 - Turn ScrollLock On

All the other options are just the sum (using the OR operator) of one or more options, or none to disable all.

This is pretty easy to do, I'll just have to figure out where to put it.

[Brink]

On my machines I also remap the Caps lock key to be a shift key because Caps Lock drives me crazy. That's probably not something you want to include in UVK but I thought I would post the link for instruction while we are talking about keys just incase someone is interested.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... ows-vista/

This works in win 7, 8, 10 and Vista.

[Fred]

Thanks, Brink.

I was wondering what the 2147483648 means, and I think I got it. It means: Keep it as it is. On boot, the NumLock status will be the BIOS default, on user switching, it will be the state the previous user set. It just doesn't do anything.

[Charger440]

Open Registry Editor.
Go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard

If you do not have this Registry key, then just create it.
Find the string value called "InitialKeyboardIndicators". . A note for Windows 10 users: if your Windows 10 does not save the state of NumLock after the reboot, try to set the value "InitialKeyboardIndicators" to 2147483650. This will turn on NumLock on the logon screen starting from the next boot.

This is mainly for Windows 8 and 10 as Windows 7 seems to easily remember it.

Could this be added some place?

You gotta remember this was copy and pasted, not directly from me. The part that had my interest was

In Windows 7, set its value data to 2. In Windows 8 and above, set its value to 80000002

I didn't give it much thought because I figured if "2" worked for everything, why bother wording it that way when "Change it to '2'" would work just fine.

Also, until I used Windows 10 I have NEVER seen a case where windows would not remember the numlock state but it seemed that Windows 10 absolutely refused to remember it.....