If you’re one of those people who keeps accidentally hitting the Caps Lock key and eNDING UP PRODUCING SENTENCES LIKE THIS you subsequently have to delete, you’ll find SharpKeys is just the ticket. You’ll also find it useful if you’d like to remap a key so pressing it does something other than what it was designed for.

SharpKeys doesn’t invoke some kind of magical trickery to achieve its aims – it simply provides a user-friendly front end to tweak the Registry to allow keyboard remapping to happen. So instead of having to wade into Registry Editor and start tapping in arcane codes, SharpKeys will do all the hard work for you.

All you have to do is fire up the program, click Add, pick your target key on the left, and the key you’d like to remap it to on the right (select Turn Key Off to simply disable the key) and click OK. If picking the key from the list sounds too complicated, simply click Type Key and press the key in question to select it.

You can set up as many key remapping functions as you like, then all you have to do is click Write to Registry, then reboot or log off and back on again for the remapping to take effect. Reverting to your original configuration is simple too – just open SharpKeys, click Delete All followed by Write to Registry and reboot to wipe your changes away.

It’s all very simple to use, although it’s not perfect – the author freely admits the app is aimed largely at those with US English keyboards, so you may find certain keys or key combos (such as [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [3] in Europe to trigger the Euro - € - symbol) aren’t supported. But most standard keys will work, and if you’ve accidentally hit the [Caps Lock] key one too many times, SharpKeys will help you preserve your sanity and might just save your laptop’s life.

Warning: remember, disabling or remapping critical keys like [Ctrl], [Alt] or [Del] could lock you out of your computer. Be careful what keys you decide to disable or remap.