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How to get rid of useless keys in Windows and turn them into something helpful
Turn that Copilot or Scroll Lock key into a media control or extended character.
HANDS ON In the era of laptops and tenkeyless keyboards, many of us are living with fewer keys than we had years ago. But even on a small keyboard, you'll find keys that you just don't need. …
The Copilot key on many new laptops is a great example of hype over help. And in 2025, how many of us still use Scroll Lock, type with Caps Lock on, or hit the Insert key to change into overwrite mode? For every waste of keyboard space, there's an opportunity to optimize.
In Windows 10 or 11, it's easy to remap keys so that they become other keys you don't already have. For example, I'm not a spreadsheet maven, so don't really make much use of the number pad. So instead, I've turned the humble set of numbers and operators into a media control center, a series of special symbols I can't get elsewhere, and hotkeys to launch my favorite apps.
Here's how you can remap your keys in Windows to get the most out of your keyboard.
In Windows, you can use the Registry to remap keys at the OS level, so as soon as you boot up, the Insert key becomes Print Screen (one of my favorite changes). There's a complex way to do this that involves entering scan codes into Registry keys, or you can do what I do and use SharpKeys, a GUI-based utility that does this work for you.
After you've installed and opened SharpKeys, click the add button.
A set of two columns appears, with the left one showing the key to remap and the right one showing what you're remapping it into. Click the Type Key button under the left column.
Then hit the key you're wishing to remap. For this demo, I'll hit Insert. Then Click Ok.
Then select the key you want to remap into from the right column and click Ok. You could type this key as well, but you're probably mapping to a key you don't have yet. I'll select Print Screen.
You'll see your key remap on the index page. Click Write to Registry.
Repeat this process as many times as necessary. Then log out or reboot for the changes to take effect.
Here are some changes I made:
AutoHotkey is one of the best free scripting languages / utilities around. It allows you to map single keys or keyboard combinations so that they perform a macro task, launch an app, or paste a canned piece of text. You do all this by writing an AHK script file with your key assignments.
Let's start by remapping a key to show the greatest symbol on the internet, the ® that appears at the end of every Reg story. To get started, download and install AutoHotkey V2. Then create a blank text file – we'll call it remap.ahk – and put the following text at the top:
Then, on a separate line, put the name of the key you wish to map followed by ::. Then put a set of opening braces on a separate line. I'm remapping Numpad1 so my file reads:
Note that a complete list of key names is available on the AutoHotkey site. You can also map keyboard combos with modifiers such as # (Win), ! (Alt), ^ (Ctrl), and + (Shift). So ^!r:: would map CTRL + ALT +R.
Add the command Send and the character(s) you wish to map into within double quotes. Then close the braces. My complete function looks like this:
Then I need to double click on my AHK file to run it. Henceforth, hitting Numpad 1 will output the ® symbol. If I want to keep this script running every time I start my PC, I can put remap.ahk into my start folder, which is located at C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
If I want to open a program with a single key press, I can also do that by using the Run command followed by the file path of my application's executable. Here, I'll assign Numpad2 to launch the Chrome browser.
Note that after you edit your AutoHotkey script and save the file, you'll want to reload it. You can do that by right clicking on the H icon in your system tray and selecting Reload Script.
Many of today's new laptops come with a Copilot key to the right of the keyboard, and unfortunately, the key is even less helpful than Microsoft's eponymous AI assistant. Hitting it just launches Copilot, something you could do by launching the app yourself within Windows.
Redmond even tacitly admits that many users won't want the Copilot key by giving an option in settings to remap it, but this option is a bit limited. If you go to Settings->Personalization->Text input, there's a "Customize Copilot key on keyboard" pull down which allows you to set the key to launch search or launch one of your installed apps.
I prefer to have full control over my Copilot key remapping, so I recommend using AutoHotkey instead of Windows Settings. Here, you'd address the key as +#f23:: and then put a function after it. To make the Copilot key into a Register symbol key, you'd use the code:
Interestingly, the Copilot key does not have its own key name, but from the OS's perspective, returns Shift + Windows + F23. If your keyboard is old enough to have an F23 key, you could use this keyboard combination yourself to launch Copilot.
Working with AutoHotkey to make more complex scripts requires a small learning curve. However, when you add up the seconds you'll save every day with new keyboard function, it's worth the investment of time.