topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Friday March 29, 2024, 3:37 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Poll

Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard

Caps Lock
1 (1.8%)
Windows Key
2 (3.6%)
Right or left Arrow
0 (0%)
Num Lock
1 (1.8%)
~
3 (5.4%)
f5 (or other f keys)
0 (0%)
insert
3 (5.4%)
Other
3 (5.4%)
Dont care
0 (0%)
scroll lock
37 (66.1%)
The other Windows Key
6 (10.7%)

Total Members Voted: 53

Voting closed: March 12, 2007, 08:18 PM

Last post Author Topic: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard  (Read 23312 times)

Vishesh

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2007
  • *
  • Posts: 15
  • Can't touch me !!
    • View Profile
    • Deviantart
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #25 on: February 12, 2007, 12:48 PM »
Scroll Lock....hell w8......my keyboard doesn't even have it it...... :tellme:

Oh no w8 I found it....I wonder wat it's use is  :huh:

tomos

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 11,959
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #26 on: February 13, 2007, 03:03 AM »
The other two that are right up there are right-ctrl and right-alt, in that order.

again,
because as a lefthander I'm often using the mouse with left hand (drawing),
I use right Ctrl shortcuts a lot -
I just counted I have well over 20 shortcuts I use regularly using right Ctrl.

I'm sure loads of people use right Ctrl+P for print as well ..
Tom

Edvard

  • Coding Snacks Author
  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,017
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #27 on: February 13, 2007, 10:56 AM »
I am constantly using 'Insert' because the default behavior for the windows command-line is 'overwrite' mode  >:( >:( >:(

I have only ever had to use the 'Scroll lock' key one time...

I used to have an IBM 200MHz motherboard that had a bug (tell me if you've heard this one before...)
The CPU would not run full speed unless the keyboard buffer was full.  :huh: Scroll Lock did the trick.

Anyways, that happened exactly one time in my entire time using PC keyboards. (I notice this poll is biased towards them, I wonder what the 'useless' keys are on Mac keyboards, or other keyboards in general?)

bluesear

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2007
  • *
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 15
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #28 on: February 14, 2007, 03:08 AM »
I have voted "other"
Maybe "Alt" or "Pause"

Wordzilla

  • Forum Search Daemon
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 470
  • Two there should be; no more, no less.
    • View Profile
    • FreeThesaurus.net - The Free Online Synonym Finder
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #29 on: February 14, 2007, 03:22 AM »
I have voted "other"
Maybe "Alt" or "Pause"

You may want to check out Find and Run Robot, which is pretty successful in utilizing Pause the Useless.  ;D

Curt

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 7,566
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #30 on: February 14, 2007, 01:48 PM »
For me, the most useless (and also the most anoying) key in my keyboard is definitelly the 'insert' key. I always wondered why people invented that thing. I even removed it from my external keyboard, because i kept inadvertely pressing it, and overwriting stuff!
Insert ToggleKey by Mike Lin:
Insert ToggleKey itk_setup.exe (77kb self-extracting setup) 

Ever accidentally turn on overtype, and as a result typed over half a sentence?
ITK sounds a tone whenever you press Insert.
 
http://www.mlin.net/other.shtml

Ruffnekk

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 332
  • Uhm yeah...
    • View Profile
    • RuffNekk's Crypto Pages
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #31 on: February 14, 2007, 01:53 PM »
I am constantly using 'Insert' because the default behavior for the windows command-line is 'overwrite' mode  >:( >:( >:(


You can change the default setting! Click the icon of a command-line window, choose properties and the tab Options where you can check 'Insert mode' or someting similar (I use Dutch Windows). See screenshot.

CMD.png
Regards,
RuffNekk

Programming is an art form that fights back.

Poolee

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 13
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #32 on: February 25, 2007, 04:22 PM »
I've voted for the Numlock key.  In all honesty, I've never used the Home, End, PgUp etc on the keypad.  The most frustrating thing I've found is the VMware turns off the NumLock key...

Anyone got an app that ensures this baby is always on and can't be turned off? :tellme:

Edvard

  • Coding Snacks Author
  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,017
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Poll : What is the most useless key on the keyboard
« Reply #33 on: February 26, 2007, 03:44 PM »
Quote from: Edvard on February 13, 2007, 10:56:52 AM
I am constantly using 'Insert' because the default behavior for the windows command-line is 'overwrite' mode  Angry Angry Angry

You can change the default setting!
Thank you Ruffnekk, Thank you very much. :Thmbsup:

The most frustrating thing I've found is the VMware turns off the NumLock key...
Anyone got an app that ensures this baby is always on and can't be turned off?
Poolee: As far as I know, the numlock key is set by the bios, but that's not the whole story...
1-Does VMWare have a virtual bios that you can tweak? The setting is called "BootUp NumLock Status" and can be set on or off.
See here:
http://www.pcguide.c...et/advNumlock-c.html

2-Are you booting Linux in your VMWare? It's not might not be what you think. See here:
http://www.gossamer-.../linux/kernel/733286
According to the lore(1) the reason that the kernel unconditionally
turns off the num lock was so that Linus' laptop came up ready to type.

I've wondered about that for quite a long time... So weird you have to either patch your kernel or use an external program (setleds, numlockx...) to do something that's drop-dead obvious.
7.20. How To Get NUM LOCK to Default to On.

Use the setleds program, for example (in /etc/rc.local or one of the
/etc/rc.d/* files):

for t in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
do
 setleds +num < /dev/tty$t > /dev/null
done

setleds is part of the kbd package ("How do I remap my keyboard to UK,
French, etc.? "). Alternatively, patch your kernel. You need to
arrange for KBD_DEFLEDS to be defined to (1 << VC_NUMLOCK) when
compiling drivers/char/keyboard.c.