Map Caps Lock to Control on Windows

March 25, 2023 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Caps Lock is not very useful for developers. Turn Caps Lock into another Ctrl key on Windows with a simple Registry hack.

To map the Caps Lock key to Ctrl, create a file in Notepad and save it with the .reg extension. The contents of the file should be one of the two options below. Double click the file to make the Registry updates. Most likely either a logout/login or a reboot will be needed for the changes to take effect.

Map Caps Lock to Ctrl Globally

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00 

Map Caps Lock to Ctrl Per User

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00