I was using the good old “mechanical” keyboard made in 90s. Although there is no Windows key to trigger Windows Flip 3D in Vista, I never thought to make a change as I like the feel of pressing those “hard” keys for so many years.
Now I have to replace this old buddy as my wrist getting pain just recently :-). I went to shop a replacement and finally took this A4Tech X-Slim Multimedia keyboard.
It’s not better than Wearnes keyboard made for MS-DOS, but I like its compact layout, where the size is almost matching my Dell Latitude D410.
Other than lacking of ergonomics features, I kinda dislike the power button that seated right above F1 key. Because of this terrible power button, I had accidentally shutdown Vista while there were tonnes of job running on the Desktop.
In order to avoid third “accident”, it must be disabled immediately before I have time to uncase and break the circuit!
Steps to disable the keyboard power button in Windows Vista
Click the Vista Orb (Start button), type power options in Start Search text box and hit ENTER key to open Power Options window.
Click the Change Plan Settings of the active power plan follow by Change Advanced Power Settings.
Locate the Power Buttons and Lid option and set the Power Button Action to Do Nothing.
Please take note that this option not only disables the keyboard power button. Indeed, it will disable all power buttons, including the one comes with CPU casing.
That is fine for me, as I never press the power button to shutdown Windows. However, I appreciate if you could share with me a better way to disable the power button on a keyboard only, preferable by tweaking existing Windows settings without relying on third party software (definitely not to break the key physically).