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WSA Forces NumLock On

  • 15 January 2013
  • 6 replies
  • 268 views
WSA Forces NumLock On
Userlevel 7
  • Retired Webrooter
  • 1581 replies

Question

I have noticed WSA forces my NumLock into the "on" position.  I do not like this, and I don't want it to do that.  What can be done?

Answer

This issue is resolvable with a quick registry patch contained in this zip file.  AllowNumLock.reg will cause WSA to cease controlling the NumLock state.  Conversely, WSA_ControlNumLock.reg will cause WSA to resume control over the NumLock state.
 
Here is a short explanation of what to do with the zip file:
1.  Download the NumLock.zip file.
2.  Double-click NumLock.zip to open it.  It contains two .reg files.
3.  Copy the file AllowNumLock.reg to a convenient location, such as your Desktop.
4.  Double-click AllowNumLock.reg to launch it.
5.  If a User Account Control window appears, click Yes.
6.  If you receive a Registry Editor warning "Adding information can unintentionally change or delete values…", click Yes.
7.  A box indicating that the keys and values have been entered successfully appears.  Click OK.
8.  You must restart your computer for the change to take effect.  After the restart, the number pad should behave as expected.

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6 replies

What's the reasoning for WSA doing that?
Userlevel 7
<p>Was there some sort of security reasoning behind this? I can't for the life of me think why they would have controlled the Num Lock to begin with. </p>
Userlevel 7
Badge +6
<p>Another +1 to this.</p>
This really should be turned off by default.
I wasted a *lot* of time blaming this on other things before finally discovering it was just happening in browsers and then trying other plugins.
Can you explain the reason for doing this at all?
If you have to do it, maybe you could alert people when they first start the program.
 
 
This certainly seems like exactly what I have been running into for the past few years, Really, really frustrating! I even broke a $120 keyboard I blamed for the problem by throwing it across the room, denting the ceiling in the process. Turns out it was not my keyboard - two more keyboards on two different computers developed the same problem. Countless hours of Googling and forum posts failed to identify the problem. I discovered that if I unplugged/replugged my keyboard the problem usually went away until the next reboot.
 
Then I find this today - a guilty part who admits their crime! But too late, the problem got worse after the Win10 anniversary update and this registry hack no longer works and the keyboard reboot no longer works. :@
 
RIGHT - Do I feel stupid now...
Turns out I missed the part about a restart being necessary after applying the registry fix.
 
So I have to take back what I said. It's working now after the restart.
 
Please ignore my comment below as well:
==============================================================================================
This is funny. I answered here yesterday, agreeing with bdalymathews and suggesting a new thread might be in order.
I then proceeded to post a new question about this issue, seeing as this thread was old and the fix given earlier no longer works on Win 10.
But today both my posts are gone - my answer here as well as the new thread I was trying to start.
 
I wonder why?