How to Disable Hotkeys / Enable Function Keys on Laptops

Опубликовано: 24 Февраль 2025
на канале: TechRacoon

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Have you ever been triggered by the action keys so called hotkeys on your laptop and the way they interfere, with the classic F1 to F12 keys?
Instead of pressing the FN and F5 key to refresh a homepage, we will get you back to simply pressing F5.

There exist three possible ways to disable hotkeys in Windows:
1) The first one is directly through your keyboard, but certainly not the most common. If you're lucky, you have an “FN lock” key, looking like a lock. Press the FN key and then the FN lock key to swap action keys and F1 to F12 functionality. You can always revert the setting. If you have a Microsoft Surface you can toggle FN lock by holding the Fn key and pressing caps lock.

2) The second option is changing fn key and hotkeys directly in your BIOS. To open up the BIOS, you have to hit F2, Delete, F9 or F10 before the boot screen appears. On most models, you will find the desired option under the main or Advanced tab. It should sound something like function key behaviour. Make sure you select function key instead of the preselected media key. Please note that the names might slightly differ.

3) The third and final common option is that your laptop is from a certain manufacturer, For instance Dell, that has the option to change the function key row in the Windows Mobility Center. Simply swap function key and multi-media key.

If everything fails, make a Google search for your laptop manufacturer and FN lock.

Timestamps
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0:00 Introduction
0:13 Method #1
0:33 Method #2
0:51 Method #3