POLL: What keys do you never use on a keyboard?

[graboy]

I'm intrested because I know I never use a lot of keys on my keyboard, This might be useful information to make an optimized layout. If there's any other keys you never press, feel free to post them below.

[matt3o]

for the love of God, REMOVE the insert key from keyboards! I hate it more than caps lock.

[rodtang]

Ineverusethespacebar.

[RC-1140]

for the love of God, REMOVE the insert key from keyboards! I hate it more than caps lock.

In the name of the gods, keep the Insert key! I use it more often than I use the function row.

The only key I never use is Scroll Lock.

[7bit]

I've voted for the key labes not the keypositions on a "standard" keyboard. I indeed use the right Alt key as it is right Control for example.

Insert should be relabeled OVER STRIKE.

[Zeppelin]

Generaly i'm not using right modifiers. Right shift almost never

[Bullveyr]

2/3 of the keys above the cursor keys, win and menu

[gmjhowe]

Ineverusethespacebar.

Heh, brilliant.

[Gilgam]

Arret défilement
Pause

Ineverusethespacebar.

lol

[Daniel Beardsmore]

As a note, be careful with "right alt". Most of Europe lacks right alt; instead we have Alt Gr, which serves a totally different purpose that is essential for some languages (allows three or four characters per key instead of two, similar to the option key on the Macintosh, except Macs have LOpt and ROpt). The Alt Gr key is vestigial in the UK, and I prefer LCtrl+LAlt over Alt Gr anyway (same thing basically … mostly …)

Other than that, I do use pretty much every single key except num lock and scroll lock (no great use in switching the number pad into a duplicate of the keys right next to it, unless I fancy reaching harder to get to the same keys). Some F keys get limited use — not sure I ever hit F4, and F6 and F9 only rarely. F11 would toggle Foobar2000's main window if I could find a way to do it (that's how I had Winamp set up, but Foobar2000 has no such binding).

` also barely gets a look in, and never at home. That's a stupid key with three useless symbols on, one of which being the one that required the UK to have an otherwise pointless Alt Gr key.

[7bit]

Num Lock: On larger keyboards, like 122 key or my Tipro arrangement, I use numbers as default and hitting Num Lock switches the Num Lock LED to on and turns the numpad into a cursor block. So in fact no Num Lock necessary.

F1-F12 I almost never need. They are only present for legacy support with those rare applications which require them.

[Ekaros]

Alt-Gr, Control, Alt and Space and Shift are the really needed onces in my mind. The rest could be dealt with as FN-layer...

[Daniel Beardsmore]

F1-F12 I almost never need. They are only present for legacy support with those rare applications which require them.

Depends on your OS. F2 is frequently bound to rename in Windows. F3 is find again, shift+F3 is often find previous. F5 is refresh. F10 activates the menu bar, and since that's redundant, I've bound it to minimise (much easier than Win+down). Fun if you accidentally minimise the desktop in Windows 8. Several programs use F12, e.g. toggles IrfanPaint in IrfanView. F1 would be good if programs were helpful. F4 is useless — I should rebind that. F6 is panel cycle, and it never really worked well in Windows, but was good in DOS. F7 is also generally not used, ditto F8. F9 is tray minimise in FlashFXP, so that's pretty much free for rebinding. F11 should toggle foobar2000 …

If you don't use Windows, then you have a whole 12 (or more) keys staring at you with wide eyes, waiting for you to use them for something.

[RougeRambo]

ive started using scroll lock for swapping between computers when using one keyboard and mouse for both

[katamari]

Scroll Lock!! I don't even know what this key is supposed to do!

Ans also Pause, none of my usual games is this old.

[HzFaq]

I'm probably one of the minority that actually uses scroll lock, hell I even use the menu key every now and then (I do a lot of work in excel and menu>f is an easier shortcut than Alt>h>o>e for the formatting menu). The only one I don't think I've ever used is Pause/Break.

[zoidbergslo]

scroll lock or "is my computer still responding" key.

[nathanscribe]

I've remapped a few of the lesser-used keys so Print Screen is now where Insert was, and its function is to screenshot a window. So I *kind of* still use it. I've remapped the old locations of print/scroll/pause to cut/copy/paste as sometimes I find that more convenient than the key combinations. I probably don't use the F-keys enough. Right modifiers get used a lot less than the left, but they do get used. (Filco Tenkeyless w/ OS X)

[rindorbrot]

Insert should be relabeled OVER STRIKE.

Good Idea, then I might even use it sometime

So my votes are for Insert and Capslock.
I use Scroll-Lock as function key for macros/overlays...

[Findecanor]

I did not vote for Caps Lock, because I have it mapped to Control. So, while I never use the function of Caps Lock, I do still use the physical key.
I used to have Print Screen/System Request, Scroll Lock and Pause/Break mapped to media keys (prev. track, next track, play/pause), but not any more.

I use the Function keys (F1..F12) only in a few arcane programs on Windows, such as when debugging in MS Visual Studio.

[Biernot]

Same here. I have mapped Caps Lock as compose key in xorg.conf. So i use it once in a while.

But I never use Scroll Lock. And left Win, right Win and Menu - that is because I do not have keyboards on which these keys do exist...

[7bit]

....
If you don't use Windows, then you have a whole 12 (or more) keys staring at you with wide eyes, waiting for you to use them for something.

In good old DOS-days when I had a keyboard layout like model F with F1-F10 to the left, I've used the function keys quite often. But on these newish model M style 101-105 key keyboards they where not easy to reach so I stopped to use them.

F2: Control-Q (querry replace)
F3: Super-Z (find forward)
shift+F3: Super-A (find backward)
F5: REFRESH (same as revert buffer)
F10: No menu bar here to activate.

and so on ...

I think the time for F1-F32 (or what the highest actually number is) is really over. Dedicated function keys are much better.

[Gilgam]

If you don't use Windows, then you have a whole 12 (or more) keys staring at you with wide eyes, waiting for you to use them for something.

No no
On linux
F2 rename
F3 split window
F5 reload
F11 ful screen
Alt+F1
Open the Applications Menu.
Alt+F2
Display the Run Application dialog.

these are the shortcuts i remember right now

[7bit]

Wouldn't it be nice to have keys, saying:
RENAME
SPLIT WINDOW
RELOAD
APP MENU
RUN DIALG
etc.


BTW: Interesting to see that most people use the modifiers to the left!

Here it is clear that the 104/105 key keyboard layouts are a total failure, because they have 4 modifiers to the right but only 3 modifiers to the left!

[funkymeeba]

I rarely use any of the right modifiers, with the exception of Alt, which I use as AltGr. For some reason, it just feels awkward to use those keys... particularly shift.

[sirtetris]

Break/Pause
Scroll lock
Right Alt
Right Ctrl

I tried to integrate Scroll lock as a second modifier (in addition to Caps lock) to .XCompose a few days ago but there seems to be like zero documentation on the right Modifier names form .XCompose. ScrollLock or any variants won't work, no success with Mod1-5 ... meh.
Anyway: I really use everything not listed above. Caps lock (the function, which is mapped to my escape key) is used in my .XCompose, Menu key is my Compose key, I use right shift occasionaly for Shift + Insert, both Win Keys because of awesome wm, Print screen for screenshots, Home and End for navigating text ...

[Ekaros]

Wouldn't it be nice to have keys, saying:
RENAME
SPLIT WINDOW
RELOAD
APP MENU
RUN DIALG
etc.


BTW: Interesting to see that most people use the modifiers to the left!

Here it is clear that the 104/105 key keyboard layouts are a total failure, because they have 4 modifiers to the right but only 3 modifiers to the left!

THE MOST important shortcuts:
Ctrl+C
Ctrl+V
Ctrl+Alt+Del

;D

Also most people are right-handed and use mouse with right so the left hand stays on keyboard and usually near home position...