Always a great feature of a keyboard is a windows lock / gaming mode setting. In the event it actually works properly, anyway.

People still use ctrl alt del?
I’ve used ctrl shift esc instead for many years now, is much easier, and brings you straight to the task manager, rather than a middle screen that you have to choose to open the task manager from. Plus it’s very easy to do with one hand, I use nothing but my thumb and index finger

Anyway, to the topic of the post, yes I’ve had the windows key remapped to something else or nothing for ages now, back when I had a worse computer, sometimes hitting that key would mean the game would not come back up at all, or if it did, it would take in excess of 2-5 mins, so I really went out of my way to disable it.

Maybe I just have freakish long fingers. I can comfortably do either one of
[Thumb => Alt Gr, Index finger => Right Ctrl, Middle finger => Delete]
[Thumb => Alt Gr, Ring finger/Pinky => Right Ctrl, Middle finger => Delete]

Dr. Azrael Tod wrote:

I did that on a regular basis to make better use of some crappy layouts of laptop-keyboards.

Tell me about it. I especially love the trick with hiding the delete key somewhere between Shift and ? keys.

Also, Macbook keyboard with the fn on the edge and Ctrltucked in where Windows typically have the Win key. :P

@ Matt`:

Really? On my keyboard it is almost impossible to do without contorting my right hand into some weird, unnatural shape. I can kinda do it with the left but that defeats the purpose a bit.

@ Eric:

I think that works in Win7 and Vista as well, no?

@ Dr. Azrael Tod:

Obligatory Penny Arcade.

@ Dr. Azrael Tod: That is exactly what I am saying …

;)

Eric wrote:

Actually with Win8 the ‘Win-Key’ has become the central command key. Switching to the Desktop with [Win]+[D] and calling the program list with [Win]

As soon as you get used to it starting programs in Windows was never faster – like [Win] dar [enter] calls my writing tool Darkroom, [Win] f [enter] starts firefox [Win] net [enter] Nettalk …

you mean like all those other systems did it 10 years ago? Like even windows vista/7 do it (but without screen-filling menu-bullshit, but you could enter things into “run” right after pressing mod4, giving you exactly the same functionality)? Like even my i3wm does it, when i press mod4+d?
WHOA! Hold it! that’s too much progress for a single windows-version!

Actually with Win8 the ‘Win-Key’ has become the central command key. Switching to the Desktop with [Win]+[D] and calling the program list with [Win]

As soon as you get used to it starting programs in Windows was never faster – like [Win] dar [enter] calls my writing tool Darkroom, [Win] f [enter] starts firefox [Win] net [enter] Nettalk …

How do you not know of the right Ctrl? Thay’s the secret sauce in the one-handed ctrl-alt-del.

where do i start? Well at first i really do own some gaming consoles. There is that N64 my wife brought into our mariage, there is a Wii we use on occasion (and that i still failed to bring to play DVDs, since i got the new controllers and not what everyone else uses -.-) and 1-2 months ago i bought me an archos gamepad, that is now the pretty exclusive platform i play on.
…really… Android! (yes, i must be insane)
But that thing has specs good enough to run emulators for pretty much every console i ever wanted (GB/(S)NES/SMD/N64/…) and even on android there are some pretty nice games flying around for less than 2-3€.
I could even connect it via HDMI and USB and play with 2-3 controllers on the big screen.

But back to remapping keys. I did that on a regular basis to make better use of some crappy layouts of laptop-keyboards. Nowadays the only laptop i still use is my toshiba ac100 and even though those keys are labeled absolutely wrong (again… there WAS android on that device too) they are wired pretty ok.

My gaming PC nowadays just runs linux. Why? Because i didn’t buy any new PC-Games in the last 2 years. Before that there were 1-2 Games a year and i even downloaded some, but currently there just isn’t a single one i really wanted to play. Even worse: the last 3-4 Games i bought were so horribly crippled with DRM-Fuckups that i couldn’t even run them 50% of the time.
I still play at my PC… some FPS work pretty decent under linux and i have far more good opensource games, then i have time to play (well time to play, while not doing something other in parralel. My Gaming PC is placed in a far corner of the room, going over there and booting it is something i don’t do unless i really plan to play 1-2h straight)

so… again back to remapping keys. No, i no longer do that. But back in my days even windows-games became a bit more stable and didn’t freeze/explode/whatever on alt+tab anymore. Most of them even disabled win-key themself while they ran.