OK, I give up. How the hell do I disable the helpful little cat-operated buttons on the windows keyboard, that, when stepped on by a small furry foot for the second time in the last hour, immediately turn off the bloody machine without even so much as asking permission? I'm about ready to get out the wire cutters, and I'm not sure which part of the problem to attack with them...

pca

The BIOS/CMOS setup sometimes has an option to disable/enable those buttons.

Cats, got to love them I now have my monitor on a stand with the keyboard underneath because of little kitty feet on my keyboard and furry bodies deciding that it was a good place to sleep.

I did, in fact, use wire cutters in one instance, pliars in another, and superglue in a third. Superglue yielded the prettiest results!

So... we finally learn the real reason it took so long for the tuner kits to be designed and made!

when stepped on by a small furry foot

You could try wearing shoes?

Kitten-mittens

This is the solution you've been looking for

That's actually quite funny and it's a real program
Luckily, I've got a dog and he doesn't seem to want to mess about on any of my computers...

- Trevor

The problem with this is twofold:

A) It won't work if you hit the sleep or power-off keys, the machine just dies with no warning, and

B) The power control keys are the only ones ever stepped on. I suspect a conspiracy of some sort

pca

sleep or power-off keys

What sleep or power-off keys? Is this one of those fancy USB keyboards with 35 extra keys on it?

If so, then it probably came with a utility (check the Control Panel, or see if it's on the CD) that allows you to remap those keys. Simply remap them to something else (like a macro that plays a .wav)

Simply remap them to something else (like a macro that plays a .wav)

Or a reminder to buy one of these.

Aw, is Pixel in the doghouse today?

Er, so to speak...

Anyway, if it were me, I'd just use a proper keyboard, one without those keys. I haven't touched a keyboard with so much as a Windows key over the last couple of years...

In reply to:

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OK, I give up. How the hell do I disable the helpful little cat-operated buttons on the windows keyboard, that, when stepped on by a small furry foot for the second time in the last hour, immediately turn off the bloody machine without even so much as asking permission? I'm about ready to get out the wire cutters, and I'm not sure which part of the problem to attack with them...

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I've had this problem with a series of wireless keyboards with power/suspend buttons. I just popped it off. no button, no problem.

Depending on the exact mechanism inside the key, you can just put a rubber washer under it. The key won't work anymore and it won't look strange by not having a keycap there.

- Trevor

I don't have one of those Internet-type keyboards to play with but this is where I think you should look:

Control Panel -> Keyboard -> Hardware -> Properties -> Driver -> Update Driver

From there:
Install from a list .....
Don't search. I will choose....
Next
<Uncheck "Show Compatible Hardware">
<Choose a make/model that looks appropriate like "Standard 101/102-Key">
Next <etc>