My question actually pertains to a Windows 7 system with number keypad embedded in the compact keyboard. I need to set it so the num lock will be off at the login prompt because people keep asking me why their password doesn't work. "Is the num lock light on?" You know how it goes. I edited the registry as per this Technet article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978657.aspx But when I got to InitialKeyboardIndicators I found that the current value is neither 0 (bit one not set) or 2 (bit one set) but is 2147483648. What the heck is this huge number doing in that location? Is it used for some other purpose than just the num lock setting or is it just a bogus number that got set there by accident? But even that bogus number has bit one not set, so why does the num lock come on? I will appreciate any light that can be shed on this.--Brian

For Windows 7 queries, please post in Windows Answers forums. Also check the similar thread. Hope this will help you. Thanks

Sorry, I found the article about InitialKeyboardIndicators here on TechNet along with a link to this forum. If I were to have lied and said I was having this problem with Windows Server the answer should be the same as with Windows 7. The similar thread is similar but does not answer my question. The value is obviously bit encoded with bit one being the switch for num lock on/off. There are other bits in a word and in fact, that similar thread does show that bit zero is the switch for Caps Lock, and bit two is the switch for Scroll Lock. So what do all the other bits in 2147483648 (the value that is in my registry entry) do? And why is my num lock on when bit one is not set in 2147483648? I was hoping for an answer, but maybe it just doesn't exist. I thought maybe 2147483648 was just the number in that particular bit of uninitialized RAM back when Windows 7 was installed, so I made a copy of InitialKeyboardIndicators (OldInitialKeyboardIndicators) and set it to 2147483648. Then I set InitialKeyboardIndicators to 0 and logged out/in. Num lock was now off for the login page. That is good. If it stays off after a reboot I will probably forget about the problem. If anything else becomes screwed up, I'll put the old number back in and ask my question somewhere else. --Brian

In HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard, 2147483648 decimal value equals 0x8000 0000 in hexadecimal, it may not be a weird value. It sets the highest weight bit. I think it means not to overwrite the last NUM LOCK state saved in HKCU\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators. Setting this value to 2 switches NumLock ON, regardless of the state at logoff or shutdown. I will check that ! ------------- Pascal.

Well isn't that embarrassing! I used to think almost as well in hex as in decimal and knew all the common bit positions and such - in a maximum 16 bit address or word. I guess you can tell how old I am. :-) Thank you, Pascal. Now everything makes perfect sense.--Brian