Windows 10: How do I turn off the lock symbol when I toggle Caps Lock

Just got a new laptop and when I press caps lock a big lock appear on the top of my screen with the letter "a" in it, how can I stop this happening?

:)

 

CAPS LOCK sound warning not working

Hi, here are some ideas: see if one works for you. Keep a list of what you try. If no success, please post back listing what you've tried. Thanks. Tutorial (from -- the Tutorials section): Turn On or Off Narrator Caps Lock Warnings while Typing in Windows 10 Caps Lock Has Lost Its Beep. (last post)

This is likely to be one of those where, as I don't know what you've already tried, I'll have spent time suggesting what you have tried. That's why I asked for a clear list of what you have tried. Do you see this when you toggle caps lock?

 

Press Shift Key to turn off Caps Lock

Actually, I get asked this quite a lot

There is, however, a very good reason to prefer this (old) „Typewriter Caps lock“-behavior over the new default, and it's simply this: if „Press the SHIFT key“ (instead of „Press the CAPS LOCK key“) is selected, then the behavior of „Caps lock“ changes from being a „toggle key“ to being a key that can only be used to turn „Caps lock“ on – to turn „Caps lock“ off, one has to press (either) one of the Shift keys.

This can be advantageous for touch typists, who are used to writing long passages of text without looking at the keyboard, and especially so if they're (C/C++) programmers, who may still regularly find themselves typing in variable names of CONSTANTS_IN_UPPERCASE.

That's because, if Caps lock is not a toggle key, it's not necessary to keep track of its current „toggle state“ in your head:

• If I want „Caps lock“ to be on, I can press CAPS as often as I like. If it happened to be enabled already, nothing changes; otherwise, I can be sure it's enabled afterwards.
  
  
• If I want „Caps lock“ to be off, I can simply press SHIFT

This sounds like a hypothetical advantage, but it's not. I work as a programmer, and I often find myself typing in code like the following:

/* Some debugging code; will only be included in debug builds: */
#if defined _DEBUG

Afterwards, I may pause a little, to think about the code line I would like to type in next. Now, if „Caps lock“ is a toggle key, I may (once I decide to continue) be unsure if I actually remembered to turn „Caps lock“ off at the end of ‘_DEBUG’.

Did I? Did I not? – The only way to be sure, is to look.

This is not so, if the „Press the SHIFT key“ behavior is enabled. If unsure, I can just press SHIFT once, be sure of the set state, and merrily continue may way.

That, for me, is the single most important reason to prefer the „Press the SHIFT key“ setting. Also, interestingly, this used to be the default behavior in the old days … at least, until Microsoft decided to ditch Windows 9x in favor of Windows NT¹.

¹ Actually, my memory could be wrong in this regard and I'm not completely sure … maybe someone more knowledgeable in those matters can confirm that the „Caps lock“ default behavior was indeed changed during the switch from Windows 9x to Windows XP?

 

Caps lock indicator

Hello,

You can make your Windows 10 PC easier to use with the help of Ease of Access. We suggest enabling
Toggle Keys. You can hear a tone whenever you press Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock when it's enabled.

• Click the Start button.
• Go to Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard.
  
• Go to Toggle Keys.
• Turn On the option Hear a tone when you press Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll Lock.

Let us know if you need further assistance.