Dell E4300 – No Application Key

Dell E4300 – No Application Key

I recently received my new Dell E4300 to replace my Dell D410.  It’s an amazing piece of machinery.  Very light, 13” 1280×800 screen, 250gb SATA drive, 4gb memory, dual core 2.4ghz processors.  It’s quite a step up from my 3.5 year old D410.

The only issue I have with the machine so far is the lack of an Application Key.  This is the key that is found between the Right ALT and the Right CTRL key on a standard keyboard.  It performs the equivalent of a right mouse click.  It’s extremely handy when navigating without using the mouse, and I find myself continuing to reach for it over and over again.

On the E4300 there is no Application Key (outlined in red) or windows key on the right side (there is one on the left side).  The Alt and Ctrl keys are right next to each other.  Not having a windows key on the right side is okay for me since I only use it on the left side.  However not having a Ctrl key on the right side isn’t an issue for me either since I only use the left Ctrl key.  So I finally decided to figure out how to re-map keys in Windows.

I used an application called SharpKeys from RandyRants.com to re-map the right Ctrl key to the Application Key.  It was an extremely easy process and it works perfectly.

However if all your looking to do is re-map the right Ctrl key to the Application key then all you need to do is import this registry key.  After importing and logging off and back in you will have a re-mapped key.