keyboard - Windows INSERT key anti-functionality accidentally triggers; how to stop it permanently?

We all use editing facilities to change a line of text as we are entering it. There are two principal editing modes within a line, a) "insert mode" which inserts non-editing characters at the point of the cursor, and shuffles text to the right, and b) "overwrite mode", in which non-editing characters simply overwrite whatever character the cursor selects.

Overwrite mode IMHO is left from the days of green-screen CRTs. The only use I have ever found for it is drawing 2-D pictures in ASCII, which I quit doing back in the 80s when real drawing tools became available.

Windows (stupidly IMHO) offers overwrite mode toggle-enabled by use of the INSERT key on the keyboard. (I'd guess Linux/Unix likely follow suit in the usual Windows-envy). I don't ever hit that button because it just puts me in overwrite mode.

However, as I'm typing sometimes Overwrite mode suddenly happens. I think it must be some strange combination of ALT/Windows/CTRL/SHIFT and some other key, or two standard keys depressed in time nearby. Does anybody know what the alternate key sequence is so I can try harder to avoid it? Is there a way to tell Windows to simply stop using Overwrite mode?

Answer

How to Disable the Insert Key in Windows

Almost anyone who has used a
wordprocessor has accidentally hit the
Insert key and overwritten when they
thought they were editing. This
article describes a simple way to
disable the Insert key on your
keyboard.

Whenever you press a key, a windows
message is created, which contains a
key code that uniquely identifies the
key pressed. Programmes (like
Microsoft Word) look for keypress
messages and take actions based on the
key code in the message. By mapping
the insert key press event to null,
windows send a message containing null
for the key code when the Insert key
is pressed. Programmes receiving the
message, therefore, do not perform the
action associated with an insert key
press event, freeing you from having
to worry about overwriting things
again.

1. Go to Start → Run → regedit


2. Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard
   Layout


3. Right-click on the right half of the screen and choose New → Binary
   Value


4. Name the new value Scancode Map


5. Enter 000000000000000002000000000052E000000000


6. Close regedit


7. Reboot.


8. Optional: you can take the Insert key off of your keyboard when
   done.

If you do this with Windows7 regedit,
you have to enter the hex value in rows of 8 bytes, like this:

Value Data:
0000    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0008    02 00 00 00 00 00 52 E0
0010    00 00 00 00

Source

Registry file (.reg) to apply the fix as described above

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,52,e0,00,00,00,00

Put the above text into a file with a .reg extension (e.g.: disable-insert.reg), and double click.