Are there certain keys on your keyboard that you have never touched?

United States
July 29, 2009 1:54pm CST
Are there keys that you have never touched or have no idea what they do on your keyboard? I was just looking down and I noticed that there are some keys that I never use, you can tell by the wearing down on the ones that are necessary for me to use, such as the space bar and all the letters, but I never use ones like " ~ " and " ` ". I have never touched a lot of the "F" keys as well, along with the number pad on the side. How about you, what do you never use on the keyboard?
7 people like this
26 responses
• India
29 Jul 09
Same here. I don't use the num pad given the numbers are already present over the top of the typing area. Although I know what the keys do there is hardly any utility of these keys in my situation. I do use the function keys, especially the F5 key to refresh, there are many others which I don't even bother looking at. My keyboard is like new and clean one on the left side and a dusty one on the right side which is for the num pad. It is usually used for accounting and banking purposes and so not of any use to me. There are even some multimedia keys on the very top amongst which I use only the volume key to quickly reduce the volume. Other than these I hardly ever use any other keys found on the keyboard.
1 person likes this
• India
30 Jul 09
Yeah, there are other keys like F1 for help, F3 to find a particular string or a word, F6 highlights the address bar so that you can directly type and not take the mouse to that region, and F11 makes it full screen. Other keys are also helpful with other tasks like in playing games but not while surfing.
• United States
30 Jul 09
Oh cool, I didn't know F5 was for refresh, I checked and sure enough you were right, nice to know. I sometimes use the multimedia keys, but I have all of them above the keyboard in a touch sensor lit area, so I don't even have to use the actual keys.
1 person likes this
• India
29 Jul 09
yepp...many...as u mentioned F keys n even HOME PAGE UP PAGE DOWN INSERT PRINT SCREEN PAUSE/BREAK n multimedia keys.i even don use internet keys like home page/mail even calculator key.... oops...now i noticed that des keys are struck...
1 person likes this
• United States
30 Jul 09
Yeha, the only one of those that I really use would have to be the print screen, it can be pretty handy when you want screen captions to prove something or just show somebody something you did on the computer. Wow, I didn't even know I had a calculator key, that is pretty cool!
1 person likes this
@KupoSin (680)
• United States
30 Jul 09
i usually dont use keys like "mail" "back" "forward" all those keys that are meant to be much easier to surf the web. i just all the buttons on the screen instead. i dont think ive ever touched the "pause/break" button next to scroll lock before either. im not sure why people need so much more keys on their keyboard. ive seen some with a bunch of different keys to make using the computer easier. in my opinion, it seems to make using computer harder
1 person likes this
@hsofyan (3446)
• Jakarta, Indonesia
29 Jul 09
Hi Sugarplum, nice to meet you again... It seems I ever use all the keys on the keyboard. In fact, I more often use the keyboard than the mouse.
• United States
30 Jul 09
Oh wow, that is cool, I wish I would put time into learning the keyboard instead of the mouse, in case the mouse or sensor broke I would be totally out of luck in using my computer!
1 person likes this
@hsofyan (3446)
• Jakarta, Indonesia
30 Jul 09
Yes, you are correct. You must prepare if the mouse does not work. Other advantage is, using the keyboard faster than the mouse. I use the mouse only if required only.
@voldrox (7191)
• India
30 Jul 09
there are no keys i haven't used that i am not aware of, the "~"/"`" key is very important to me when playing counter strike coz it helps enter the command line, hehe... yeah but i don't use much of the F keys...
• United States
30 Jul 09
Oh, that's interesting, I haven't played Counter Strike, so I don't know about that, but in World of Warcraft you use "/" and then a letter depending where you are sending your chat text to speak.
@voldrox (7191)
• India
30 Jul 09
WOW is an awesome game, though i haven't played it
• United States
29 Jul 09
I have the very odd, occasional use for the ones you mentioned, but the biggest one I never use are the [] keys. I also NEVER use the key next to the right windows button (also rarely use) that pulls up a drop down box/menu. It's funny that they keep trying to make keyboards fancier, and I never use the fanciness.
1 person likes this
• United States
29 Jul 09
haha yeah, they always add different keys to the keyboard that you never use to make it seem fancy, though it just takes up plastic and space hah. It is ridiculous.
1 person likes this
• India
30 Jul 09
Oh there are plenty on my keyboard which I have never touched like ~ & ` and also the entire F range except the F2 which I used in XL. I also have no idea about the Print Screen/SysRq key, the Scroll Lock key, the Pause/Break key. I also do not use the number blocks on the right side, I use the numbers on the top middle. Then there are the two keys on either side lower bottom with ‘windows logo’ on them…I have no idea about them too.
• United States
30 Jul 09
I don't use most of those as well, but sometimes print screen to get screenies. The windows logo selects your start key, you also use it to minimize programs, like games so you can go onto your desktop to take a break from the game or whatever you are doing, it is really useful to me.
• China
8 Aug 09
hi, I always use the "F1...2...3" etc buttons as i always use 3d design software. I just use the numbers on top of the letters. Also, those "Scroll lock" and Page Up/Down I never use. Tanks!
• United States
8 Aug 09
Oh that is cool, I don't think I will ever really have applications for using the F keys haha. I never use Scroll lock or page up or down either, I can use the arrows for that, so I have no idea why it is there heh.
• Malaysia
8 Aug 09
I never thought of this before, but now that you mentioned about it, I was looking down of my laptop keyboard haha... I seldom touched or almost never pressed the "Function (Fn)" keys. I don't know when I am going to use these function keys...
• United States
8 Aug 09
Oooh, I actually like using the functions key, I use it to bring up the calculator, without having to search under the start button, as well as for sleep mode and all that good stuff, even for my wireless. I think it was a good addition to the keyboard. Some other keys though are useless for most.
• Philippines
30 Jul 09
I'm not really fond of pressing the scroll lock key, pause/break, insert, home, end, page up and page down.Ü
• United States
30 Jul 09
Yeah, I never really touch them as well, only if by accident I do, and then I am like "what did I do!" then realize that I must have bumped them haha.
@makman (53)
• Turkey
30 Jul 09
It seems like a discussion which had started by someone who sits by the computer looking around and thinking desperately to start a discussion, but in anyway it is original :) I think there are some keys , and they are immediately noticed because they are much more dirtier by their level of dirtiness 1.Power 2.sleep 3.wake 4.insert 5.home 6.end 7 printscreen 8 scroll lock
• United States
30 Jul 09
Well, I don't start discussions too often, so I don't feel as I desperately need to post, just thought it was a discussion that we can all relate to. Interesting analysis of your keyboard though haha, took a good investigation. I probably use some of the common letters like "a" etc, and my space bar the most, I may turn power on every day, but each day that I get on a type a lot, so the letters out-do them all including power. But the ones you use the most are the ones I use the least haha, that is funny.
@yeomanly (153)
• United States
30 Jul 09
I have never used F3, F7 and F8. Except these 3, I have used all other keys in my keyboard.
• United States
30 Jul 09
I don't even know what those do haha, but that is crazy, props to you for finding uses for almost your entire keyboard. I have only accidentally pressed all the buttons on my keyboard, or when I get angry and press all the keys for example if my computer is frozen haha.
@rcjp03 (65)
• Philippines
30 Jul 09
they keys i dont press are thos at the center of the num pad and alpha pad excpt for the print screen and dekete of corz and also the "macro button" and sometime the f1-f12 im sometimes using f5 for refresh even the "sleep","wake" and "power" i dont use those keys. but if im at school im using the sleep,wake,power to fool my classmates when they are too serious doing they're labworks. haha
• United States
30 Jul 09
haha, that is a mean thing to do to your lab mates, though something I might do to them as well, that would be funny.
@csanay (43)
• India
30 Jul 09
All the keys which are used in keyboard are useful in one or the other ways.. For example the keys ~ or ' can be used to separate the multiple names in programming languages..if I want to send a big file inside which I can separate few details seprated by special characters like PRODUCTNAME~PRODUCTMACFTUREDATE~PRODUCTEXPDATE~ETC which a programmer will separate these things by separating the ~. And all functions keys are used for functions such as for fn F1 is used to get the help screen..fn F4 is used to connect ur laptop with a projector,Fn F9/F10 is used for increasing brightness of the monitor screen,etc.
• United States
30 Jul 09
That's pretty interesting, seems like you know a few cool applications with your keys. I pressed a few of those to see what would happen, and sure enough, you know your stuff. Thanks for the lesson!
• Malaysia
30 Jul 09
There are 12 F keys up there and I don't think I ever use them all.maybe from F1 to F5 yes but the rest never even touched.What are their functions, I don't even know it. I used to be exploring the buttons but some has no meaning at all when I pressed, the common ones are the letters and numbers that will surely be used for typing.
• United States
30 Jul 09
I can tell you what the letters and numbers do, but when you ask me what the F keys do I wouldn't know what to tell you, except maybe the F5 key, but I just recently learned that one anyway in another response haha, so I had really no knowledge of them before this discussion haha. If I ever have to use just the numbers and letters for the rest of my life I would be okay with that.
@busky5 (3164)
• Thailand
30 Jul 09
I have a lot of keys that i can't use in th keybroad.For me i feel happy and exciting to play a computer but i can use F5 when i want to refresh the sites.
• United States
30 Jul 09
I just learned through another response what F5 does, now I can actually use that one as well, but the others, those will take longer to learn lol.
• Indonesia
30 Jul 09
yes, I never touch and still don't know what is a key "Pause Break", "SysRq", and "End",,and I never use "Pg Up" and "Pg Dn" button on my laptop.. I often use "~" to some words that I wanna shout long with naughty tone,, Actually I rarely press "F" keys but I press it several times desperately when I try to repair my error windows 1 month ago..
• United States
30 Jul 09
hahaha, interesting use of ~, I just use it to make fun of things by putting it around the word I am making fun of, I guess we all have our own interpretation of that key haha. I have really NO idea what Pause Break, and SysRq do, I am guessing SysRq stands for System Requirement, but that is as far as my knowledge goes on that key, and that was just a guess.
@jeg2315 (197)
• United States
30 Jul 09
I hardly ever use the "F1...2...3" etc buttons. I don't use the number pad either, I just use the numbers on top of the letters. Also, those "Scroll lock" and Page Up/Down I never use. Or even ones like "Wake Up" key lol...
• United States
30 Jul 09
I don't use any of those except maybe the wake up key. Sometimes my computer doesn't wake up when I move the mouse or press any key, so I have to use that, though sometimes that one doesn't even work and I just have to restart it lol.
@killersss (638)
• India
16 Sep 09
yes there are many keys in my keyboard that i have never ever touched like the keys for volume settings, i have never ever touched those keys :) there are many other keys that i ave never touched since i have got this keyboard and that's the insert key, page up page down key.
@sezziek (28)
16 Sep 09
Haha! I never thought about it before but you're right, there ARE keys that don't seem to get used. I reckon they are just there to look pretty!. I have never used the ALT GR key - what does it do anyway??, the FN key and ~ key or the { } keys.The F keys can be useful but usually need to be programmed.The number pad is really useful if you are speed typing a mixture of numbers and letter together as you can keep your right hand on the numberpad (also very useful when playing some old games)