Caps lock can only be turned off by shift key, regardless of setting

After some investigation, I found the culprit: I had been using a custom keyboard layout that disabled dead keys, and apparently it also forced the usage of the Shift key to turn off caps-lock (ShiftLock as some call it).

I had tried switching to the default layout before and it didn't seem to work, now I realize that probably was because I had tested on an existing Notepad window instead of opening a new one.

Solution: I downloaded MSKLC and created a new layout based on that one but without enabling ShiftLock.


Have you tried connecting a different keyboard and see if the results are the same? I'm thinking that perhaps the behavior could be hardware based.

Interesting note, the behavior described by the user, is identical to that of manual typewriters that I used to use a long time ago.....


I don't know why this happened. But I could solve it with this workaround:

  1. Control Panel > Region and Language
  2. Keyboards and Languages Tab
  3. Change Keyboards...
  4. Advanced Key Settings
  5. Choose 'Press the SHIFT key' to turn off Caps Lock
  6. Apply
  7. Press the SHIFT key now. Caps should be off now.
  8. Again choose 'Press the CAPS LOCK key' to turn off Caps Lock.
  9. Apply