How can I make my laptop F-key's work as F-keys?
I purchased a new laptop with Windows 8. It's F buttons don't work as F buttons, they seem to work by default as the weird icons on them, such as media controls. To "refresh" a browser window with the F5 key, I actually have to hit fn+F5. Probably the most annoying example is, as a web developer, I like to hit F12 to go full screen, but on my laptop hitting F12 now puts my laptop into Airplane mode and disables the Wi-Fi. All that said, ctrl+F4 and alt+F4 works as expected (closing windows/tabs).
How can I make my laptop's F keys work as one would expect and not the weird "shortcut" keys?
Oh good I wasn't the only one wondering this. After some research, it is BIOS setting.
- Enter the BIOS configuration page (F10 for HP)
- look for an "action keys mode" option (under System configuration for HP notebooks)
- Once you find it, disable it.
- Exit saving changes
Now the F keys should work they way they are supposed to -- and function will require the use of the Fn + F key.