How to disable Quick Launch keys on G62?

[banelos]

By far the most irritating and infuriating problem with my new HP G62 laptop are the quick launch keys on the left side of the keyboard. Why oh why would they place new keys to the left of the normal ctrl, shift, tab etc.

I just can't get used to it and it's ruining the entire enjoyment of getting a new laptop. I feel like trading it back in, if thats even possible.

For now I would like to know if it is possible to disable these keys? So I at least do not waste a lot of time with the stupid programs opening and blocking whatever I was doing. Why would you want quick-launch keys for these things in the first place 😕

I've tried uninstalling "HP Quick Launch Buttons", but to no use. The shortcut keys still worked after uninstall and reboot.

How can the Quick Launch buttons be disabled? Or can they at least be re-programmed to something useful or just to run an empty exe file, so they don't interrupt my workflow when I accidentally hit one.

I really liked my new G62 laptop at first, but the keyboard is just really lacking. Bad key placement and generally poor quality.

Further info:

Model: HP G62-113SO

OS: Windows 7 64bit.

Havn't changed or installed much since I got it.

[HaggisCat]

There appears to be steps in this guide on page's 31 and 95 in the BIOS to disable them, but it doesn't talk about the ones to the left of the key board.  Worth a read though.

 http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c01982085.pdf

 You may also find something in "msconfig" to disable.

[banelos]

"The action key feature is enabled at the factory. If you disable this feature in the Setup Utility, you will need to press fn and an action key to activate the assigned function (refer to Setup Utility (BIOS)on page 95)."

I have this disabled. Only makes it so I have to press Fn button to use the top function keys. It does nothing about the leftmost keys. So far I've been able to disable some of the Quick Launch buttons on the left with this program: http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

But I still have problems with the print hotkey and the MediaPlayer hotkey. Would be neat to be able to just disable all of them.

[johnwun]

I've been fighting with this since I got the G62. I used the aforementioned program to remap my mail, browser and calculator buttons. I used sharpkeys and this little keymap viewer to poke around and discovered that there IS no keycode generated when you hit the "media" button. When you hit the Print key, it just sends the key combo "Cntrl-P" so I'm not sure how one would disable that, as you wouldn't want to remap either "cntrl" or "P".

Until HP comes out with an official tool, here's how to disable the 'media' button.  Navigate to your PowerDVD8 folder in program files, and rename PowerDVD8.exe to PowerDVD8_orig.exe. Then in windows startup, relink the shortcut to PowerDVD8_orig.exe so you can still run it if you want. Now I didn't want the shortcut to aim at nothing, so I just created a new Text file, and renamed it PowerDVD8.exe and dropped it into the PowerDVD8 folder. Just be sure to rename the original before you do this or it will erase the program.  When you hit the 'media' key, NOTHING happens. 🙂

I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but I am now not accidentally opening PowerDVD8 every 20 minutes... 

Hope this helps somebody out there.

[somebody1967]

tried to fix - fail so far

[gdmk]

Hello,

HP Personal, I Expect an answer to this questions. If you provide keys to application that you deem usefull and I exetentaly press all the time (launching some applications...). You should at the very list provide you'r customers with some method to disable them or remap them to somthing that is usfull for their needs.

Good day,

[dave_t]

I could also use a fix for this. The DVD and Print buttons are driving me nuts.

[rabar10]

I found a way to change/disable the left-side PowerDVD8 button!

I searched the registry for the "PowerDVD8.exe" text, and found something under HotStartButtons, which sounded applicable.  Looked this up online and found:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/hotstart.mspx - see the document linked on that page for details.

Specific application-only buttons can be tied to apps and also wake the PC up quickly to launch the app.  In the case of the G62, button "2" (the only one that is mapped) is starting the DVD software.

You can open Task Scheduler, go to Scheduled Tasks, go to Task Scheduler Library\Microsoft\Windows\MobilePC, and End & Disable the HotStart task, which is in charge of mapping that key to the application.  

You can also either remove or change the value for the ApplicationPath key under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MobilePC\HotStartButtons\2

(you have to stop and start the task using Task Scheduler for this change to take effect) 

HotStart only controls the DVD button though, not the others.  That's OK, it's the one I hit the most accidentally AND the most obnoxious when it pops up and takes over your whole screen...

[gdmk]

Clever Work. Thanks for the effort.

Still I can't understand. How can you make special keys hard wired to some pre-installed piece of software and not make them configrable. I buy hp computers for a long time, but this is infuriating behavior.

The main this I don't understand is:

Does hp personal not read their own support forums?

Maybe they do not answer questions they are uncomfterble with?

At the very least, I expect an answer from hp!

[Mumbodog]

Has anyone tried removing the HP quick Launch software in Programs and Features?