But what about all those other vestigial, legacy keys?
Print Screen is one, but how about Scroll Lock, CAPS LOCK, or Pause Break?
There they sit, occupying a prime spot above the arrow block, and they are almost pointless.
Tomasz Åmigla / Getty Images
Almost, because at least you could remap those keys to other functions with the right software.
But computer makers should just swap them out for more useful functions out of the box.
Key Bored
So what is Microsoft remapping the Print Screen key to do?
Clark_fang / Getty Images
In the latest Windows 11 beta, it will snap a screenshot, which makes a lot of sense.
Now, the most ridiculous legacy keys are usually only found on standalone full-sized keyboards.
I’m sure plenty of people use that, but enough to make it a default key?
Apple
And it gets worse.
There’s still an eject key up there, but what does it eject?
If you really need caps lock, you couldlike on the iPhonedouble-tap a shift key to lock it.
But what could these keys be used for instead?
We might think instead about improving the accessibility for all users.
Perhaps the answer is not to waste keys on Siri, Expose, and other built-in features.
Maybe we just need a more robust and easier way to reassign those keys.
How about a top row with keys that each contain a little screen?
That would be a pretty neat way to let people do whatever they want.
Overall, though, Microsoft’s Print Screen deprecation is a step in the right direction.
It’s about time we rethought how our keyboards work.
