Win XP Pro .vs. Numlock Default Setting

J

judger48193

Member
Just converted my Win 2000 Pro to XP Pro. Using Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac, Build 5608.

Under 2000 the Numlock on the numeric key pad remained as set when rebooting. Under XP the Numlock is NOT set On as desired. I have visited all of the Microsoft fixes for the default Off and talked to MS support for way over an hour. We got the Numlock On at user log in but NOT after boot requiring one to manually set it. They finally said that it could be the BIOS settings. But since Parallels has control, I believe that this is a Parallels issue under XP.

Your advice is requested on how to have the Numlock set On automatically after the Windows boot is done.
 
BIOS Under Parallels???

Since they isn't any PC in a VM, does anybody know what a PC's BIOS means under Parallels?

Thanks a bunch.
 
The Parallels BIOS is controlled by the Parallels Desktop preferences and Virtual Machine configuration (e.g. boot order). There's a Parallels Desktop Preference for keyboard settings but nothing to do with the Numlock status.
 
I agree that the Parallels Desktop preferences gives no ability to affect the Numlock setting at boot.

It is still unclear how the default Numlock is controlled or affected by Parallels. Is there any Parallels Support response on this one?
 
Wouldn't the OS registry settings override any BIOS setting when the OS boots?

There's a couple of registry settings:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators
HKEY_USERS | .DEFAULT | Control Panel | Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicator

I tested this on my Windows XP SP 3 virtual machine in Parallels Desktop 5 and the numlock setting was restored correctly to the last setting (numlock on or off) after each reboot (cold boot or warm boot) of the virtual machine. My XP has one login with no password. Each virtual machine has it's own numlock setting i.e. numlock can be on in one VM and off in another VM.

Are you using Windows XP SP 3?
 
joevt, thank you for the reply. Per My Computer -> Properties I am running: XP Version 2002 Service Pack 3.

Although I am very leery of editing my Registry settings I did set one of the Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators to a value of 2 as I saw in some MS support page.

I checked both of HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators and HKEY_USERS | .DEFAULT | Control Panel | Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators and they are both = 2.

Do you have some other setting?
 
I don't know of any other settings. I just press the clear key on my Mac keyboard to turn on numlock in the VM, then when I reboot the VM, numlock is still on in the VM.
 
I tested on another Windows XP SP 3 virtual machine that has multiple logins and passwords.

I booted the VM, numlock was off in the login screen and in Notepad. The registry settings were both 0.
0 for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators
0 for HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicator

I turned on numlock in Notepad then rebooted. numlock was still off in the login screen but was on in Notepad.

The registry settings were:
2 for HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicators
0 for HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard - InitialKeyboardIndicator

It looks like the setting for HKEY_CURRENT_USER is getting set correctly before rebooting.

Regedit has a search function. InitialKeyboardIndicators is also found at:

1) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\win.ini\Windows
data: USR:Control Panel\Keyboard
The other items may start with #. I don't know what the difference is or what these are for exactly. There's a description at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722567.aspx

2) HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Control Panel\Keyboard
I think this is the same as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard. You may want to try changing these. The S-1-5-18 name is different for each user. I also have a S-1-5-19 and S-1-5-20 and some others with longer names.
 
joevt, way over my head with those Registry settings and meanings. I don't feel comfortable messing with them. Since I talked to MS for quite a while, I suspect that they are aware of this stuff and didn't go there.

Since MS said to check the BIOS, I still maintain that this is a Parallels issue but have NOT received any feedback from them. You Guys going to jump in here?
 
Modifying HKEY_USERS\S-######\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators is just as safe as modifying HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators. One person had success with changing all of them.

I was curious to know if your HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\win.ini\Windows\InitialKeyboardIndicators is the same as mine.

Did MS Support tell you whether or not Windows XP is supposed to save the numlock setting and if so, what process is responsible for doing that? Did they tell you to check anything else besides the BIOS and registry? If MS Support didn't consult a MS developer with access to the source code then they're probably guessing just as much as we are or using the same resources to find an answer.

There's a knowledge base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/123498. It applies to Windows NT and is supposed to have been corrected in NT 3.51 so I guess it's not XP related but I wonder if your user is a member of the administrators group or not?

Here's a few more to look at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154529
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314879
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/b0d17415-acbf-41d7-95c2-4fbfe1700cfe
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/d7e2d87d-3d9f-44de-9b9a-1cf44b91eaef

A few of those talk about the registry permissions. The permissions tells you who owns each registry folder (key) and what permissions everyone has to edit them. For example, under HKEY_USERS there are a list of users:
.DEFAULT, S-1-5-18, S-1-5-19, S-1-5-20, S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-725345543-1003
Right clicking each of them and selecting Permissions shows who each folder belongs too:
SYSTEM, SYSTEM, LOCAL SERVICE, NETWORK SERVICE, me.

You turn off Full Access if you don't want anyone to change the value. Full Access needs to be on for the values to change.

The key HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-725345543-1003\Control Panel\Keyboard on my virtual machine has Full Control set for Administrators, me, and SYSTEM. Does yours have similar permissions?
 
joevt said:
...

Did MS Support tell you whether or not Windows XP is supposed to save the numlock setting and if so, what process is responsible for doing that? Did they tell you to check anything else besides the BIOS and registry? If MS Support didn't consult a MS developer with access to the source code then they're probably guessing just as much as we are or using the same resources to find an answer.
Click to expand...

MS spend over an hour with me using Chat and phone. The tech tried several things to get Numlock on including using Easy Assist to take over my PC and installing the VBS suggested on the support page you reference below, I believe. The tech did NOT consult anyone that I am aware of although he mentioned that he might transfer me in the beginning to which I expressed concern over continuity in my discussion.

His bottom line was to change the BIOS. I don't even know how to do that on a Parallels VM since the F12 key requires Actions -> Send Key -> F12 which is pretty hard to do during boot. Pressing F12 without Parallels special menus didn't seem to do anything. I tried F8 from the keyboard and it did NOT bring up any BIOS settings that I could see.

joevt said:
There's a knowledge base article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/123498. It applies to Windows NT and is supposed to have been corrected in NT 3.51 so I guess it's not XP related but I wonder if your user is a member of the administrators group or not?

Here's a few more to look at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/154529
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314879
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/b0d17415-acbf-41d7-95c2-4fbfe1700cfe
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/d7e2d87d-3d9f-44de-9b9a-1cf44b91eaef

...
Click to expand...

Both I and the MS tech put the VBS script several places trying to get it to force on Numlock. I also tried setting InitialKeyboardIndicators to a value of 2 for several users - there is only one user I have created who is the admin although loading XP onto the disk left several old 2000 users (there was only one user, the admin, that I used) and some I don't understand at all.

joevt said:
The key HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1454471165-1482476501-725345543-1003\Control Panel\Keyboard on my virtual machine has Full Control set for Administrators, me, and SYSTEM. Does yours have similar permissions?
Click to expand...

Using the Regedit search you suggested, I changed all InitialKeyboardIndicators to a value of 2 IF THEY DIDN'T HAVE STRANGE VALUES like "#USR:Control Panel\Keyboard" or "08x0000000". I only found one more that I had not set already.
 
It should be safe to change the 0x80000000 value.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/91086-toggle-keys-startup.html

It's interesting that your "USR:Control Panel\Keyboard" begins with a #. This is for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\win.ini\Windows\InitialKeyboardIndicators. Mine does not have the # character so you should try removing the # character too. When I added the # to mine, it did not seem to affect anything though. My numlock was still being saved when I rebooted.

The only thing left to do after the above is check the permissions of all the \Keyboard keys. Also check if the ones that you change to 2 get changed back to 0 after reboot.

Both my Windows XP VM's were installed using Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD's then updated to SP 3 later. I didn't upgrade from 2000. Maybe there's a problem with upgrading from 2000...
 
Not really comfortable changing values in the Registry hoping it will fix something. My Windows environment is way to critical to my Internet and personal access to bring it down.
 
judger48193 said:
Changing the one value to '2' had NO effect on boot value of Numlock key
Does this mean it changed back to 0? If so did you make sure num lock was on before rebooting?

judger48193 said:
Still wondering why Parallels tech support can't contribute on why it worked in Win 2000 and doesn't work in Win XP.
Click to expand...
I guess that Parallels tech support are experts at Parallels and not Windows. The problem occurred after you changed Windows. You did not change Parallels. Therefore the problem must be in Windows.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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