How to Turn On or Off Shift Lock on the Touch Keyboard in Windows 11

If you use your Windows 11 touchscreen to type with the on-screen keyboard, you might find the Shift Lock feature useful — or annoying. This guide will show you how to turn it on or off easily.

What is Shift Lock on the Touch Keyboard?

The touch keyboard appears on your screen when you tap a text box, and it lets you type without a physical keyboard. If you double tap the Shift key on this keyboard, Shift Lock turns on. This means all letters you type will be uppercase until you tap the Shift key again to turn it off.

When Shift Lock is on, the Shift key will look different — usually with a small lock icon, so you know it’s active.

Note: Shift Lock is only available on the regular touch keyboard layouts, not on the traditional keyboard layout.

How to Turn On or Off Shift Lock

You can use the touch keyboard easily to turn Shift Lock on or off by double tapping the Shift key. But if you want to completely disable the Shift Lock feature (so you can’t turn it on by accident), you can change a setting in Windows.

Disable Shift Lock using Registry Editor

Warning: Changing Windows settings using the Registry Editor can cause problems if done incorrectly. Please follow these steps carefully, or ask someone for help if you are unsure.

1. Press Win + R on your keyboard to open the Run box.
2. Type regedit and press Enter. If asked for permission, click Yes.
3. In Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to go to this folder:
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7
   
4. Look for a value named EnableShiftLock on the right side.
5. If it doesn’t exist, right-click on the right side, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it EnableShiftLock.
6. Double-click EnableShiftLock and set the value data to:
   • 1 to enable Shift Lock (this is the default)
   • 0 to disable Shift Lock
7. Click OK, then close Registry Editor.
8. You might need to restart your PC or sign out and back in for the change to take effect.

Here is what the registry file looks like if you want to create a file to do this:

Enable Shift Lock (default)

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7" /v EnableShiftLock /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Disable Shift Lock

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7" /v EnableShiftLock /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Quick Summary

• Turn Shift Lock on/off quickly: Double tap the Shift key on the touch keyboard.
• Disable Shift Lock completely: Change the EnableShiftLock value in the Registry Editor to 0.

If you want to learn more about the Windows touch keyboard, check out the official Microsoft support page: Use the touch keyboard in Windows 11.