How to Turn On or off Shift Lock On the Touch Keyboard in Windows 11
Shift Lock on the Windows 11 touch keyboard keeps capital letters active until you tap the Shift key again. It works like Caps Lock on a physical keyboard. If you keep ending up in all caps by accident, you can turn the feature on or off. This tutorial covers the Settings app first, then the Registry Editor.
To look for the toggle in Settings:
- Press Win+I to open Settings . The Settings window should appear.
- Select Time & language in the left-hand list.
- Tap Typing. The typing options for your device are listed.
- Choose Touch keyboard and find the Shift lock toggle switch.
- Switch it on or off as needed. The change applies straight away, and you can reverse it at any time by flipping the switch back.
Windows 11 builds differ in which touch keyboard options they show. If you don’t see the toggle on your PC, use the Registry Editor method further down. It works on both Windows 11 Home and Pro.
Open Settings Time & language Typing Touch keyboard and toggle Shift lock on or off. The change applies immediately. If the option doesn’t appear, use Registry Editor to navigate to 🗝️HKEY_CURRENT_USER\
What is Shift Lock on the Touch Keyboard?
Shift Lock lets you type in all capitals on the touch keyboard without holding Shift. You can use it like this:
- Open any text field so the touch keyboard appears.
- Tap the Shift key twice in quick succession. A small lock icon appears on the key to show Shift Lock is active.
- Type your text. Every letter stays uppercase.
- Tap Shift once more to turn the lock off. The lock icon disappears and you are back to lowercase.
Double-tapping the Shift key activates the lock. Every letter after that stays uppercase until another tap on the Shift key disables it.
Regular touch keyboard layouts support Shift Lock, but traditional keyboard layouts do not. If you switch to one of those, you won’t see the lock behavior.
How to Turn On or Off Shift Lock
The fast way to turn Shift Lock on and off is to double-tap the Shift key directly on the touch keyboard. This is also how it gets switched on by accident: two quick taps are enough, and it's easy to do while typing fast on a small screen.
If you only want to stop that happening, you don't need to change anything. You just need to tap Shift once more to release the lock. If it keeps happening and you'd rather not have the feature at all, you can turn it off by changing a system setting, as shown next.
Disable Shift Lock using Registry Editor
Using it to disable Shift Lock stops the touch keyboard from locking capitals when you tap Shift twice. You open the tool, go to a specific key, and change one value. Follow the steps carefully, because mistakes in the registry can cause system problems. For safety, you can back up first: in Registry Editor, choose File and then Export, and save a copy.
- Press Win + R on your keyboard to open the Run box.
- Type
regeditand press Enter. If Windows asks for permission, click Yes. Registry Editor opens. - In Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to go to this folder:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7
- Look for a value named
EnableShiftLockon the right side. - If it doesn’t exist, right-click an empty area on the right side, choose New DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it
EnableShiftLock. The new value appears in the list. - Double-click
EnableShiftLockand set the value data to:- 1 to enable Shift Lock (this is the default)
- 0 to disable Shift Lock
- Click OK, then close Registry Editor.
- You might need to restart your PC or sign out and back in for the change to take effect.
To undo the change, open the same value again and set it back to 1. Then restart or sign out and back in once more.
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 /fDisable Shift Lock
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7" /v EnableShiftLock /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /fQuick Summary
Here is a quick recap of the two methods:
- Turn Shift Lock on/off quickly: Double tap the Shift key on the touch keyboard.
- Disable Shift Lock completely: Change the
EnableShiftLockvalue in the Registry Editor to 0. Set it back to 1 to restore the default.
Official Microsoft documentation provides additional details regarding input methods: Use the touch keyboard in Windows 11.
Frequently asked questions
How do I unlock my shift key?
Tap the Shift key once to turn off Shift Lock on the touch keyboard. On a physical keyboard, press Caps Lock to end all-caps typing. If Shift seems stuck, press it five times in a row to turn off Sticky Keys, or open Settings and check Accessibility.
How to enable on screen keyboard?
Open Settings, select Accessibility, then choose Keyboard and switch on the On-screen keyboard toggle. Press Windows Key + Ctrl + O to open it without Settings. The keyboard stays on screen until you close it, and you can click keys with a mouse or touchscreen.
What does Ctrl+K do in Windows?
Windows itself does not use Ctrl+K. Inside an app, it does whatever that app assigns. In Word, Outlook, and most text editors, it inserts a hyperlink. In browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, it puts the cursor in the address bar for searching. The shortcut is set by each program, so the result changes between apps.
Do you want to turn on Sticky Keys?
Turn on Sticky Keys if you need to press Shift, Ctrl, or Alt one key at a time instead of holding them down. Press Shift five times to get the prompt, or open Settings, select Accessibility, choose Keyboard, and switch on Sticky keys. It works in every app and can be turned off the same way.
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About the Author
Richard
Tech Writer, IT Professional
Richard is a writer at Geek Rewind who turns complex IT tasks into clear, step-by-step guides. He draws on years of hands-on experience in system administration and enterprise IT operations, focusing on Windows, Linux and WordPress: the problems people actually run into, and the fixes that work. His server and WordPress guides come from systems he runs himself. Richard builds and maintains the platform behind Geek Rewind, from its Ubuntu servers and Nginx configuration to its custom WordPress plugins. Many new tutorials start with readers' questions, and he's always glad to answer them in the comments.
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