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

What is Shift Lock on the Touch Keyboard?

Shift lock on the touch keyboard lets you type all capital letters without holding down the shift key in Windows 11. You turn it on by tapping the shift key twice quickly, and a small lock icon appears on the key to show it is working. Tapping shift one more time turns it off so you can type lowercase letters again.

Double-tapping the Shift key activates Shift Lock. Every subsequent letter remains uppercase until another tap on the Shift key disables the lock.

Active Shift Lock changes the appearance of the key by displaying a small lock icon. Regular touch keyboard layouts support this functionality, but traditional keyboard layouts do not.

How to Turn On or Off Shift Lock

Quick activation relies on double-tapping the Shift key directly on the touch keyboard. Preventing accidental activation requires modifying a specific system setting.

Disable Shift Lock using Registry Editor

Disabling shift lock using Registry Editor (a tool for changing advanced Windows settings) stops the touch keyboard from locking capital letters when you tap the shift key twice. You need to open the registry tool and find a specific folder to change the setting. Make sure you follow these steps carefully since mistakes in the registry can cause system problems.

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_USERSoftwareMicrosoftTabletTip1.7
   
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.

Official Microsoft documentation provides additional details regarding input methods: Use the touch keyboard in Windows 11.