Put together a system for my five-year old...

She's learning about computers in kindergarten so I figured it's high time she became comfortable with one at home. Rebuilt an old HP Slimline I haven't used in like three years, a 17" Sony monitor collecting dust in the garage, and my backup wired Logitech laser mouse. For once I didn't have an extra keyboard lying around, so I gave her the standard issue Dell I use on my main desktop (always thought of myself as a tricked-out keyboard type of guy, but ever since my last wireless, ergonomic, multimedia enhanced keyboard died a couple years ago, the Dell has, surprisingly, been more than adequate). After a couple hours in Windows Update (I think the last time I turned this system on was in 2008 or 2009), the setup's running smoothly, and my kid's in seventh heaven. Also known as pbskids.org.

This of course left me with a mouse but no keyboard for my main system, until my next visit to Micro Center. I was able to log in using the mouse and the on-screen accessibility keyboard, but after logging in, using it for everyday tasks gets old quick. Luckily it didn't take long for me to remember Windows Speech Recognition, which I'd last played with in 2009 when Vista was released. Seems to work about the same in Windows 7 (I love it), but that's another post. A couple days later I was finally able to get over to Micro Center and peruse the keyboard aisle.

At first I thought I'd get another tricked out multimedia keyboard, but upon reflection, I decided to look at the small form factor bluetooth keyboards. What I'd love is a bluetooth, backlit keyboard with a numpad and a decent look for under $100 (or even $50), but that day hasn't come yet. What I walked out of the store with was a small, bluetooth keyboard by a company called "Rocksoul" for $30. It has chiclet keys and a nice simple look:

It wasn't until I got home and took it out of the box that I realized it was a Mac keyboard - instead of a Windows key, it had a Command key, which was flipped with the Alt key.

After going crazy trying to use it for a few minutes (never realized just how often I hit Alt+Space to bring up a window's system menu), I decided to remap the keys to my liking. I was surprised to find that Windows 7 doesn't really come with a way to do this (aside from manually editing the registry), although Microsoft's Keyboard Layout Creator is a free download. It sucks though, and I didn't feel like trying any others out once I discovered that a utility I already use, AutoHotKey, lets you remap keys as well.

Here's the code I entered into my AutoHotKey script to swap the Command and Alt keys:

; Keyboard remap
LWin::LAlt
RWin::RAlt
LAlt::LWin
RAlt::RWin

In the end, I think I've decided to return this keyboard after all. While I like the small form factor in principle, it's distracting to type on it, and I miss the extra keys like the numpad, Home/End/Delete, Page Up/Down, and the Print Screen key. Furthermore, there's no Control key on the right side, and the leftmost bottom key is not Control but a Function key, very distracting. Finally, and I think this is a Mac thing - the Escape key only works for some things. I can dismiss a select list with it, but can't, for example, dismiss an open dialog box, which is second nature to me.

All in all, a nice enough keyboard, but not for me.