Remap Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 “My Favorites” key

I have no idea why Microsoft wouldn’t want us to remap this My Favorites key on a great Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. It is additional one line and it is a very stupid choice not implement it, since folk is clearly searching for this on www.

Here is what you have to do to enable the same menu as for other fully configurable keys:

• Find file: ITypeDevices.xml
  In my case it was located in a default install location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center\ITypeDevices.xml
• Search for: ” Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000“
  Once found, scroll lower until you see “MY_FAVORITES_LEGEND_EVENT“
  It is important to edit the right field for a correct device.
• Add (copy/paste) following line: “<Capability Name="CanRemap" />“

...
        <DefaultCommand>MY_FAVORITES_COMMAND</DefaultCommand>
        <DefaultCommand Requirement="favorite_bar_support">FAV_BAR_COMMAND</DefaultCommand>
        <Capability Name="CanRemap" />
        <Capability Name="UserAssignable" />
      </Event>
      <Event>
        <Id>MY_FAVORITES_LEGEND_EVENT</Id>
        <DisplayName>IDS_KN_MY_FAVORITES_LEGEND</DisplayName>
        <DefaultCommand>MY_FAVORITES_LEGEND_COMMAND</DefaultCommand>
        <Capability Name="CanRemap" />
        <Capability Name="UserAssignable" />
      </Event>
      <Event>
        <Id>PLAY_PAUSE_KEY_EVENT</Id>
        <DisplayName>IDS_KN_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE</DisplayName>
...

• Save file (will require admin permissions).
• Restart “IType.exe” in Task manager:
  • kill “IType.exe“
  • Spawn new process with the same name.

Voila, back to Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center and assign your favorite shortcut to otherwise useless key.

Just for a post completeness sake, to change also useless zoom button to somewhat usable scroll button, open commands.xml in the same directory and do (exact copy from here):

You can also use notepad++ and the Replace Dialog(Ctrl+F and select Replace tab). Check “Regular Expression” in the bottom left side of the dialog and use these to remap the zoom key:

Find what: <C319 .* />
Replace with: <C319 Type=”6″ Activator=”ScrollUp” />

Find what: <C320 .* />
Replace with: <C320 Type=”6″ Activator=”ScrollDown” />

Side note: the process is now called itype.exe. Close the process and restart it(Task Manager->File->Run new task-> “itype.exe”) for the changes to take effect.