Until Apple is releasing a fix and because this is annoying me, I decided to take some time and code a small tool that has the only purpose of locking the state of the fn key.

This is working on my computer. It's a PC computer, not a Mac. It's running XP.

Probably that if you are a Mac user you won't need this because the boot camp control panel is probably working for you. Lucky you!
In case you are using Vista this may not work because I'm accessing to the registry.

Because I'm doing a lot of programming, using Visual Studio and the like, the keys between F7 and F12 are often used. Because I also listen to a lot of music not being able to lock the behavior of the fn key annoyed me to the point that I decided to code a very small tool and follow Thomas's tip to toggle the fn key in the registry.

Just by changing the value of the key at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\KeyMagic\OSXFnBehavior

Here is a small screenshot.

It’s not doing much. Just toggle the fn behavior. You can toggle the status by Right Click->Toggle but also by Double clicking on the systray icon.

Also, you can use F19. Hopefuly you are not using that key too much. In case you do, it should still work. Just it will now also toggle the fn key

I’m sharing this with you in case you have the same problem. Like always, comments are welcome.

Get it here ToggleFn1.0.0.1.rar (9.17 kb)

History
1.0.0.0 Initial release
1.0.0.1 Supports more registry key types 

Let's not start by talking about myself even if this is my first post on that blog. The blog engine I will use from now on is the fresh and excellent DotNetBlogEngine.

Wow! Wow! What a name. I will take on myself to call it DNBlogEngine.NET in my future posts. Lazy me. Ok, a new blog engine is very exciting especially because this one despite its early version numbers does include many features still missing in older blog engines... No, no, I won't give you a list... If it's true or not, I don't care. Let's just pretend it's true.

The project just started but it already has millions of downloads and the developers are several hundreds...

They must be that many, right? Because it's moving along so fast that I won't believe you if you tell me they are only a few guys working on their spare time?

Yes? For real? No kidding? Who? Mads? And...? Al? OK, why not.

Anyway, you will have to follow the project very closely as you will all have to migrate your existing blogs to that new one. It's the only decent choice you have.

Yep, that's what I call a choice. No choice is some kind of choice anyway.

Now, to the point. For the people that follow, until now the title of that post does not match it's content. Right, but you have to understand me as I wanted to introduce myself without introducing me. I agree with you, I failed. Hum, maybe I succeeded, you decide.

The point of that post was just to introduce a very small extension for the DNBlogEngine.NET... What does it do? While typing some smilies using the toolbar included in your editor you might be wondering why in hell you cannot use the same smilies in the comments? Smilies like this one and this one , in fact none can be used. Why O why? O why? !

It's on purpose. Mads had secret special bet with Al. So secret that even him does know nothing about it...

The bet was that the first guy not part of the team writing an extension would win a Million dollar (baby) . Wow minute oncle Tom! That would be me? YES!

Holy cow! (Sorry, no smiley for this one) ONE MILLION DOLLAR! You guys are *SO* coooool! The extension is attached and works starting with change set number 3820 and up.

UP until someone breaks the API, and that day the world will be doomed. Or maybe not.

Anyway, get the attachment, extract the file to your BlogEngine.NET\App_Code\Extensions directory and voila! you are getting nice smilies in your comments.

Of course, I will add some more features like a mini toolbar over the comment field and things like that as soon as the extension engine is telling me how to achieve it.

It's only a very basic peace of code anyway.

You may take a look at it (only one, not two or it will destroy itself) and read this Make your ASP.NET application extendable. Also taking a look at the documentation, the source code might help. Finally, New extension model in BlogEngine.NET will finish to convince you.

If you need an idea for a new extension, just take a look at the whish list and maybe also at the challengers. Euh, maybe this is us? Hum, not sure anymore.

Have fun with it. If it burns your house or skin your cat, just tell yourself that it was the intended feature.

Smilies.rar (1.29 kb)