Vista - Disabling the keyboard power management keys

How do I disable power management keys? I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium.

I keep accidently touching the Power Off key on my keyboard and this shuts
down the whole PC. I don't need to switch off the system from the keyboard,
so I would like to disable this key.

Any ideas?

I would also like to add a similar request if I could.
Is there also a way to disable media hotkeys that open programs like the
internet browser or IM? I have hit those at inoportune times myself while
doing processor intensive things like graphics editing or gaming and have had
the computer freeze when the program opens

"ian17" wrote:

Hi,

ian17 - Click 'Start', 'Control Panel', 'Hardware and Sound'. In the 'Power
Options' tab there is an entry 'Change what the power buttons do'. Click
this, and you can change the function of your power buttons to whatever you
like (in your case, to 'do nothing').
Bryson - If yours is a Microsoft keyboard, you should have a program called
'Microsoft Keyboard'. If you run this program, you should be able to change
the assignment of troublesome hotkeys to something else. For example, my
keyboard is a Microsoft Digital Pro Keyboard and I can change the assignments
of these keys to whatever I like (including 'Disable the use of this key',
which is probably the option you require).
Dwarf

"Bryson" wrote:

I've discovered that the solution for me is in "Control Panel>Power
Options>Choose What the Power Buttons Do". There's an option to turn it
right off!

Bryson, you want to disable other buttons. I recommend SharpKeys which is a
utility I came across from reading Wikipedia under "Computer Keyboard". It
writes to the windows scan code map registry key to change the actions of any
key(s) on the board. I've tried it and it's safe. The latest version is
also Vista compatible, and it's free.