On Windows 10, when I type Alt+Numpad1 it enters ☺ at the cursor. While I realize that this is an old function I would very much like to turn it off. I have no conceivable use for typing ☺, and it seems wasteful to lose so many useful shortcuts to something so trivial.
Is there any way to disable single-digit Alt codes for symbols such as (Alt+Numpad1: ☺, Alt+Numpad3: ♥, Alt+Numpad7: ◘) in order to use these as keyboard shortcuts instead?
Motivation: The numpad provides a very tempting set of options for assigning shortcuts in applications that allow modification of keyboard shortcuts. For example, I am running Rstudio Server inside Google Chrome, so I have a tabbed application inside of a tabbed browser, making Alt an attractive choice for shortcuts to navigate within Rstudio Server; the large number of panels make the numpad a great choice for navigating to panels.
51 Answer
In a Unicode window Alt+1 smiley face will enter code 1 and be converted to code U+9716. In an ANSI window it will enter code 1 but there is no smiley face in ANSI so it will be a ?. In a console window it depends on console mode - in the standard mode of processing control codes - Alt+1 will enter a smiley face but Alt+8 will backspace over the previous character.
Holding down alt and pressing the character code on the numeric keypad will enter that character. The keyboard language in use must support entering that character. If your keyboard supports it the code is shown on the right hand side of the status bar in Character Map else this section of the status bar is empty. The status bar us also empty for characters with well known keys, like the letters A to Z.
However there is two ways of entering codes. The point to remember here that the characters are the same for the first 127 codes. The difference is if the first number typed is a zero of not. If it is then the code will insert the character from the current character set else it will insert a character from the OEM character set. Codes over 255 enter the unicode character and are in decimal. Characters entered are converted to OEM for Dos applications and either ANSI or Unicode depending on the Windows' application
Shortcut Keys and Key Modifiers for the Windows Shell 2006
Another thing to note is that some applications will have menu keys like that. Alt is the MENU key and really shouldn't be used. And Ctrl keys are for application shortcuts.
