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My Dell laptop (XPS 15z) has special keys on the F1 to F12 keys. If I want to disable keyboard backlight, for example, I must type Fn + F6.

  • Is it possible to invert it?

In fact, I don't often use the F* keys.

  • How can I only hit F6 to disable the backlight and Fn + F6 to type F6?

  • Is it possible?

Thanks.

ThunderBird
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Gp2mv3
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3 Answers3

414

I am not sure if it works for all models, but on mine if you press Fn+Esc it changes the Fn lock so that F1+F12 work as normal and when you hold Fn+(lets say F11) it will change the brightness or whatever that keys secondary function is. Pressing Fn+Esc again reverts it back to default. Hope this helps.

KGIII
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Shy
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    Gah, thank you for posting this! I accidentally pressed this without even realizing such a feature exists. Would go hunting around BIOS if you hadn't helped! – kaqqao Nov 11 '15 at 00:31
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    Wow that is an awful default toggle to have on a row that is so similar to the intended row. Why this isn't the accepted answer is a rare glitch in the SO matrix. – neuronet Jun 22 '17 at 00:48
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    This is a better answer as it is an easier option. Wondering why this is not marked as answer! – Raul Jul 29 '17 at 01:41
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    I always did it changing BIOS but didn't found this option in my new notebook. Fn+Esc worked, to be honest Esc even has a padlock icon but I was unable to figure out alone. – iurisilvio Jun 08 '18 at 15:46
  • Did not work on HP tre -1025 – virtualxtc Jun 22 '18 at 08:29
  • Works on Lenovo. – Anthony Oct 24 '18 at 09:51
  • Fabulous!! I was messing about with keyboard shortcuts for a long time trying to get my Intellij code editor to work. Fn + Esc was the solution, and effortless to implement! – Ben Weaver Feb 20 '19 at 21:08
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    Pressing Function Key + Shift make it inverted in HP EliteBook Laptop – Rahal Kanishka Jun 27 '19 at 15:13
  • On my keyboard, the Esc key has a tiny little padlock symbol with 'Fn' in it. But not something you'd actually notice, nor even somewhere you'd think to look. – Peter Flynn Sep 01 '19 at 21:14
  • Thanks, this would never occur to me.. I thought the lock icon on the ESC means a screen lock and that it just doesn't work lol. Anyway, I'll just add I had this issue with desktop keyboard Dell KB216t and this solved the issue. Hopefully this'll make it easier to find this answer via Google for ppl with the same keyboard (most of the questions about this are for laptops and the solutions don't necessarily apply to desktops). – edison23 Nov 17 '19 at 14:48
  • Thanks it worked on my dell laptop on ubuntu 20.04. – kailor Apr 25 '20 at 15:39
  • This is not specific to Ubuntu. It should work on any operating system (at least works on Windows 11). – arni Mar 04 '22 at 15:17
  • Works on Apple Magic Keyboard – svandragt Mar 02 '23 at 14:36
62

It should be possible to do it in the BIOS. Quoting the XPS 15z manual:

  1. Press F2 during POST (Power On Self Test) to enter the System Setup (BIOS) utility.

  2. In the Function Key Behavior, select Multimedia Key First or Function Key First.

    • Function Key First — This is the default option. Press any function key to perform the associated function. For multimedia action, press Fn + the required multimedia key.
    • Multimedia Key First — Press any multimedia key to perform the associated multimedia action. For function, press Fn + the required function key.
ThunderBird
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roadmr
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  • This works for a different model Dell laptop I have as well, and I would suspect for anything else with Dell's BIOS (don't have experience with any other vendors). – zpletan Mar 13 '12 at 14:11
  • This also works for my Lenovo (Flex 2) Laptop. No 2 options as mentioned above, just an enable and disable option. – blo0p3r Sep 18 '14 at 03:36
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    On a new Dell XPS 13, the option is under "POST Behavior", "Fn Lock Options" – JavadocMD Jun 18 '15 at 20:59
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    If enabled in the BIOS (which I assume it is by default), you can toggle the behavior of the Fn key with the Fn+Esc hotkey. – airstrike Jan 31 '16 at 22:11
1

On mine, the problem was that the NumLk key had been pressed. Pressing it again holding the Fn key reverted the Fn key back.

Nelson Larios
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  • This works for my laptop only 1 time (1 F-key click) after pressing and loding NumLk+Fn. Then it does not work again. – rightaway717 Dec 07 '18 at 13:54