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 

Because of popular demand and because others are already offering to download the drivers here are the drivers that concerns us directly.

Of course you understand that the official files can be found on Apple's Boot Camp web site. I just provide them here because it is pretty hard for a basic Windows user to get them. The files I provide here are those I extracted myself from the CD. Of course you have to take your own precaution to make sure the files don't have viruses or troyans . Let me know if you think the files have problems.

Thanks to Joan for the link. Go there if you need more drivers.

To make the new keyboard work on your system, first install the keyboard driver:

AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe (1.60 mb)

It supports the following languages : DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, JA, NL and zh_CN.

This will make the standard keys work and some special keys like Next, Pause, Play, Play fast (stay pressed on >>) because they are the same on a PC keyboard.

To make the other keys (sound up, down, eject CD) work you will need the BootCamp control panel. That program is meant to help you configure the different hardware of your mac under Windows.

Get it here:

BootCamp.msi (1.70 mb) 

That program does install a KbdMgr.exe to C:\Program Files\Boot Camp

Unfortunately I don't have mac hardware and because it looks like the Apple programmers expect to find mac hardware the tool is not working perfectly. For example, you cannot open and configure any of the Apple control panel feature. A usefull feature would have been to control the behavior of the fn key.

Thomas is suggesting to change the value of the key at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\KeyMagic\OSXFnBehavior
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\KeyMagic\OSXFnBehavior

Set it to 0 (zero) for off and to 1 for on by default. I have not yet tested this and he says that it may cause problems.

Also a restart of the system may be required. In case you have problems you can try to unplug and plug again your keyboard.

Also the Apple Control panel does sometimes not start automaticaly. Sometimes it crashes. Sometime is makes your PC freeze for about 20 seconds. Sometimes (seldom) Windows freezes definitiveky and will require a hard reset. This is what it does for me.

Sometimes I don't launch the boot Camp control panel because I often press the eject CD key instead of backspace. Because I have an Antec tower with a door hiding the CD slot I have to rush and open the door before the CD is killing itself against the closed door.

Have fun using this and don't hesitate to report problems in Apple's forum. Also you may write to bootcamp@apple.com.

Of course come here to share your tips with us. Thank you.