On typewriters, hitting the shift key will release the caps lock. Windows 2000 offers this option during installation, but most people never notice it. With Windows XP, the feature is available from the Control Panel, but only when you install another keyboard layout during installation. You can control this option yourself using your registry.

In the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Keyboard Layout, create a DWORD value named Attributes, if it isn’t already present. Double-click on it, then choose Hexadecimal, and set its value to 00010000. Now, when you press and release the Shift key while the Caps Lock is active, Caps Lock will turn off.

After you make this change, the Caps Lock key always turns Caps Lock on; you can no longer use it to turn Caps Lock off. You must turn Caps Lock off by tapping either Shift key. This tip reduces the chances of looking up at your screen only to find that you’ve typed a whole paragraph in uppercase.