Keep Num Lock On at Windows 11/10 Sign-In: Fix Mouse Keys, Fast Startup, Registry and BIOS

Prerequisites and Initial Symptom Checks​

Before editing system configurations or the Windows Registry, isolate where the failure happens and rule out hardware or function-layer locks:

• Administrator privileges: Modifying Fast Startup in Control Panel, updating the .DEFAULT registry hive, or changing BIOS/UEFI firmware settings requires a local Administrator account. Standard user accounts can only change per-user keyboard settings after sign-in.
• Distinguish session failure from boot reset:
  • If pressing Num Lock toggles the keyboard indicator LED (or on-screen indicator) on and off, or if the / * - + keys work while the number keys (0–9) move the cursor or do nothing, skip to the Keyboard and Mouse Keys Checks section first.
  • If the numeric keypad works normally once you press Num Lock, but is always turned off when you reach the Windows sign-in screen to type a PIN or password, go directly to the Fast Startup and Registry sections.
• Laptop function-key combinations: On many compact laptops and tenkeyless keyboards, the Num Lock key shares a physical key with another function (such as Scr Lk, Ins, or F12) and requires pressing Fn + Num Lock simultaneously.
• Test via the Windows On-Screen Keyboard: To verify whether Windows is registering the Num Lock state at all, press Windows + Ctrl + O (or press Windows + R, type osk, and press Enter). Click Options in the lower-right corner of the On-Screen Keyboard, check Turn on numeric key pad, and click OK. If clicking NumLock on the virtual keypad works while the physical key does not respond, the physical switch or keyboard driver is at fault.

Check Keyboard Settings and Disable Mouse Keys​

If your numeric keypad will not type numbers even when the Num Lock indicator light is on, Windows is likely routing keypad presses to Mouse Keys. This accessibility feature can be triggered accidentally by pressing the system shortcut Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock.

In Windows 11​

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Select Accessibility in the left navigation pane.
3. Scroll down to the Interaction section and click Mouse.
4. Locate Mouse keys and switch the toggle to Off.
5. Expand the Mouse keys row if it is open and uncheck Hold the Ctrl key to speed up and the Shift key to slow down or Only use mouse keys when Num lock is on if you do not use this feature.
6. While still in Accessibility, click Keyboard in the left navigation pane and verify that Filter keys is set to Off (Filter Keys can ignore brief or repeated keystrokes on the keypad).

In Windows 10​

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Click Ease of Access.
3. In the left sidebar under the Interaction header, select Mouse.
4. Under Control your mouse with a keypad, switch Turn on Mouse Keys to use the numeric keypad to move the mouse pointer to Off.
5. In the left sidebar, select Keyboard and ensure Use Filter Keys is switched to Off.

Prevent the Mouse Keys Shortcut from Triggering Again (Windows 10 and Windows 11)​

Even when Mouse Keys is turned off in Settings, pressing Left Alt + Left Shift + Num Lock can prompt to turn it back on. Disable that shortcut in Control Panel:

1. Press Windows + R, type control access.cpl, and press Enter to open the Ease of Access Center.
2. Click Make the mouse easier to use (or Make the keyboard easier to use).
3. Click Set up Mouse Keys.
4. Uncheck Turn on Mouse Keys.
5. Under Keyboard shortcut, uncheck Turn on Mouse Keys with left ALT + left SHIFT + NUM LOCK.
6. Click Apply, then click OK.

Disable Fast Startup So Windows Saves the Num Lock State​

When you shut down a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, Fast Startup (hybrid boot) logs off user sessions and hibernates the Windows kernel state to hiberfil.sys instead of performing a full initialization on the next power-on. Because the sign-in screen uses the logged-off system state saved in the hibernation image, Fast Startup frequently ignores both your last-used Num Lock state and manual Registry edits on cold boots.

Warning: Disabling Fast Startup forces Windows to perform a full kernel initialization on every cold boot, which may increase startup time by a few seconds on mechanical hard drives (the difference on NVMe or SATA SSDs is minimal).

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1. Press Windows + R, type powercfg.cpl, and press Enter to open Power Options in Control Panel.
2. In the left pane, click Choose what the power buttons do.
3. Near the top of the window, click the shield link labeled Change settings that are currently unavailable (if prompted by User Account Control, click Yes).
4. Scroll down to the Shutdown settings section and uncheck Turn on fast startup (recommended).
5. Click Save changes at the bottom of the window.

Note: If Turn on fast startup is missing from the Shutdown settings list, Windows Hibernation is currently disabled on your PC, which means Fast Startup is already inactive. If you ever need to restore the option, open an elevated Command Prompt or Windows Terminal (Admin) and run powercfg /hibernate on.

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Set the InitialKeyboardIndicators Registry Value for the Sign-In Screen​

Windows stores the startup Num Lock state in a string value named InitialKeyboardIndicators in the Registry. Crucially, the Registry contains two separate locations for this value:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard controls the Num Lock state after your specific user account signs in.
• HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard controls the Num Lock state before anyone signs in—specifically on the Windows lock screen and PIN/password sign-in screen.

On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the default value under .DEFAULT is typically 2147483648 (hexadecimal 0x80000000, which turns all keyboard lock indicators off or defers to firmware suppression). Changing the final digit from 0 or 8 to 2 sets the Num Lock bit to On. Both 2 and 2147483650 enable Num Lock at startup; setting 2 forces Num Lock on explicitly, while 2147483650 preserves the high bit used by modern Windows builds while enabling the Num Lock bit (2147483648 + 2).

Warning: Editing the Windows Registry incorrectly can cause system instability. Only modify the specific InitialKeyboardIndicators string value shown below, and create a backup of the key before making changes.

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Method 1: Using Registry Editor (GUI)​

1. Press Windows + R, type regedit, and press Enter. Click Yes at the User Account Control prompt.
2. In the Registry Editor address bar at the top, paste the following path and press Enter:
   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard
3. To back up the key before editing, right-click the Keyboard folder in the left pane, select Export, save the file as Keyboard-Default-Backup.reg to your Desktop, and click Save.
4. In the right pane, double-click the string value (REG_SZ) named InitialKeyboardIndicators.
5. Change the Value data to 2 (or 2147483650 if 2 gets overwritten on your hardware after a reboot) and click OK.
6. Next, verify your signed-in user profile so Num Lock does not turn back off immediately after you log in. Paste the following path into the Registry Editor address bar and press Enter:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard
7. Double-click InitialKeyboardIndicators, set its Value data to 2, and click OK.
8. Before closing Registry Editor or restarting, look at your physical keyboard and make sure Num Lock is currently turned ON. When Windows shuts down or restarts cleanly, the logoff process writes the current physical state of the Num Lock key back to the Registry.
9. Close Registry Editor.

Method 2: Using Elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell​

If you prefer not to navigate Registry Editor manually or need to apply the fix across multiple machines, you can set both Registry hives directly from an administrator shell:

1. Right-click the Start button and select Terminal (Admin), PowerShell (Admin), or Command Prompt (Admin). Click Yes at the UAC prompt.
2. Run the following two commands to enable Num Lock for both the sign-in screen (.DEFAULT) and your current user account (HKCU):
   
   Code:

   reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard" /v InitialKeyboardIndicators /t REG_SZ /d 2147483650 /f
   reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard" /v InitialKeyboardIndicators /t REG_SZ /d 2 /f

3. Confirm that each command outputs The operation completed successfully.

Check BIOS or UEFI Boot NumLock State Settings​

Before the Windows Boot Manager loads the Registry, your motherboard's BIOS or UEFI firmware initializes the keyboard controller during the Power-On Self-Test (POST). If the firmware is configured to boot with Num Lock off—or if you use pre-boot authentication such as a BitLocker PIN or BIOS password—the firmware state can override or conflict with Windows during handoff.

1. Make sure Num Lock is turned on, then hold the Shift key while clicking Restart in the Windows Start menu Power options.
2. On the blue Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings > Restart. (On older legacy BIOS systems where UEFI Firmware Settings is not listed, restart the PC normally and repeatedly press your motherboard's setup key—commonly F2, Del, F10, or F12—as soon as the manufacturer logo appears.)
3. Once inside the BIOS/UEFI setup utility, navigate to the Boot, Advanced, or POST Behavior tab (menu names vary by OEM: Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte place this under Boot Configuration or System Configuration).
4. Locate the setting named Bootup NumLock State, NumLock State at Boot, or POST NumLock and set it to On or Enabled.
5. Press F10 (or select Save & Exit) to save the firmware configuration and reboot into Windows.

Verification of Success​

To confirm that Num Lock now persists across both cold boots and restarts:

1. Sign in to Windows, open Notepad, and type digits using the numeric keypad (12345) to verify that Mouse Keys is off and numeric input works.
2. Leaving Num Lock turned ON, click Start > Power > Shut down and wait until the PC powers off completely.
3. Power the PC back on and wait for the Windows sign-in screen to appear.
4. Check the Num Lock LED on your keyboard (or click into the PIN/password field and type numbers on the keypad without pressing the Num Lock key first). The numbers should register immediately at the sign-in screen and remain active after your desktop loads.

Troubleshooting and Rollback​

Symptom: InitialKeyboardIndicators Resets After Every Reboot​

• Physical key was off during shutdown: Windows writes the active hardware state of the Num Lock key into the Registry during logoff and shutdown. If you set InitialKeyboardIndicators to 2 in Registry Editor, but your physical Num Lock key was off when you clicked Shut down, Windows overwrites your edit back to 0 or 2147483648. Turn the physical Num Lock key On first, apply the Registry change, and then restart.
• Value 2 vs. 2147483650: On some Windows 10 and Windows 11 systems (particularly laptops with internal PS/2 or I2C keyboards and external USB keyboards), Windows resets a plain value of 2 in HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard back to 2147483648. If 2 does not stick, set the .DEFAULT value to 2147483650 instead.
• Multiple user SIDs under HKEY_USERS: When switching between multiple user accounts on the same PC, another user profile saved with Num Lock off can toggle the state during user switching. In regedit, expand HKEY_USERS and check the S-1-5-21-... user hive folders under <SID>\Control Panel\Keyboard to ensure InitialKeyboardIndicators is set to 2 across profiles.

Symptom: Numeric Keypad Still Does Not Work After Disabling Mouse Keys​

• Reinstall the keyboard driver in Device Manager: Press Windows + X and select Device Manager. Expand the Keyboards category, right-click your keyboard (such as HID Keyboard Device or Standard PS/2 Keyboard), and select Uninstall device. Click Uninstall to confirm, then restart the PC. Windows will automatically reinstall the default keyboard driver stack during boot.
• Peripheral software or macro overrides: Gaming and programmable keyboards using software such as Logitech G Hub, Razer Synapse, Corsair iCUE, or Windows PowerToys Keyboard Manager can remap or disable the Num Lock key in an active profile. Exit the background utility from the system tray and test the keypad again.
• Human Interface Device Service: Press Windows + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. Locate Human Interface Device Service, ensure its Startup type is set to Automatic (or Manual (Triggered)), and verify that the service is running if your keyboard uses media or Fn-layer keys for Num Lock.

Rolling Back Registry and Fast Startup Changes​

If you want to restore Windows to its original factory behavior (or if you use a compact laptop where enabling Num Lock at boot converts the right side of the letter keys U, I, O, J, K, L into numbers and breaks password entry):

1. Restore the Registry: Double-click the Keyboard-Default-Backup.reg file you exported earlier and click Yes to merge it, or open an elevated Command Prompt and run:
   
   Code:

   reg add "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard" /v InitialKeyboardIndicators /t REG_SZ /d 2147483648 /f
   reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard" /v InitialKeyboardIndicators /t REG_SZ /d 0 /f

2. Re-enable Fast Startup: Press Windows + R, type powercfg.cpl, and press Enter. Click Choose what the power buttons do, click Change settings that are currently unavailable, check Turn on fast startup (recommended), and click Save changes.