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I am currently migrating my company to Active Directory. Because my boss has enforced strong passwords, everyone needs to type at least one digit to log on their computers.

Some of them have the numlock key disabled by default, which turns out to be a pain in the ass leading to many mistyped passwords.

I tried looking for a solution to this problem, but most of them involve local manipulations, or registry, or simply didn't work.

What I need is:

  • Have NumLock enabled on the logon screen (computer-bound settings, no user logon script)
  • Cross-version, as I have PCs with Winodws 7, some with Windows 10 and there may be even a few Windows 8. No XP or 2000 anyway. The registry method is version-dependant, so it's out.
  • Enforceable via GPOs or remotely so I don't have to go to each PC individually.

I already tried to use the script that toggles numlock and run it at startup via GPO, but it didn't work at all, and some PCs already have numlock enabled, so that would only move the problem.

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  • People really use the numeric keypad for numbers instead of the row of always-on numbers above the top row of letters? Enough for it to be a problem? /boggle It seems like most of the keyboards you buy these days (on laptops in particular) don't even have a dedicated numeric pad anymore. Jul 20, 2016 at 17:29
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    You're suggesting exactly the opposite of what I see today. All external keyboards have a numeric pad, and almost all laptops have one too. Almost all of my users are use their numpad to type numbers (me included), not only in passwords. Since the most clueless ones also use Caps Lock to type capitals, I am not really willing to start a witch hunt for bad typing habits... Jul 21, 2016 at 6:48

2 Answers 2

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You can usually do this by going into the bios on the local computers and choosing the Numlock status at boot-up.

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  • Numlock is already enabled in the BIOS, but Windows disables it upon reaching login screen. Jul 20, 2016 at 7:17
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In Windows 10 your GPO registry settings for InitialKeyboardIndicators are overridden by windows fast boot option. So you can disable fast boot or another trick is to start your pc an then at logon enable numlock, if done so you have to shutdown the pc without logging in! Now numlock state should be saved for the next restarts.

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