So I’m in the zone, happily writing along, only to discover that I’m overwriting stuff to the immediate right of what I’m typing. Each keypress is relentlessly deleting parts of the next sentence. “Uh oh,” I tell myself, “I’d better stop!” My brain finally decides to respond and my fingers halt.

Desperately, I try ctrl+z to regain what I’ve lost.

It’s not working. Crap.

Time to survey the damage…

Yes, it was another case where the ‘Insert key’ got toggled. I don’t know how; As far as I know, I didn’t push it*. But now I’m in the dreaded ‘Overwrite mode’, a mode whose sole mission is to completely destroy that which follows our cursors.

How handy, Windows! Thanks! Now I have to locate and press the Insert key to return to ‘Insert mode’ and try and remember everything I already typed at the beginning of the next sentence PLUS what I was about to type before my train of thought was completely wrecked.

But wait! There is another way: Disabling the Insert key!
Step 1:
Windows key + R

Step 2:
regedit

Step 3:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

Step 4:
Right click and create a new Binary Value.

Step 5:
Name it ‘Scancode Map’

Step 6:
Choose a method:

(Enter the value. You may want to copy/paste this.)
Value should be 00000000 00000000 02000000 000052E0 00000000

(or, for the more tech-savvy, you can create a Batch File instead.)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
“Scancode Map”=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,52,E0,00,00,00,00

Step 7:
Pry off the Insert key with a rusty palette knife.

Step 8:
Toss it in a fiery inferno. The one at the end of The Lord of the Rings will do nicely.

Step 9:
Rest easy. The Insert key’s tyrannical reign is now over.

…Me? Frustrated? Why do you ask?

*Yes, I realize I toggled it somehow. The Insert key is remarkably close to the Delete key, and if Numlock happens to be off, the zero key on the numpad acts as a sneaky replacement. So we might want to burn that key as well.