Change Keyboard Repeat Delay and Rate in Windows 10

How to Change Keyboard Character Repeat Delay and Rate in Windows 10

The repeat delay and the character repeat rate are two important parameters of the hardware keyboard. Using them, the user can make typing more comfortable. Let's review them.

Recent Windows 10 builds two new Settings pages, Time & Language > Language and Devices > Typing. They are designed to replace the classic "Language" applet of Control Panel, which is hidden starting with Windows 10 Build 17063. However, using these new Settings pages, you can't adjust the keyboard character repeat delay and rate. Today we will see how to access the option.

If you type a lot, changing these parameters will allow you to type much faster. The repeat delay defines the pause between pressing a key and when it starts repeating while you are holding that key. The repeat rate sets the speed at which Windows repeats the character of the key you are holding pressed.

To Change Keyboard Repeat Delay and Rate in Windows 10,

1. Open the classic Control Panel app.
2. Switch its view to either "Large icons" or "Small icons" as shown below.
3. Click on the Keyboard applet.
4. In the keyboard dialog, change the position of the Repeat delay slider on the Speed tab to set a longer or shorter delay.
5. Now, change the Repeat rate slider value to be slow or fast for what you want.
6. Click on the Apply button.
7. Use the Click here and hold down a key to test repeat rate text box to test the changes you made.
8. Click on OK to close the dialog.

Alternatively, the options can be configured in the Registry. Here's how.

Change Keyboard Repeat Delay and Rate in the Registry

1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard
   See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
3. On the right, modify or create a new string (REG_SZ) value KeyboardDelay.
4. Set its value data in the range of 3 and 0, i.e. set it to 3, 2, 1, or 0. The value data of 3 is for the long delay, 0 is for short.
5. Now, modify the KeyboardSpeed string value. Set its value data to a number between 0 (slow) and 31 (fast) for the repeat rate you want.
6. To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.

You are done.

Articles of interest.

• How to Set Default Keyboard Layout in Windows 10
• Add or Remove Keyboard Layout in Windows 10
• Enable Per-Window Keyboard Layout in Windows 10
• Change Hotkeys to Switch Keyboard Layout in Windows 10

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