Enable Num Lock on startup or reboot in Windows 11/10

A relatively common issue being faced by some Windows users, is finding that their Numeral Lock key or Num Lock is not enabled, is turned off, not working, or inactive on Startup or reboot in Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7. I researched this issue a bit and found these two possible solutions to the problem. One is a registry fix that may work in Windows 11/10/8/7, and the other is by disabling Fast Startup in Windows 11/10/8.

Num Lock not working on Startup

For those who do not know what Fast Startup is, here is a short description. The feature is called Hybrid Shutdown.  Windows does this by shutting down, as far as closing the user sessions – but at that point, instead of continuing and ending system services and shutting down Session 0, Windows then hibernates. It is called Hybrid Shutdown. How this works is that Windows sends out a message to running applications, giving them a chance to save data and settings. Applications can also request a little extra time to finish what they’re doing. Then Windows closes the user sessions for each logged-on user, and then it Hibernates the Windows session. Here is a little pictorial explanation.

I’m not sure how disabling Fast Startup affects Num Lock, but on systems facing this issue, disabling fast Startup did help.

Enable Num Lock on Startup

Here are three ways you can do it.

• Disable Fast Startup to enable Num Lock
• Enable Num Lock on startup using registry tweak
• Run NumLock Script at Startup

You will need admin permission to execute the steps.

1] Disable Fast Startup to enable Num Lock

• Press Win + X and click on Control Panel
• Click on Power Plan
• Now click on Choose what the power buttons do on the left side panel

• Now select Change settings that are currently unavailable.

• Scroll down and uncheck Turn on fast Startup (recommended)

That’s it. Now after shutting down and reboot your NumLock should retain the last configuration.

2] Enable Num Lock on Startup using registry tweak

The second method is to alter the registry settings and so Windows 10/8/7 users can try this. I would strongly recommend taking a backup of the registry and create a system restore point first. Having done that, follow these steps:

• Press Win + R and type in Regedit
• Navigate to registry key HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard
• Right-click on the “InitialKeyboardIndicators“, select Modify and change Value data to 2.
• Exit Registry.

Note: If you see the default value data as 2147483648; that is fine too and is the default on most installations.

I hope you find this helpful. This post will help you if Number or Numeric Lock is not working at all!

TIP: You can easily enable, and disable Num Lock key on a Windows laptop using NumBlock

3] Run NumLock Script at Startup

• Open Run prompt, and type Notepad, and press the Enter key
• Copy and Paste the following in the notepad, and save it with a name you can remember with VBS extension. (e.g. enablenumlock.vbs)

set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.SendKeys "{NUMLOCK}"

• You can then add this Script to run with Startup using the Task Scheduler.
  • Open Search using Win + S, and type Task Scheduler and open it once it appears
  • Right-click on the Task Scheduler and create a Task
  • Under General tab: Set it to run with the highest privileges & Run only when the user is logged on
  • Under Actions: Click on new, and then add the Script
• Done that save the task. As soon as you log in the next time, NumLock will automatically turn on.

You can always test the Script by first turning off the num lock and then running it.

UPDATE: Please also read Ken’s and Joseph’s comments below.