3 ms·

Just suffering from this Home/End issue myself after changing to a new Dell laptop. I didn't expect a company like Dell to make such a basic mistake. The web is

Just suffering from this Home/End issue myself after changing to a new Dell laptop. I didn't expect a company like Dell to make such a basic mistake. The web is full of people asking them to fix this in their BIOS, going back for a year now, but it seems Dell is not hearing their customers or has no intention to fix this... Examples: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-change-Home-and-End-keys-to-Fn-Left-and-Fn-Right/td-p/7623794 https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-change-Home-and-En... https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Please-re-map-Fn-Left-and-Fn-Right-to-Home-and-End-on-the-new/td-p/7649522 https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Please-re-map-Fn-Left-and... https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9300-Map-fn-left-and-fn-right-to-Home-and-End/td-p/7529433 https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-13-9300-Map-fn-left-a... https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Control-Home-Control-End-Keys/m-p/7528807 https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/Control-Home-Control-End-...

gdulli 5y ago
I have both a 9570 and a 9550, and both have "home"/"end" printed on the left/right keys and work as you would want. The current XPS on the Dell web site has "home"/"end" printed on the F11/F12 keys. So it seems like a conscious choice of theirs (right or wrong) and not a bug for them to fix. Is there a BIOS update or something I should avoid that takes the older XPS models and changes their home/end to conflict with what's printed on the keyboard?
- naikrovek 5y ago
  this appears to be the answer. I mean, you're correct, and I sincerely hope that all these people complaining do indeed have "Home" and "End" printed on the arrow keys, and not on F11 and F12, where they appear to be on current models. it's definitely not a firmware issue if the labels are not printed on the arrow keys.
  - rickdeckard 5y ago
    Disagree. It's Dell's decision if they want to screw around with the key-arrangement, but there would have been zero issue for them to keep Home/End also mapped on the arrow keys to keep at least some consistency. I actually use a Bluetooth keyboard right now which has nothing printed on the arrow keys and still works as Home/End with Fn+Left/Right. Even Apple has keyboards with dedicated Home/End keys and still keeps the mapping also on Fn+Left/Right. So yeah, it's not a bug, but it's still a usability issue in their keyboard firmware they should fix
    - naikrovek 5y ago
      it is definitely not a firmware big if it was an intentional decision. it's not a usability issue, either. yes, it sucks that the keyboard layout changed, sure. and, you're a human, right? a member of the most adaptable species ever known? yes. yes, you are. you can handle retraining some muscle memory. early in my career, every single computer I used had a different keyboard layout. every. single. one. at most it was a very mild inconvenience.
      - zenexer 5y ago
        If you’re switching between computers a lot, it can be difficult to adapt. I use macOS, Windows, and Linux daily, and the difference between Command on macOS and Control on the other two still throws me off every time. Fn + arrow keys has become something of a convention; it works even when not explicitly printed on the keycaps.
- rickdeckard 5y ago
  I don't expect Dell to change the mapping on older models to be in conflict with the printed label. But if you're a heavy user of Fn+Left/Right for Home/End, you might want to consider a different brand than Dell to succeed your XPS. Also, I don't think anyone called it a bug, it's rather an 'issue' (except the problem described with the external Dell-keyboard, which indeed sounds like a bug...)

gdulli 5y ago

I have both a 9570 and a 9550, and both have "home"/"end" printed on the left/right keys and work as you would want. The current XPS on the Dell web site has "home"/"end" printed on the F11/F12 keys. So it seems like a conscious choice of theirs (right or wrong) and not a bug for them to fix. Is there a BIOS update or something I should avoid that takes the older XPS models and changes their home/end to conflict with what's printed on the keyboard?

naikrovek 5y ago
this appears to be the answer. I mean, you're correct, and I sincerely hope that all these people complaining do indeed have "Home" and "End" printed on the arrow keys, and not on F11 and F12, where they appear to be on current models. it's definitely not a firmware issue if the labels are not printed on the arrow keys.
- rickdeckard 5y ago
  Disagree. It's Dell's decision if they want to screw around with the key-arrangement, but there would have been zero issue for them to keep Home/End also mapped on the arrow keys to keep at least some consistency. I actually use a Bluetooth keyboard right now which has nothing printed on the arrow keys and still works as Home/End with Fn+Left/Right. Even Apple has keyboards with dedicated Home/End keys and still keeps the mapping also on Fn+Left/Right. So yeah, it's not a bug, but it's still a usability issue in their keyboard firmware they should fix
  - naikrovek 5y ago
    it is definitely not a firmware big if it was an intentional decision. it's not a usability issue, either. yes, it sucks that the keyboard layout changed, sure. and, you're a human, right? a member of the most adaptable species ever known? yes. yes, you are. you can handle retraining some muscle memory. early in my career, every single computer I used had a different keyboard layout. every. single. one. at most it was a very mild inconvenience.
    - zenexer 5y ago
      If you’re switching between computers a lot, it can be difficult to adapt. I use macOS, Windows, and Linux daily, and the difference between Command on macOS and Control on the other two still throws me off every time. Fn + arrow keys has become something of a convention; it works even when not explicitly printed on the keycaps.
rickdeckard 5y ago
I don't expect Dell to change the mapping on older models to be in conflict with the printed label. But if you're a heavy user of Fn+Left/Right for Home/End, you might want to consider a different brand than Dell to succeed your XPS. Also, I don't think anyone called it a bug, it's rather an 'issue' (except the problem described with the external Dell-keyboard, which indeed sounds like a bug...)