How to remap HID keyboard keys?

Question

I got some "close to useless" USB sleep buttons for computers from a marketing campaign and was wondering how to use it to something cooler. Like.. Playing sad trombone when pressed.

So I went around looking how does it installs, and finally seems to be simply a HID keyboard key. Googlin' a bit more, I've found Patriot's question which seemed quite the answer - but no. The programs they describe there do not trap the commands from the USB dongle even in "teach mode" if I press it my computer goes to sleep -_-

What would be the correct way to find and remap that key to something specific?

Edit Forgot to mention the operation system. it is Windows 7

Solution

It looks like this Keyboard Layout tool by Microsoft lets you remap a key on an existing layout. Apparently it is a GUI that lets you edit the registry settings for your keyboard mapping. You can also trying hacking the registry keys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Keyboard Layout

Good luck. (fade out: whaaa-whaaaarmmm)

Comments

[Thalys]

what os? evtest in linux is pretty good for trapping keyboard scankeys - there's vaguely similar things in windows but nothing as good

[flpgdt]

Oh, darnit.. Totaly forgot to mention. It is windows 7 I am using.

[Thalys]

Apparently some of those keys have the key-combination they send out hardcoded in an eeprom cracking one open might be educational