UPDATE: This doesn’t work. See comments.
I’m lazy as hell so when I noticed that Windows 8 has the option to log on with a PIN instead of a password I started using it right away. Unfortunately by default Windows boots switches Numlock off. Switching it on in the BIOS doesn’t help. I found the solution here, updating this registry key:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators
The site then instructs to change the value from 0 to 2. Well in my case it was 2147483648 so I just added 2 and copied 2147483650 in there. And… that didn’t work. Strangely enough though, when I put the Hex value in there, 80000002, it does. So, in short:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators = 80000002
Does the trick.
Cheers
Frank's API 
Tried this, in all the registry keys for InitialKeyboardIndicators, didn’t work.
Tried 2, didn’t work. tried turning Num Lock off in BIOS, didn’t work. Turned it back on in BIOS, put the default value 2147483648 back in all the InitialKeyboardIndicators keys in the registry, and see/report this as a bug to microsoft.
Windows 8 pro ALWAYS defaults to num lock off when computer is restarted, turned off, or the user logs off.
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Yeah, you’re right, sorry about not updating the post. For some reason it worked when I restarted but not when I restarted again. I suppose the PIN thing is meant for some other device, otherwise I’m sure they would have noticed it.
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Delete the initial name of InitialKeyboardIndicators , it is defined as a string! Then add it back as a DWORD 32bit, then set it to ‘2’ and it works, sticks for shutdown, restart, login for any user.
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Sorry for the late reply and thanks for taking the time to help me out. Really, I appreciate it! Unfortunately it doesn’t appear to work. I’ll test it a bit more and record my findings.
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Hi, any advice how to solve it? thanks, martin
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Sorry, I haven’t been able to get this to work. In fact, even after a sleep I sometimes have numlock turned off so it appears Windows 8 is kinda fickle about it.
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Ok….Frank.. Try this
Go into Control Panel
Power Options
Choose what the power button does
Click “Choose settings that are currently unavailable”
then uncheck “Turn on fast startup”
Save changes
I have no idea why this would resolve this, but it appears it does
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Turning off fast startup seem to work for a day, now it seems it is not the answer. Still looking.
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Bonjour,
Si cela peut aider quelqu’un plus callé que moi dans les recherches pour voir d’où de problème vient dans Windows 8 et le résoudre, voila ce que le hasard m’a fait constater et résoudre le problème dans tous les cas, sans le vouloir.
J’ai installé à un moment donné la version 1.02 du programme Start8 (de Stardock.com) pour retrouver le bouton démarrer dans la barre de tâche et par miracle la fonction numlock est réactivée dans tous les cas de figures (redémarrage ou démarrage après arrêt complet). Cela a aussi résolu mon problème d’antenne wifi extérieure USB Belkin qui ne fonctionnait pas lorsque que je faisais un boot après arrêt complet de mon PC sous Win8. Il fallait alors que je la débranche et rebranche le câble usb pour que ça fonctionne à nouveau.
ATTENTION : CELA NE FONCTIONNE QU’AVEC LA VERSION 1.02 DE START8 (pas les version antérieures ou postérieures). Très bizarre !! Je pense qu’il y a un problème dans la séquence de boot de Windows 8 que la version 1.02 de Start8 résout involontairement.
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Thanks Oasis78 for your reply.
My knowledge of French could by summarized as merde so I put your reply through Google translate. If I understand it correctly you’re saying that installing Stardock’s Start8 version 1.02 causes the Numlock to be on when starting up your PC.
Well, thanks for the tip! I can’t confirm it because I haven’t installed it and I’m not planning to do so. But it’s good to know there is a possible workaround.
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