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The Microsoft Internet Keyboard is one of two Internet Keyboards that MS has available. The major difference between the Internet Keyboard that we review here, and the Internet Keyboard PRO, is the addition of some multimedia buttons and 2 USB Ports and about $20 in price (yikes!). At first glance the Internet Keyboard employs some niceties that your run of the mill keyboard will not have. Larger, more stylish CTL, ALT, SPACER, and windows keys line the bottom row (if they had enlarged the DEL key as well, we’d have easy access to the all important 3 finger MS Windows salute). Convenient text reminders are printed on to the front sides of special keys in a style reminiscent of some Mac keyboards – these text labels are nice reminders of what those keys do in most popular and standard Windows programs when combined with the CTL key (eg CTL-X for cut, CTL-V for paste…etc). Most Windows veterans will find little use for these reminders, though, since only the simplest tasks are actually represented here – still, casual and new users will appreciate this small gesture to make computers more user friendly.

The actual “internet” portion of the keyboard is found right above the function keys. These little blue plastic buttons are configured to allow browser back, forward and stop functions, along with access to email, your favourites list, a search page and your homepage. Three additional buttons on the keyboard’s far right provide access to My Computer, the Calculator, and handy access to Sleep your computer at the press of a key. Not all of these keys are customizable. To my chagrin I found that the most useless keys were also the ones that whose functions were hardcoded. In fact, of the 10 “internet” keys added to the keyboard, only 5 can actually be reconfigured in the software utility to perform custom functions. To make matters a little worse, the way the keyboard is made doesn’t allow for overly obvious customization (each key has its default function printed below, and is also molded with an icon representing its function) – to me, it’s really sort of hard or inconvenient to use the Email key for anything else but email when there is a huge icon stamped right on the key.

The internet and custom buttons on the Microsoft.

As I mentioned briefly, many of the default buttons don’t really provide any functionality that power users would find useful. Who really needs a dedicated browser back button when the backspace key works equally well (and is within easier reach, no less)? A stop key is all but useless, and forward really isn’t an essential function. The email, search, favourites, and home page buttons become the most useful, and I found myself using them with some regularity as I got used to the keyboard, but I chafed at the fact that at least 3 of the extra keys lay unused, and will remain unused for as long as I owned the keyboard. The other keys make life a little more convenient though. It’s certainly nice to have a key directly attached to your email program, and it doesn’t hurt to be able to pull up a search page with the touch of a single key. Access to Calculator has me scratching my head (I just reconfigured it), but the sleep button is actually very nice, provided your motherboard and OS (Win98 or newer) support keyboard based power control (mine is a little buggy, but works fairly well). Those using older OSes or without compliant motherboards will still enjoy one touch access to Log-off or Shutdown screens. I still hunger for the ability to power up and power down the computer altogether from the keyboard, but I guess Sleep is just as good for now.