If you use ubuntu with unity/compiz, do it from ccsm (compiz manager), 
you might have to install it on earlier ubuntu's.  It's usually up to 
the desktop manager, which unity is mostly a compiz plugin (half its 
problem).  You can set behavior for windoze key ("super" key under ccsm) 
there in a number of places and functions.  If you can't find it, select 
it for something and enter, it should complain it's in use.

Probably why it freaks your system as you're invoking some video/desktop 
action with it that has been known to aggravate gl drivers with fancy 
rendering in composited desktop mode.  Desktop zoom, task window 
switching, and cube spin mode has crashed me across various video cards 
over the years, most of those work with super keys.  Compiz is 
technically unstable for me generally, so i use a cairo dock widget to 
enable/disable it with a button.

Test your functionality to see if it crashes with metacity replacing the 
desktop, throwing you out of gl mode.  Do this with "metacity --replace 
&" in a terminal with your user.  My pc can usually run for a month or 
so before my video drivers will have caused enough destabilization to 
force a reboot.  With compiz - days.  Lots of video wonkiness if you use 
hardware rendering libs like vdpau or ati's with compiz too.

Kde is different as mentioned too, but it has plenty of gl-based 
function to cause issues potentially with plasma too.

You'll find this differs under any form of compiz direct gl rendering 
with desktop functions, hardware/drivers, and ram amounts.  ymmv.

-mb


On 09/21/2012 07:48 PM, Brian Cluff wrote:
> If you are talking about the key that is just to the left of the space.
> That is the "meta" key. It's like CTRL, ALT or SHIFT and should be used
> to get to extra functions in combination with that key. It shouldn't
> really do much beyond that and shouldn't be capable of locking up your
> computer.
>
> It is used quite a bit in KDE in hotkeys that adjust the window manager.
> For instance if I press META + 0 I get a magnified image around the mouse.
>
> Brian Cluff
>
> On 09/21/2012 06:52 PM, joe@actionline.com wrote:
>> How can I reprogram/neutralize that annoying M$ key on a standard
>> keyboard?
>>
>> In the past, I have inadvertently hit that key and had it lock up my
>> Linux
>> system.
>>
>> I don't know what it is for anyway, other than as an annoying reminder of
>> M$ anti-trust coercion tactics to try to make the whole world conform to
>> its dictates.
>>
>>
>>
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