Keyboard Key Settings are Weird

I have the Microsoft Digital Media 3000 and it's really good so far, but my only complaint is that the keys F1 - F12 are all preset and don't do the functions they should in other programs. I have been inside the software and changed some of keys myself (for instance F5 is open file on the keyboard, I switched it to refresh like it should be) but a lot of programs use the F keys for specific functions. For instance in a lot of games I play F1 is the key to show the scoreboard...but whenever I press F1 in the game nothing happens. In another game I have F10 is the Menu, but of course that doesn't work either. I don't want all of these fancy commands with the keyboard...I just want it to use the proper functions that each program needs it for. Any ideas?