Insert key for Windows 8 under Boot Camp

I have a mid-year 2013 MacBook Pro Retina with Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.4, which I was hoping to use mostly as a Windows laptop for software development (in Visual Studio/SQL Server), long document management (Adobe FrameMaker), photo and video editing, etc. I found keyboard shortcuts for Home, End, Page Up/Down, Ctrl-Alt-Del, but can't find a substitute for the Insert (Ins) key. I read multiple threads on this, but none of the suggestions (fn-Enter, F12 fn-Enter, fn-Ctrl-Enter, Shift-0 on num keypad, 0 on num keypad without Num Lock, and a few more) work. I tried hooking up an external Microsoft keyboard, but that doesn't work either. Someone suggested to turn off Insert in MS Word's Preferences, but I use other software. I never use the Insert or Overtype mode, but need to be able to turn it off. Earlier today somehow I found myself in Notepad with the insert (overtype) mode on. Each typed character "ate" a character to the right of it. That's when I realized that this was going to be a problem that I need to solve. I don't want to find myself in the middle of a training sessions, presentation, or meeting without knowing what to do.

Apple's own article shows a puzzling resolve to simply not support this key.

A related problem is the lack of ability to use an embedded numeric keypad on the MacBook itself (I don't want to carry a full-size keyboard when traveling). The keypad is important for entering spcial characters via Alt-xxxx codes in Windows. Anyone in the publishing industry knows how important it is to be able to enter the TM or R symbol, various bullets, n-dash, m-dash, etc. without reaching for the Character map. But here at least there is a solution, whereas I see none for the Insert key.

Just when I thought that Apple has finally realized they can increase market share by making the Mac platform a viable (and preferred) substitute for the generally inferior Windows hardware, it became clear that the company is still dismissive toward some real needs of Windows users.