Microsoft Keyboard F-shifted function keys on Mac OS X do not work

Question

I'm having a problem with Mac OS 10.7 (Lion) getting a Microsoft Wireless Comfort keyboard's special keys to be seen; I've installed the latest Intellitype "driver" and using it am able to reassign the Application Key and swap the Windows & Alt keys and the media keys, "sleep key", and Mac Help, F13, F14, F15 (using PrtScn & Pause keys on keyboard) all work. The rest of the keys such as the FLock shifted F-Keys and other keyboard assignments (Web, Calendar, Mail, etc and "Favorites" keys) do nothing.

At one point they were working (I know because the F-Locked-F6 key (works by default as Close) which I was accidentally hitting kept closing Windows and I had the 5 special keys (Web, Cal, Mail, etc.) mapped to things like Dashboard and other various Mac shortcuts. At some point in trying the set up Lion as I wanted it (including the installation and removal of various keyboard remappers they went away and all my effort at bringing them back again has failed. (If they hadn't worked once I'd just give up and call it impossible.)

I've spent (literally) hours searching with google and on superuser and the Microsoft site and on and on (I've learned almost too much but not enough it seems). My only current clue is that in my Keyboard Preference panel when I click to set the modifier keys for various keyboards there is an extra keyboard shown besides the Microsoft one and the Apple one attached called just "Keyboard" and I don't know what it's supposed to be doing or if it should be there at all. I vaguely remember in my searching seeing something about a problem installing Intellitype where someone said there was only a "Keyboard" keyboard shown but I didn't retain any more than that and at this point think I could have dreamed it. (Dreamed about Microsoft keyboards? more like a nightmare I'd say!) I'm hoping that something else got installed somewhere in the past that put this extra keyboard there and that perhaps it is interfering with the specific keys I can't get to work. But it could be anything. I got a little overwhelmed trying to see what was happening using Apple's USB tracking debugging stuff (and didn't feel like adding learning everything about USB to my load anyway!)

Anybody have any ideas about a solution or how to go about tracking down the problem?

Answer 1

From what I can tell you must install both the Intellipoint (keyboard) driver and the Intellipoint (mouse) driver which come bundled as a single install package to get the keyboard to function correctly (at least for the model I was using which was actually a part of a desktop set that also came with a mouse). You can choose to customize the instal and only install the keyboard driver but it seems to disable most of the special keys on the keyboard. (Though I'm not 100% sure this is correct I've added details below to support my conclusion or as information to help someone that might need to troubleshoot further.)

After a comment about "newest drivers" I decided to download and reinstall the drivers (again!) to make sure that I was using the latest versions. After reinstallation all the keys now functioned. I believe, though, that I had been running the newest version before the reinstall. But this time instead of doing a custom install with only the Intellitype driver I used the default options and also installed the Intellimouse driver (even though I don't use the Microsoft mouse). Then, after everything was OK for a while I went and removed the Microsoft Mouse preference panel (in the standard way: right-clicking on it in System Preferences and choosing to remove it from the popup menu). Afterwards all was OK until I shut down and restarted later and was back to the original problem. I reinstalled both drivers and the keyboard is fully functioning once more.

Answer 2

Microsoft has launched new "drivers" (8.2) for my keyboard (Wired Confort 4000): http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/natural-ergonomic-keyboard-4000/B2M-00012#support

Check if yours is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/keyboards And under the product "Support" tab.

Regards.