Winkey stops working

About 6 months ago, out of nowhere my old keyboard's Winkey stopped working. CTRL+ESC would still show the Start Menu, but just the Winkey would do apparently nothing. Winkey+M would show the Desktop, Winkey+L would still lock the computer and so on though. Inside other applications, Winkey would have a different behavior:

In Firefox, it'd show the bookmarks
In Visual Studio, it'd open help

After trying logging off, rebooting and probably every solution on Google, I tried the easy way out and switched the keyboard. It was a brand new keyboard with only 6 months use (no, it wasn't a gaming keyboard) and this one was 6 years old then (now 7), but for some reason it worked. I considered it one of those random things that happen under Windows and moved on.

About a week ago, this keyboard began showing the same results. I have a hard time believing it's hardware-related, considering those keyboards are from different companies and use different inputs (PS/2 for the 6 year old one, USB for the newer one).

Right now, Winkey on Firefox is showing Bookmarks, and on VS it shows Help.

I want to know:

1) How to permanently fix this issue?

2) What exactly causes this?

Also, I tried the solution Here but it didn't help.

EDIT: Rebooting does fix it, but after a while it stops working again.

EDIT2: Yesterday I looked in looked in Event Viewer and noticed the Winkey changed its' behavior right after the Application Experience service started. I disabled that service and thought it worked. It didn't.

stelonix

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 261

Mabey a display of what the system believes is being pushed might help ? http://www.romeosa.com/osdHotkey/help.html <-- this program claims to show which keys are pressed. Does Mr.Winkey :-) ever fix hisself after a full Power off of the computer, then back on again?

– Psycogeek – 2012-03-02T20:09:23.957

Just tried that program, and it shows as WIN when I press the Winkey. After testing, I rebooted and the Winkey is working again, though I know it's temporary. – stelonix – 2012-03-02T20:26:12.623

I was wondering if any other key had become "stuck" also. Some of the mouse hooks and keyhooks that we used sucessfully and with rare problems in XP, are acting up more in 7. . Because a key and a mouse action involves a Key_down and a Key_up type of thing, some sticks will show up as a key_down with no up having occured. a software stuck, not hardware problem. – Psycogeek – 2012-03-02T20:36:28.027

What can cause keys to be "stuck"? Where can I find more information on stuck keys? – stelonix – 2012-03-04T19:54:28.800

More often that kind of problem occured Via "other software" key and mouse utilities, or drivers that are not the ms ones. I barley even knew how to see a stuck switch itself and i do not remember the programs I used to show them. Are there any other drivers or utilities involved in the situation? or mabey even particular programs that would take normal keyinput that could be part of the problem? – Psycogeek – 2012-03-04T20:30:15.573

are there any messages in the BIOS on boot to the effect of "stuck key detected"? – Nate Koppenhaver – 2012-03-04T20:59:25.970

1Are you possibly switching between keyboard layouts using Alt+Shift? – Der Hochstapler – 2012-03-04T21:07:31.673

2I'll check for the BIOS message, but I'm pretty sure I'm not switching between layouts (I've got the language bar always showing, so I'd know). Just left the computer for 5 minutes, and when I came back it had changed behavior again. – stelonix – 2012-03-04T22:16:19.353

@knuck, Can you be more specific about the two lines about VisualStudio and Firefox, (i.e., what do you mean by “bookmarks” and “help”)? I have checked, and there is nothing in common between the default hotkeys for displaying the help in VS and the bookmarks in FF. Have you changed the hotkeys for those? If not, then it is not a remapping issue as has been discussed. – Synetech – 2012-03-09T22:02:37.123

Also, don’t disable the Application Experience service, otherwise you will end up experiencing the cannot-find-this problem.

– Synetech – 2012-03-09T22:06:10.347

You are right, I was experiencing errors in Visual Studio. Do not disable Application Experience!! – stelonix – 2012-03-15T08:18:14.247

Answers

There is two problem here instead of just one: the first is to remap the Windows Key and the second is to detect and eventually avoid a remapping from a (suspected) software running in your sytem.

A) Remapping the keyboard to default values

The keyboard layout is located in these registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout

and they are a bit tricky to change so I suggest you two easy solutions to remap the Windows key to the default value.

1- Microsoft Keyboad Layout Creator

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=22339

2- KeyTweak

http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/

Both are presented there: Remapping the Keyboard Layout in Windows XP, Vista, and 7

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/remap-keyboard.htm

I suggest you to try first with KeyTweak because MKLC is a too much "heavy" solution: it create a huge setup file and "lighter" solution is, imho, better...

Just reset the "W key(s)" to their default value...

enter image description here

B) How to find the unwanted "remapper" culprit?

I suggest you to monitor which process is accessing the registry keys related to the keyboard layout with the Sysinternals Process Monitor.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

When you'll find it you'll decide what to do with this "remapper"... [e.g. Recycle bin... ;-)]

Hope this help. Let us know. :)

climenole

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 3 180

Is there a way that the the Questioners Keymapping had changed in the scenario of it "just not working anymore" Observe the second comment, knuck ran a test thing, and it showed that the "win" key was pressed. would it have still showed that if the key had been remapped? I was thinking more like it was not being "seen" by the software? This is interestingly different. – Psycogeek – 2012-03-05T20:34:48.050

May be... I'm waiting to read the questionner feed-back... :) – climenole – 2012-03-05T21:22:24.540

1I downloaded Keytweak, and as soon as Winkey stops working, I'll run it and see if it's detected there. I'll let you know asap. – stelonix – 2012-03-06T00:17:29.917

1@Psycogeek = It was showing that the Windows key was being pressed because it was. It was just mapped to a different function. Based on the fact the help menu was comming up....it sounds like it was mapped to F1 which is the default "help menu" button for all Microsoft products. – Ramhound – 2012-03-06T12:38:47.463

Okay, I woke up to find the keys switched, so the first thing I did was run KeyTweak, but it shows there was no remapping in the registry. Then I started Process Monitor and will leave it running until it switches back so I can look. I don't know what to look for though. – stelonix – 2012-03-06T18:06:51.437

1Just noticed this when I press the Winkey (simplified here to be more readable): "Explorer.EXE RegOpenKey HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\6 NAME NOT FOUND Desired Access: Query Value" Result is "NOT FOUND", apparently – stelonix – 2012-03-06T18:09:32.590

I spent the past days trying to figure it out using Process Monitor with no luck. I'm considering just buying new keyboards until the next version of Windows comes out. – stelonix – 2012-03-08T19:07:24.400

@knuck If using or buying a new keyboard fixes it, then be sure to put that in as the solution. If the keyboard you have now is using a non-standard driver or added key-hook driver item, then windows dropping out the driver could be the problem. (there is one reg hack for that) – Psycogeek – 2012-03-08T22:15:55.357

I would suggest you get hijackthis and see what applications are loading on startup. After that you should close them from the task manager Ctrl+Shift+Esc one by one and see after each one of them if the win-key returns to its normal behavior. If that doesn't work, try to load windows in safe mode and load each one of the applications on your own and see when the win-key stops functioning as it should.

I believe that after doing that you'll be able to answer both 2) you'll find the program that causes it, and 1) uninstall/re-configure that program to permanently solve it.

zenpoy

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 237

I thought about trying hijackthis, but since the Winkey changes behavior randomly (it's not upon OS load, it's really random from what I can tell), I thought it'd be too difficult to find the application changing it. But I will do it, either way. – stelonix – 2012-03-06T00:15:21.730

Tools of what is running/starting-up/taking-over, are essential in todays computing Hijack-this is A good one to see what those are. I feel it is more pre-emptive to Know what is there today, then see if it ever changes when thing go badly. AKA I would have it on, for general viewing, before it is needed :-) – Psycogeek – 2012-03-06T14:57:16.603

The HKCU in your other comment means its hopefully isolated to your user. I would create a new user and run it for a while to see if it reoccurs, if not just move all your stuff over (A pain, I know)

Meddy

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 11

The Win key is normally registered as a hotkey by explorer.exe, using the RegisterHotKey API function. You can find out what hotkeys are registered using Hotkey Explorer, although its display is more "user friendly" than I would prefer.

It sounds like it's getting remapped at some level to act like the Favorites key on "internet" keyboards. It can't be too low a level, or Win+M etc. wouldn't still work. In any case, for the Favorites key, this line in Process Monitor is normal:

10:43:11.7233223 PM explorer.exe    1028    RegOpenKey  HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AppKey\6    NAME NOT FOUND  Desired Access: Read

(I'm running XP, YMMV slightly)

Hugh Allen

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 8 620

@knuck consider adding a filter to Process Monitor for "Path contains AppKey" immediately after restart. Once you notice the WIN key no longer functioning as desired, check on Process Monitor to see if a program has requested a change to this registry key. – Jeremy W – 2012-03-11T03:00:49.777

I believe Explorer crashed and now a reboot no longer switches it back. Keytweak doesn't see it as switched and Hotkey Explorer fails to start with an error Google has never heard of. ("Hotkey Explorer init failed! (-7)") – stelonix – 2012-03-12T20:42:59.940

This could of course only be either hardware or software.

Checking for software is best done by booting in Safe mode with networking (for Internet), if you can stand it for a whole day. If this doesn't happen any more, then this is caused by some installed program. You could also try mapping another key to be WIN and see if this changes anything in the observed behavior.

For hardware, I would try still another keyboard connected via another USB port.

If you cannot find what the problem is, taking the computer to a repairman is my last idea beside giving up on using the WIN key.

harrymc

Posted 2012-03-02T19:42:08.670

Reputation: 306 093