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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.
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 – 2012-03-02T20:09:23.957Just 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 – 2012-03-09T22:06:10.347You are right, I was experiencing errors in Visual Studio. Do not disable Application Experience!! – stelonix – 2012-03-15T08:18:14.247