Windows keyboard puzzle for the bored

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Rikkitic

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#208289 5-Feb-2017 11:04

For Windows experts who enjoy a challenging puzzle, and have nothing better to do, I have run into something that is very minor, but is slowly driving me crazy, as these things do.

I run Win 7 Home premium on my main computer as a matter of preference. I use Windows Live Mail (Essentials 2012) for popmail (and no, I don’t want to switch to Thunderbird or another option). I have my email viewer set to text only. In Live Mail you can switch this to HTML by pressing Alt-Shift-H.

This works fine on my old computer but I am changing to a slightly faster one with the same software set-up and I can’t get it to work on that one. It is a head-scratcher. I have gone through everything I can think of that might affect this, without result. I have checked the keyboard setting in Regions and Languages to make sure the keys are not doing anything weird. I have checked the scancode map in the Registry editor to make sure no keys have been reassigned. I have checked that I do not have any other memory-resident software running that would affect this. The accelerator keys all seem to work normally in Live Mail. So do the other hot keys. Pressing Alt-Shift in combination with every other function works normally. The only thing that doesn’t work is Alt-Shift H, but this does work correctly on the other computer.

I have used a tester to check the keypresses and something strange occurs that I do not understand. On the computer that works, I get a key down code of 72 when I press Alt-Shift H. This is correct as it is the key code for the H key. Yet on the computer that doesn’t work, this does not happen. When I press Alt-Shift H I get no key down at all, though I do get a normal key up. If I press H on its own, I do get the key down code. Alt-H also works. So does Shift-H. Just not Alt-Shift H. Somehow when Alt-Shift are pressed together, the H key no longer works. Yet it works normally with every other possible combination. Alt-Shift also works normally with every other key.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here? I certainly don’t.

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ANglEAUT

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#1715702 5-Feb-2017 12:43

For me, the first question would be; which Alt key do you use?

Seeing that you like keyboard shortcuts,I'm going to guess that you use the RHS 'Alt' key, because now you can do the combo with one and? If that is the case, is your rhs 'Alt' key just and 'Alt' key? Or is it an 'Alt Gr' key? AFAIK, the 'Alt Gr' key is there to make typing of letters like é, ä, ô etc easier.

Try using lhs Alt + rhs Shift + H.

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Rikkitic

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#1715730 5-Feb-2017 13:16

Hi, thanks for the reply. Nothing seems to make any difference at all. I have tried every possible combination (just did it again to make sure), either shift key, either alt key, both together, all together. H works. Alt-H works. Shift-H works. But Alt+Shift prevents H from working. Both left and right keys.

The keyboard I am currently using is a cheap USB job, but this keyboard works fine on my other computer, as explained above. So I don't see how the keyboard can be the problem. On one computer when I hold down the Alt and Shift keys together, the H key generates a keycode. On the other computer, it doesn't. There has to be a reason for this but I am tearing my hair out trying to figure what it is. I even just tried the virtual keyboard, with the same result: Alt-Shift H = nothing. Go figure.

It is not tied to the application either. The same thing happens whether I try it with Live Mail or whether I use an on-line keyboard tester. It has to be something in Windows but I sure don't know what. It only happens with this one key. Everything else works fine.

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richms

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#1715734 5-Feb-2017 13:21

Try it in safe mode, you might have some bloatware on the PC that is intercepting the keypress to activate some graphics overclocking or something. That was a cause of a previous missing keypresses problem I had on a machine.

Richard rich.ms

Rikkitic

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#1715748 5-Feb-2017 13:48

That's a good idea. Why don't I think of these things?

I just tried it but my tests were inconclusive. I was using Live Mail and an on-line keyboard test to check this. Neither would work in safe mode. I tried activating a Windows help menu with the H key to see what it would do. Pressing H, Shift-H, Alt-H and Shift-Alt H all brought up the menu. When I rebooted in normal mode only Alt-H worked on the menu. Not sure what that tells me. I have to think about it some more. I did look before at running processes and I took out a couple of things that I thought might have an effect. I don't know what all the remaining processes do but I don't see anything obvious that would cause this.

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Ge0rge

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#1715768 5-Feb-2017 15:08

Do you have the ability to try another keyboard on the new computer? It would be good to be able to either elminate the old KB or not. i realise that you have somewhat done this by using the online/on-screen keyboard, but I still think it would be worth a go.

Rikkitic

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#1715771 5-Feb-2017 15:26

Just to make it interesting, I plugged in an old PS2 keyboard I have. It didn't make a difference.

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gzt

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#1715900 5-Feb-2017 23:50

Same on both machines check version, but which browser?

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gzt

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#1715902 5-Feb-2017 23:56

Also, can you still use menu > View > Message in HTML ?

Does it work and does the menu item list a shortcut?

Rikkitic

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#1715984 6-Feb-2017 10:03

Yes, the menu function works. It doesn't list a shortcut on either computer. It is nested several times until you reach a box you have to untick ('Read Mail in Text Format'). Also, as reported, I have the same issue with the on-line checker. It has to be something in Windows itself, though I have no idea what it could be. I have tested on-line with two different chrome-based browsers, Opera and Slimjet, same results with both. The test program I am using is https://www.w3.org/2002/09/tests/keys.html. The same keyboard works fine on the other computer (also Win 7, though a different version. From memory I think it is Ultimate).

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ANglEAUT

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#1716047 6-Feb-2017 12:45

Could it be that Windows detects a 101 keyboard instead of a 105 keys keyboard?

Have you tried changing the input device here? All Control Panel Items -> Language -> Language options -> Input method

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Rikkitic

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#1716052 6-Feb-2017 13:13

I did try changing the keyboard just to see if it would make a difference. I normally use the International keyboard with the American layout because I need the accent characters. This is the keyboard that works with the other computer. But I did try changing it to the regular US keyboard as a test and that didn't make any difference.

In the meantime, I remembered that I still have an old dual-boot copy of Vista on the same machine, which I keep for some software that is installed there. So I booted into Vista and found an old copy of WinMail which I was able to use to test Shift-Alt H. It works fine.

This means that I have eliminated every possible variable except Windows itself. For some reason this particular installation of Windows 7 will not let me generate the H key code if the Shift-Alt combination is depressed. This is such a typical Windows mind game. What on earth could possibly affect this one, single, obscure key combination and nothing else? It is really spoiling my week.

Thanks to everyone who is trying to think with me on this. I appreciate the help.

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Rikkitic

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#1716059 6-Feb-2017 13:42

I just found it! I had previously got rid of all processes that I thought might cause a problem. This time I went through every other process that I could close without shutting down the system. It turned out to be my Commview packet sniffer. I don't yet know what the precise issue is, but that is definitely the culprit. Thanks again everyone.

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