I use Windows-W for something else. For over 20 years now. The muscle memory is strong.
Enter Windows 10: Now, that key is intercepted.
I don't know by what, but my application (which i think is irrelevant to name) isn't receiving it. It's not even a new install, it's one of those programs that you can run out of a folder without installing, carrying it from computer to computer over the yeras. without any behavior ever being disturbed
Windows 10 has grabbed several keys this way.
It seems most solutions out there are about DISABLING the windows key entirely, or DISABLING a specific keystroke (like windows-w in my case).
I don't want it disabled. I want whatever windows is doing to it to stop, and let it pass through the way it did in Windows 7/2K/98/ME [yes going back that far].
A lot of time already spent on this unfortunately.
Related
Recently installed AutoHotKey to remap some keys in order to play a video game. It seemed simple/attractive enough at first. Was not really sure of how it worked but found the .chm file in the download which states in the first line of Usage & Syntax/Using the program:
AutoHotkey doesn't do anything on its own; it needs a script to tell it what to do.
Sounds 'secure' enough to me. Seems like mature software. Maybe overkill (now I know it certainly was overkill) but let's just see how it works.
My remapping was simple enough: change the AWSD keys for the LEFT-UP-DOWN-RIGHT keys. Script syntax is simple enough, just used an example that comes with the install files. Works essentially as expected. Got an annoying pop up after playing the game for a bit from AutoHotKey saying "you've pressed mapped keys 600 times" or something like that. Which was only a little annoying, so I ignored it the first few times. The game I play is real time so getting a even a 5 second interruption while in a match would mean certain loss, so I decided to just disable the script and uninstall.
Lo and behold: when I stop the script, the keys continue to be remapped. Was there some background process running? Maybe. I rebooted only to find that on my Windows login screen my keys continue to be remapped. Huh? Did AHK mess with some registry bindings or something?
I do not know that much about how Windows works, but my vague recollection is that registry bindings is something is active once the OS is active. I search on the web for say 1 hour before I give up for the time being and I end up activating the script again in order to write normally. This works as expected and I literally forget about it until any time I have to reboot.
Honestly a minor annoyance, but due to the world changing very quickly I lately have very few precious minutes that I can actually sit down on my desktop, whereas I used to be able to spend hours on this type of computer issue in order to get to the bottom of it. In other words, my current solution felt good enough. But not anymore. I think something more serious and possibly nefarious may have occurred. I don't want to seem dramatic but I just discovered something else a few minutes ago.
I have a Linux installation on another drive and I just happened to want to load it up after my last Windows blue screen (have gotten a couple of those lately, literally 2 in the space of 2 days and this had maybe only ever happened once before, like 2 years ago, so I am a already concerned about a possible deeper issue). My firmware/bios has a password and guess what I found when I tried inputting it: the keys were still remapped.
At this point I am at a complete loss. I didn't even think this sort of thing was possible. Some OS level software caused a change that was able to be reflected on the bios? Did it affect the keyboard driver? A driver that both windows and the motherboard bios use?
What else have I tried or looked at:
Device Manager claims my Keyboard has 3 instances of "HID Keyboard device". Not entirely sure why it shows 3. Properties show it has 2 driver files: kbdclass.sys and kbdhid.sys, which I suppose are some standard drivers. Not sure how to proceed.
My keyboard is inland (cheapest i could find at microcenter) i am not sure why I cannot find the website for that company. Found some drivers on reddit but they are on some sysadmin's google drive. I will download that exe when i am desperate...
UPDATE
I 'solved' the issue bye getting another keyboard (an old IBM KB-0225) and everything is now in order. I tried disconnecting the Inland keyboard and reconnecting, but after reconnecting I was still experiencing the same issue.
I don't know if I should close this question as there is no longer an issue, but I would like to see if anyone has any other additional theory as to why some software/driver changed occurred inside a keyboard device. As far as I knew, these devices have not internal memory other than possibly some logic gates.
There must be a background process running.
to check that:
note : For windows 10
On your taskbar, click on the ^ button (skip this step if there is no such button)
right-click on the sign.
click on "exit"
If the above steps do not work, try keeping a watch all the time, to see if you notice something uncommon.
While I'm using my computer a blue window will pop up for a second then go away. The label said windows power shell, I've tried looking at the event viewer but I could not identify anything there since I'm a new user. What could be causing this?
Running windows 10
Sometimes installed programs open up command prompts to run services/init tasks, so its not completely unusual.
I've never seen it happen with powershell however.
it could be innocent and just a program you have installed running init behavior, but it could also be malicious.
the first thing to try is checking what programs are set to startup automatically. if there is a load of bloat, you could try turning off the unnecessary ones and see if it still happens.
but realistically the only real way forward is to get a good quality antivirus, and run a full system scan over your pc to double check. it wont give you 100% certainly as things could possibly get passed it, but realistically if it passes you should be fine
I have a computer-based test that takes several hours to complete.
However, the test is timed-out at some point, because my PC "goes to sleep in one way or another".
This is possibly related to the fact that the test consists of two processes which communicate with each other via port, so I'm suspecting that perhaps networking is disabled in some way (even if it's completely "local networking").
I have disabled both screen turn off and sleep in the Settings "page", under Power & Sleep.
Still no luck, the screen is locked with a password at some point, which I suspect causes the test to stop running in the background.
I even followed a procedure that I found on the web to disable screen-lock via Regedit in something like 18 steps (why on earth did this company figure out that this is a reasonable user experience).
Is there a solution to this problem?
Found a (very hacky) solution:
If you keep all windows minimized, then the screen doesn't get locked.
What a great operating system, by such a great company!!!
Given that Outlook runs in most offices, and given that a screensaver may user CPU, or network file copies, or virus scans, or network installs by the admin (granted, that usually happens when you're logged out), and all the myriad other things that might occur on a Windows 7 desktop in an office environment, how could I possibly know that a user is idled out, and not just reading a PDF?
Do I use a set of metrics to sample at regular intervals and use that to determine "away" or do I need to monitor some file, is there a API that should be exposed?
I can't rely on screensavers being active, or the computer entering a specific power state, and I'm not sure what is exactly off-limits, but I also don't know what's on-limits, as it were.
I think you're looking for GetLastInputInfo, which tells you how long it's been since the user hit a key on the keyboard or wiggled the mouse (or touched a touch-enabled screen?).
I have a VB6 application that I provide support for. This application works on both Windows XP and Windows 7. Some users were migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7 using the User State Migration tool. These users now receive a generic "Application has crashed" Windows error message when they open certain screens (forms) in the application. My assumption is that there is a missing dll/ocx reference, but I'm having trouble tracking it down.
I've tried many/varied troubleshooting techniques:
Full uninstall and reinstall of my application
Manually re-registering all dll's and ocx's that I know are used
Running Process Monitor on a broken computer and a working computer to compare what dll's and ocx's are accessed. The answer might be here but even after filtering out most of the background noise the amount of data is overwhelming. At a minimum I reviewed all of the calls right before it crashes and all of the calls that were not successful. All of the non-successful calls match between working and non-working.
Installed the Windows Debugger Tools and captured a crash dump. Analyzed the crash dump with DebugDiag. DebugDiag says the exception is in msvbvm60.dll. I tried building a PDB file for my exe and loading it in DebugDiag to get more detail about where the exception is occuring but DebugDiag doesn't want to accept the PDB (might be doing something wrong here, but it just seems to ignore it. This same PDB file works fine when I do remote debugging, however.)
I recompiled my VB6 program without any optimizations in PCode. I've read online that sometimes building in PCode, while bad for performance, will tell you the real exception.
Used the above created PDB file to remote debug the VB6 application. The debugger says that the application crashes after the new window has been created, on a line that sets MousePointer = vbHourGlass... To me it seems unlikely that this is the real cause of the error. There are at least 20 other locations in the program where this same line is called and all work fine.
(Forgot about this one)
Used Dependency Walker and profiled the application on both a working and non-working computer. All errors found by dependency walker were the same between the two computers. There were no additional dependencies found on a working computer, and all missing dependencies on the non-working computer were also missing on the working one.
None of these actions changed my error message or showed me what the error is (unless it really is the mouse cursor issue)... There are no entries in the Windows Event Log related to the app crash.
The non-working and working computers all have the same base Windows 7 image, the only difference is whatever is being changed by USMT, which further convinces me that this is some kind of quirky configuration change or a missing dll/ocx or perhaps an unregistered dll/ocx.
Any ideas or thoughts on how I can track down the root cause of the issue would be greatly appreciated.
Update 1 - Response to questions
#MarkHall I have tried running it as admin, though not with UAC off. The application runs fine on a Windows 7 box as a non-admin with full UAC. Windows XP was 32-bit, Windows 7 is 64-bit, but again it works just fine on a like for like box where the user was not migrated from Windows XP.
#Beaner It's possible that it stores settings somewhere that have been corrupted, but the remote debugging leads me to think that it's more likely something else since it seems to die on a step related to the UI, which then makes me think it's probably a missing dll/ocx reference.
#Bob77 The application is installed into Program Files (x86). While many of the libraries do reside in the same folder, they are all registered.
Peter, often I've noticed that the debugger will indicate a line of code that is actually incorrect, depending on WHERE in the actual assembly language the fault occurs. You should look REAL close around your statement that sets the cursor to vbHourGlass. Your exception is PROBABLY happening BEFORE that line of code, but that line is what the debugger thinks is the actual faulted line of code.
Since you said it happens when a window OPENS, I'd look real close at any ocx's you may have referenced on the form, but perhaps NOT actually being used, or called. You might have one there that you don't intend to be there, that could be causing security issues, or something on Win7? Edit the .frm file by hand if you have to, and look at all the GUIDs the form references.
It is possible that one machine is using PER-USER registration, and the other is using PER-SYSTEM registration?? I don't know...
I would take a much closer look at the form that you are trying to open, and be VERY cautious of everything you are doing in the form load events, and so on. This sounds like it could be something as stupid as Windows Aero being enabled on one system, and not another, or some other sort of "Theme" setting that is throwing the VB Form Rendering routine into a hissyfit... Perhaps even something as stupid as a transparent color index in the icon you selected for that from?
If you are still developing this app, (or at least maintaining it), create an entirely NEW form, and re-create all the controls, etc, on the form (resist the temptation to copy/paste them from the old one...), and then see if THAT does the trick. Then, copy all the event code to the new form one event at a time, with at LEAST enough event code to make the form function, even if it's just a "dead form", that loads no data, or whatever the form is supposed to do. Check and debug after each change, and you WILL find it eventually. Of course, make sure you isolate one of the defunct systems to have a platform that you can duplicate the issue on, or then it's just guessing. I find that using something like Acronis w/ Universal Restore is a great option to then take the image file into a good HV, like VirtualBox, and then restore that image as a VM, so you can debug without interfering with your actual users. This sounds like a lot of work, but then again, so is re-writing an application that already exists, right? :)
Failing THAT... /* and */ are your friends!! (Well, we're dealing with VB, so ' would be your best friend! heh... But I'd start commenting out all the code on the form until that sucker opens. Then once it opens, start putting one line back at a time, and re-running it... That's called "VooDoo Debugging", but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do...
THANKS A LOT PETER! :) Now you got ME so involved in this, I feel like I'M the one debugging this sucker! Like if it was MY code I was trying to fix! :)
Let me know if any of this helps... I am actually quite interested in what you discover.