There's a bug in the keyboard driver...(dear liza)

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Some bugs are harder to find then others.  To successfully find and repair a bug in the code requires it to be re-producible, the easier to reproduce the faster it can be troubleshooted and fixed.

Some bugs however are really hard to find, yet alone re-produce.  Take for example the mysterious keyboard driver 'bug'.  You may have noticed it yourself.

Suddenly pushing keys doesn't seem to do anything or strangely typing a key opens your menu instead of typing that 'F'..has your machine got a virus? ..become possessed by daemons? or every feel you are sure you pressed CTRL-C only to not be able to now PASTE it into your document?

There is a BUG in the Windows keyboard driver, it has been there at least since Windows 95..perhaps even longer. No it is not 'sticky keys', but it has a sort of similar effect.

The keyboard maintains a 'state' flag for certain keys, like 'caps lock' or 'num lock' or 'scroll lock', when you press a key like CTRL, SHIFT, ALT, and that 'Windows key'. Every once in a while the key will get stuck..it's not always the same key!

Now you might say - just clean your keyboard - and YES my keyboard is frequently dirty..fair enough. But I have seen this happen with brand new keyboards, or had friends and colleagues run into the problem and be stumped.

 When you see the odd behaviour, the 'fix' is quite simple. One at a time press each of the keys on both sides of the keyboard

 (CAPS LOCK - LEFT SHIFT - LEFT CONTROL - LEFT ALT, RIGHT SHIFT, RIGHT CONTROL, RIGHT ALT, WINDOWS KEY, WINDOWS MENU KEY). 

After this key will get 'released' and work again.  Never-the-less the problem continues.

Now you can report the bug with Microsoft (which  i have several times), but the odds of it being found are nearly impossible.  99% of the time everything works fine. 

And if devs can't re-produce it - well it's like searching in the dark for your underwear, it might work, but even if you do find them you'll probably just be wearing them backwards.

* THERE IS A BUG IN THE KEYBOARD DRIVER *




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