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Is there a way to turn off the weird shift / ctrl "lock" behaviour in Windows 8.1 (if you hit the shift or ctrl key by mistake)

I'm not sure if this is a WIn 8 accessibility issue (being able to enter control and shift key combinations one key at a time) or something to do with my MS Sculpt Comfort Keyboard but often, I find that after I've hit the control or shift key by mistake, the keyboard seems to lock in the state of the control or shift key so everything I type afterwards is as if I was holding down the control / shift key until I tap the control or shift key again.

I'm never sure which key it was that I accidently pressed and I find this to be really annoying.

Is there any way to turn this off?

Is this something that was introduced with Windows 8? I don't recall it happening with Win 7.

Or could this be something to do with my MS Sculpt Comfort Keyboard? I'm in Canada where we have a lot of (annoying) bilingual keyboards.

Thanks

Paul MacDonald

It sounds as if you've turned on Sticky Keys by mistake. Here's how to turn it off.

John

ASKER

Thanks, but it's not on.

Turn on Sticky Keys is not checked in Control Panel -> Ease of Access Center -> Make the keyboard easier to use.

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Paul MacDonald

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John

ASKER

Thanks. I've attempted the solution of turning off power management to the keyboard. I'll wait to see what happens.

John

ASKER

I forgot about this question. It's been 18 months and the problem seems to have gone away so the power management tip seemed to be the solution.

John

ASKER

Thanks paulmacd!

Paul MacDonald

Very happy to have helped. Thanks for the points!

Is there a way to turn off the weird shift / ctrl &quot;lock&quot; behaviour in Windows 8.1 (if you hit the shift or ctrl key by mistake)

Is there a way to turn off the weird shift / ctrl "lock" behaviour in Windows 8.1 (if you hit the shift or ctrl key by mistake)