Unexpected problem with the Windows key
My windows key no longer works, how can I fix this?
Why can't I get my windows product key when typing in the code?
My windows key on keyboard isn't work
Why does my Windows key stop working after a Windows update?
How to disable the Windows key?
Why is my Keyboard not working in Windows 10?
Hello, this is Emily.
I think it is important as first step, to determine if the issue is hardware or software before applying any fix.
Type "osk" in the search on the taskbar to launch on screen keyboard. Tab on the windows key twice, and see if it launches the start menu. If it does, this is not a software issue, it is a hardware issue with the key on the keyboard. See if you can test this first and see what you find out.
Hello, I'm Thileep K, an Independent Advisor and I'm happy to help you out today
please follow the several steps you can take to troubleshoot and hopefully fix the issue:
Step1 : First things you need to Check the Keyboard Lock
Check if the Windows key is disabled or not
Some keyboards have a key lock feature that disables the Windows key. Look for a key with a Windows logo or similar icon.
Step 2: You need to Check the Windows Updates
1. Go to Settings ->Click on a Update & Security- > Windows Update.
2. Click Check for updates and install any available updates.
Step 3 : Then you need to do update or reinstall the keyboard drivers
1. First open the device Manager (you can search for it in the Start menu).
2. Then expand the Keyboards section.
3. Right-click on your keyboard device and select Update driver.
4 Choose Search automatically for updated driver software.
Step 4 : Then you trying to reinstall the drivers
1. Go to Device Manager and right-click on your keyboard device and select Uninstall device.
2. Then restart your laptop.
3. Then Windows should automatically reinstall the keyboard driver.
Can you please follow the above steps, i hope that it would be useful to you resolving that issue . if you need further assistance please reach out to me.,i will ready to help you for anytime.
Thanks
Regards,
Thileep K
So the key is forever locked with my microsoft account? But the key I used for my current computer came from my old one which came with windows 10, how come I was able to access the key back then?
So to explain it in more detail, that computer shipped with a key. If you used the command on it, you should be able to retrieve your key because it's the OEM device the key was activated on. It's not locked, because if you had the key, you could re-use it, but it's basically trying to keep the key from being reused as easily as it was the first time, not wanting to repopulate it.
There are third party tools that can retrieve it, but none that are approved by Microsoft, and none that I could personally recommend. Natively, it's intentional for Windows to hide that key on machines it wasn't originally activated on. I've heard of some outliers as far as this function goes, but I know on my local machines, that's now it's gone for Windows 10 and 11 so far.
Hi, i hope you're doing good today.
On some keyboards, there is a lock key for the Windows key. You can use it to lock and unlock Windows key. If that key is on, you can’t use Windows key at all. So if that’s the case, press that key to unlock Windows key.
If that's not your case try this.
Click Start menu button and type “regedit“. Then click regedit on the pop-up menu. This is to open Registry Editor dialog box.
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control.
Under “Control” folder, find and click Keyboard Layout folder. In the right pane, right-click on Scancode Map and select Delete. Then click Yes to confirm the delete.
Regards.
Do you have an external keyboard you can test with?
Also try this.
Go to search and type on-screen keyboard.
See if the buttons work.
If they do not then This maybe an issue with a system file being corrupt.
You can try a couple things.
Right click your start button and select Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
In Command prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter.
Restart the computer.
If that doesn't work then try this,
Right click your start button and select Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following commands.
Press Enter key after each command:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
Important: When you run this command, DISM uses Windows Update to provide the files that are required to fix corruptions.
To close the Administrator: Command prompt window, type Exit, and then press Enter.
Restart your computer.
My Windows key has suddenly stopped working. This is pretty annoying because I use it for a lot of shortcuts (Win+D, Win+L, etc). The last time this happened, I found a post about disabling "game mode" that sometimes disables the Windows key. I turned off that setting, and it worked again.
This time I have tried (with some prompting from GPT):
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Restart PC (duh, did nothing)
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Disable game mode (did nothing)
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Check on-screen keyboard. Windows key does nothing but also no alpha characters interact with the on-screen keyboard at all.
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run SFC scannow from command prompt. It said it found some corrupted files and repaired them. Windows key still didn't work
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run DISM scan. That completed successfully but windows key still didn't work.
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Create test user to see if it's an issue with the user profile. Created test user, but it still didn't work
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Check language input settings. I checked the keyboard layout. It is correctly configured for US QWERTY.
Does anyone else have any ideas for how I may go about fixing this issue? I am not having any other issues with the computer at this point, but I would really love to have my Windows key back and functioning.
For others encountering this issue, you might have a fancy keyboard with a "gaming mode" switch of some sort that disables the Windows key. In my case, I had a Logitech G110 and didn't have any idea what the switch did :/
The fact this is the top voted answer and this page has 100K views should tell keyboard designers something... Certainly it was a feature added with good intentions to prevent accidentally losing focus on a game when hitting the Windows key by accident, but the keyboard should beep or something when you hit a key and it ignores it.
Quick check Win+Tab, Win+P, Win+L and Win+R - are they also not working?
Now check Ctrl+Alt+Del, which should bring up the Windows Security screen (menu), and Ctrl+Shift+Esc, to open Task Manager - are they working (malware test)?
Hit Shift 5 times quickly - is Sticky Keys working?
Now reboot the computer, and test again.
Go to Microsoft KB216893, and do NOT run the "fix it" (XP). Instead, go halfway down the page to "Let me fix it myself", run regedit, and see if the following key exists there:
- Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout - Value:
Scancode Map - Type: REG_BINARY (Binary Value)
- Data:
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 5B E0 00 00 5C E0 00 00 00 00 - That value disables it, you would remove the key completely to have it work normal.
Then check this key as well while you're in there:
- Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - Value:
NoWinKeys - Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
- Data:
0to disable restriction, or1to enable restriction
Check for other software running. Do you have any AutoHotkey scripts running? Do you have any shortcut programs running, like special launcher software, or special mouse or keyboard or touch drivers/software? Temporarily stop that software in Task Manager, and/or temporarily stop the services that it runs on. Or disable the driver, without disabling your last input device, and test again.
I also wonder, because the Win key can mess up a game pretty badly, maybe some games have ways of disabling that while they are running?