My Keyboard Digits Have Been Hijacked by Windows Explorer as Hotkeys

Question

My Keyboard Digits Have Been Hijacked by Windows Explorer as Hotkeys

Anonymous

I recently had to resurrect a backup installation of Win 7 Home premium. It was/is a vanilla installation and everything pretty much works fine except for the main keyboard digits. Plain (unshifted), vanilla digit keys 1,2,3,8,9,0 launch Win Explorer while digits 4,5,6,7 just result in a system beep. The rest of the keyboard keys including the numeric keypad digits and the shifted keyboard digits keys (!@#$...) are all OK. Multiple keyboards all exhibit the same behavior. I've looked in the registry for Win Explorer options but find nothing related.

This is extremely annoying as muscle memory automatically goes for the keyboard digits to enter a number. Any ideas , suggestions on what is happening or possible fixes?

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3 answers

Answer 1

I assume that you don't have anything like AutoHotkey, KeyTweak, Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center, or a similar macro utility installed. Please confirm.

Does the onscreen keyboard work properly?

open a Notepad window
click Start, type OSK in the Search box, and press Enter
use your mouse to click "keys" in the onscreen keyboard

Click Start, type intl.cpl in the Search box, and press Enter

Click the "Keyboards and Languages" tab

Click the "Change keyboards" button

Assuming that you're in the U.S. and want to use the standard English keyboard, you should see this:

Open Device Manager (click Start, type Device Manager in the Search box, and press Enter)

Double-click the "Keyboards" category to expand it.

What is the name of the item in the Keyboards category? Is there more than one item here?

Double-click on the item and select the "Driver" tab

What are the Driver Date, Driver Provider, and Driver Version?

You can also download various utilities that will show the keycode generated when you press a key. Here are a couple that have worked for me:

KeyBoardStateView by NirSoft: https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/keyboard_state_view.html
Mihov Ascii Master by Miha's Utilities: https://www.mihov.com/sw/en/am.php

This is the output (selected columns) from the Nirsoft utility after pressing the number keys in order:

Description	Key Code	Hex Key Code
0 key	48	0x30
9 key	57	0x39
8 key	56	0x38
7 key	55	0x37
6 key	54	0x36
5 key	53	0x35
4 key	52	0x34
3 key	51	0x33
2 key	50	0x32
1 key	49	0x31

Answer 2

Anonymous

When I read your question:

Multiple keyboards all exhibit the same behavior. I've looked in the registry for Win Explorer options but find nothing related.

You have already tried other keyboards?

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Answer 3

Keyboards wear out. They fail. It is actually one of the more common repair issues.

99% of all keyboard problems are caused by hardware failure.

If yours is a desktop, replacing a keyboard is a trip to the store to buy a new one. You can buy them form $10 to $100. Check carefully, many times there is not much difference.

If yours is a laptop, replacing can become a significant technical challenge that is beyond most people and requires a competent technician. Make certain that the keyboard installed is in fact the exact model. There are many that look a lot alike, that will cause you problems. Cost likely approaching $100. An alternative is to buy an external one, just like that used on a desktop PC.

You can diagnose a laptop by using a wired known-good USB keyboard to test.

There are some laptop models for which a keyboard change is relatively simple. Check Youtube for your specific model. I mean your specific model. The simple ones are removed by pressing down on a tiny tab at the top of the keyboard. There are likely 4 or 5 of those tabs, so you have to kind of release one and hold it up while releasing more. When you get it right it will just pop off. It is connected by a ribbon cable to the computer.

Be very careful to get the right replacement. Many are similar but if you do not get the right on, you are not going to be happy,

The good news is that these are relatively inexpensive.