Have suspected this for a little while, and now I am pretty sure. Do not know the fix, neither the reason why things happen.
It is a known fact, that sometimes a key could get mechanically stuck in its pressed position. The Shift, Alt and Ctrl keys are specially vulnerable to this kind of behavior. This of course, do cause a load of strange things to happen. You type an F, and up comes the File-menu of the software; since the computer registers the keystroke as an Alt-F. It is all due to dirt and grease, getting into your keyboard over time. Even small objects - like tiny screws or the like, that might have fallen down on your keyboard at any time, might have got underneath your key-caps and eventually causes funny things like this. The remedy for all of this behavior, is to press your Alt,Ctrl and Shift keys several times. Usually that will release whatever has got stuck. But once in a while, I have had things getting stuck, and no solution.The big remedy then, has been to restart the computer. Apparently, this has been due to some issue more of the software-based kind. It just has been to determine what software could cause the situation. Like I stated initially, I do not have the final answer. Yet, for several weeks, I suspected WinEyes to play a role. When the sticky thing comes around, I will typically experience the Ctrl key being stuck. Everything I try to do, is performed as if I had kept my Ctrl-key pressed. Funny thing is, if I open NVDA, the issue is gone. This morning, when the issue again took place, I decided to do a bit of testing. First I thought it could be due to an app in my screen reader's collection. So when the issue started, I tried to get to the WinEyes ControlPanel. Physically pressing Ctrl-Backslash, had absolutely no effect, which quite often happens. Alt-Tabbing to the panel, is out of question, since I have WinEyes set to automatically hide from the Alt-Tab list. So the only way now, was to go to the Taskbar, and press Enter on WinEyes. Sure enough, the panel came up, and I went to the App-menu, and turned off all apps. Then back to my internet working, attempting to perform some browse mode commands. Pressing C, to get to the next Combo box, had no effect. Pressing T, for next Table, only opened a new tab in my browser. And pressing other navigation letters, caused whatever funny and somehow interesting things to take place. was almost like a new computer game. hahaha. Allright, as I told you, things like this happens every now and then. And normally, opening NVDA will fix the issue. Though now, I decided not to walk the normal lane. On the contrary, I alt-Tabbed back to the WinEyes panel, and hit Alt-F4. The screen reader closed itself down, all well. I then restarted WinEyes, using a hotkey combination of my choice, which does not include any of the standard modifier-keys. This way, i am sure no Ctrl, Alt or Shift key was pressed, during the close down or restarting process of the screen reader. Do I have to tell you what was the result? Sure thing. WinEyes opened, and the sticky Ctrl key has gone for vacation. No touching of the Ctrl neither on the left or right side of the keyboard. Neither on my laptop's built-in keyboard, or on the attached USB one, did I touch any Ctrl-key. All I did, was to restart WinEyes. Since turning off all apps did not solve the problem, and due to the fact that restarting the screen reader did take care of the trouble - I am left to draw the conclusion that something strange sits in the core code of WinEyes. Could it be some coding that - under given situations - will poke its nose out, and conflict with some activity of other software? Might it happen, that some residues from other software might have caused this to come up? Or, could it be in one of the apps, and who knows why WinEyes is unable to wipe it out, even when all apps are being turned off? Since restarting the screen reader is all it takes, it seems something just needs to be nullified. Something that the screen reader does, through its initialization. Or, something that it manages to close down, whenever the screen reader is being unloaded altogether. Restarting the screen reader is not all that much of a go, if that is all it takes to solve a frustration. Still, i did wonder, if any of you have had the same experience, or something similar. OK, still under Win7 for a moment, so not sure if this is something that might have been cared for in later flavors. The issue has been going on for years, but seems to me, to take place more frequent lately. Just for the record, I do not exactly blame this on WinEyes. I just wonder if something in the screen reader, along with whatever other activity is ongoing on my computer, could get in conflict and cause this issue. One of the big challenges for software developers, that one. Your coding is perfectly well done, but other pieces of software do not tie in smoothly, and you are left with the challenge of figuring why; and how to prevent your software from getting into that troublesome corner. Why i even wonder if one of the apps, could cause something to get stuck, even to the extent, it will still stick when the app is turned off. _______________________________________________ Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ai Squared. For membership options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/options.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com/archive%40mail-archive.com. For subscription options, visit http://lists.window-eyes.com/listinfo.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com List archives can be found at http://lists.window-eyes.com/private.cgi/talk-window-eyes.com
