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.
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