Saturday, October 7, 2017

Alt-X ignored on laptop keyboard in Windows 8.1, but normal with external keyboard

I just got a new computer with Windows 8.1. Whenever I need to type Alt-X or Alt-Shift-X in some applications, nothing happens. It seems that it is intercepted, but nothing visible is triggered. Other Alt combinations are fine.


I disabled the hotkeys from the graphics manager, but it did not help. Does anyone have any idea what program could intercept Alt-X? Or if there is some way in Windows to detect which program intercepts some keys? Is there some page in the Control Panel for Windows shortcuts?


Update


I need Alt-Shift-X for eclipse, and Alt-X for emacs on Cygwin (I tried disabling Cygwin). Absolutely nothing happens when I hit Alt-X or Alt-Shift-X.


I tried Hotkey Commander as suggested in the older post and it does give many hotkeys such as Alt-Tab, but nothing related to Alt-X. (Warning about using Hotkey Commander: it seems to discover the active hotkeys by hitting all keys, so the Windows magnifier and narrator become active after you run it.)


I connected an external keyboard and Alt-X now works as expected with that keyboard. I have not had other problems with the laptop keyboard except for Alt-X. It is some type of "international" keyboard with a few weird symbols on some keys, but it is basically just a normal US keyboard.


I found the driver page for my laptop, but it does not seem to have a driver for the keyboard. I have the latest bios.


I tried various keyboard layouts in the Control Panel, but it did not help. The Device Manager lists my keyboard as Standard PS/2 Keyboard.

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