Fixing Virtual PC Keyboard Lockup

Lately I hear about a lot of people using VPC that their keyboard suddenly stops working inside VPC.

There are a different number of keyboard issues I've heard of so far:

  • Keyboard stops working all together.
  • Keyboard freaks out. (CTRL key stuck)
  • Keyboard and mouse lock up.

The first issue is the one I hear the most, and which someone managed to perform on one of my VPC's lately.

It's quite hard to reproduce, if able to at all, but apparently it feels to trigger the most from fullscreen/windowed switching.

But, no more chatting, the (very simple) solution:

Lock and unlock the host computer. Problem fixed, keyboard working again.

The first time someone had a locked keyboard again, I tried this, and it worked! :)

A solution for the other issues are apparently:

  • Freaking: A bug in VPC apparently prevents to let go out the CTRL key when you use the AltGr key to simulate CTRL+ALT (when switching to fullscreen?). Which means in practice Windows sees the CTRL key as being kept down. Rumored solutions are to press CTRL inside the VPC, or/and to use your Right CTRL to do special VPC operations instead of AltGr.
  • Keyboard and mouse lock up: Apparently there's a hotfix somewhere out there, or at least one exists but has to be requested. I remember it being mentioned somewhere, the only comfort I can offer is that there is hope there is a fix for you, but you'll have to search a bit.

9 Comments

  • Thanks for that solution David, works a treat!

  • Workarounds, what would the world be without them?

  • That worked, thanks.

  • First a stupid question, what do you mean with locking and unlocking the host computer (alt - enter twice?)?

    Secondly, the problem I have is that sometimes indeed I get the message when going to the VPC environment that the Ctrl keys has been hold so if you want to start in save mode or not.

    Thirdly, the biggest problem is that when typing or the keyboard isn't functioning (solved by 5 times pressing Shift and clicking cancel or OK for the StikyKeys message) OR the keyboard does react but with pressing 1 time typing 2 to 3 times! Very anoying and impossible to work with. How can I solve this. Please save my life...

    Note, I don't have a keyboard with altgr and use alt enter to go to the VPC...

    Thanx & regards,

    Roger

  • Top tip, sorted out such an infruriating problem

  • Roger,

    1/ Lock and unlock
    - Windows key + L
    - CTRL ALT DEL - Lock Computer
    (2000, XP, 2003 have this, no idea about 95, 98 or ME :p)
    Unlocking is simply hitting CTRL ALT DEL again when it's locked.

    2/ You'll have to give me a better explenation on this, since I don't immediately see the connection between CTRL keys and Save Mode :)

    3/ Does pressing CTRL solve this problem?

    You could try to not use ALT Enter to go to the vpc but change this to Right CTRL. I belief it's in the main VPC window settings you can change this (not in the Settings of a VPC itself!) I can't check the exact place at the moment since I can't install VPC on my 64bit machine *sigh*

  • Yep nice, just locked it ctrl + L, unlocked..

    viola!

  • Lock/unlock works - Thanks!! I have been ranting for hours.
    /S

  • I don't think you have to actually lock the host computer CTRL+ALT+DEL on the host and then Cancel seems to do the job just as well

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