Keys sometimes get stuck

[Gieted]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.51.0

Running as admin

• Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Keyboard Manager

Steps to reproduce

Sometimes, some keys (especially left ctrl) just get stuck and are constantly pressed until you restart PowerToys and press these keys. This happens mostly when the computer is freezing (for example during CPU intense task, like file indexing).

✔️ Expected Behavior

No response

❌ Actual Behavior

PowerToys should detect, that the key is stuck and release it.

Other Software

No response

[franky920920]

Could you attach a full bug report file?
Right-click on the tray icon and click Report Bug. Then drag-and-drop the generated file into the GitHub comment to upload it. Thanks!

[Gieted]

Here's a report, right after the issue've happened.

[Gieted]

This can probably happen due to some Windows keyboard hook timeouts. Can someone more technical look at it?

[franky920920]

cc: @enricogior Can you take a look?

[Gieted]

I will also leave my exact remapping, for which the issue happens pretty often:

[feljx]

I want to chime in here to report (I believe) the same bug.
I use Powertoys to switch alt and ctrl keys to achieve a Mac-like keyboard layout. Sometimes the alt key get's stuck and can only be unstuck by mashing the remapped alt key a bunch of times.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to reproduce the bug, but, curiously, the last time this happened was exactly when I opened the Powertoys settings menu (before having clicked anything in it).

[assist726]

This has been happening to me a lot too recently with the ALT and CTRL switching

[TheJoeFin]

Can you confirm this issue is still relevant in v0.73? /needinfo

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 5 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 5 days of this comment.

[chackoan]

Was there any fix for this? I am facing this issue multiple times daily and its very annoying. Happy to provide whatever details to have this fixed.

[Gieted]

For me the "fix" was getting an external keyboard with QMK, a much better solution than software-based rebinding.

[TheSimArchitect]

Same problem here when remapping Scroll Lock Key to Ctrl + C.

Any chance we can get this issue fixed?

The problem isn't only with Left Control but also Control and Right Control keys. The program sends the command to consider the key pressed before typing C but it does not release the key afterwards. I guess there's something missing in the application code to do that.

[MisutaaAsriel]

I'm having this same issue. I remap Win to Ctrl and Ctrl to Win, since I daily a Mac and hate context switching. As I am remapping core system keys I have to run as admin.

Randomly, or even on boot, Ctrl will be stuck. In apps like Task Manager, it is always stuck (clicking search opens Windows feedback instead). Can this issue please be reopened?

[aikansh1]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.51.0

Running as admin

• Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Keyboard Manager

Steps to reproduce

Sometimes, some keys (especially left ctrl) just get stuck and are constantly pressed until you restart PowerToys and press these keys. This happens mostly when the computer is freezing (for example during CPU intense task, like file indexing).

✔️ Expected Behavior

No response

❌ Actual Behavior

PowerToys should detect, that the key is stuck and release it.

Other Software

No response

hey? did u got the fix for this prob ?? pls tell me too

[MisutaaAsriel]

hey? did u got the fix for this prob ?? pls tell me too

This is probably a dupe or related issue to #17035 which is still open. 😕