Hey guys,

It seems that pushing ctrl alt del no longer brings up the windows security window. I really need to be able to access the task manager, does anyone know how to fix this? Im using windows xp sp2.

Have you tried typing taskmgr in the run box?

Regards Howard

yeah, actually that worked, it appears that it is my ctrl and my windows key that are not functioning at all. any ideas what has caused that?

Can you try another keyboard? Just to make sure that it is in fact your present keyboard that`s faulty.

Keyboards do become faulty I know cause I`ve had several, but then again I tend to be a bit heavy handed with mine lol

Regards Howard

Have you spilt anything on it recently? Or cleaned it recently? I had major problems when my cat spilt a large glass of water on my keyboard. I had to take the whole thing apart and clean it by hand. Just be careful not to mess anything up when doing it.
It would probably be easiest to get another keyboard and try it first. Then you can clean your other one when you have spare time, and it's not needed right away.

no, nothing like that has happened, and its both of my ctrl and windows keys that dont work, the chance that all four would go at once is highly unlikely. must be software related.

Go into device manager and uninstall your keyboard.

Then reboot your system and let Windows redetect it.

See if that helps.

Regards Howard

i tried uninstalling the keyboard, and that didnt help. wow, this is really driving me crazy! i could live with the windows key not working, but the ctrl key is kinda necessary.

The only other thing I can suggest is doing a repair install of Windows.

Look HERE for instuctions on how to do this.

After you have done this you will need to update Windows again as doing the repair will get rid of all your present updates.

Regards Howard

That is very strange, I have seen/heard of this before somewhere, but I cannot remember what was done to fix it. I will have to take a look around google when I get home to see if I can find it again.

Things to check:

1) Accessibility options - Keyboard

2) Registry: HKCU \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer \ NoWinKeys. Is it set to 1? Set it to 0 to make Windows keys work.

If these don't help, you can still use ctrl / win-keys by running osk, on-screen keyboard.

thanks for the suggestions, im not exactly sure what im looking for in accessablity options, i didnt see anything wrong in there, sticky keys is uncheck, and as far as the registry is concerned, there is no dword for the windows key. something fishy is going on here....

try a second, known good keyboard on your pc. or test yours on another machine. if you find it's NOT the keyboard's problem, there's a fair chance that a virus or nasty peice of spyware is causing the problem. what antivirus software and/or spyware protection software do you have? what kind of internet connection is the pc on?

i use avg free anti virus, and have run it several times, it did detect a virus, but i had removed it and didnt have any of these issues. I have run it several times since, and it has not detected anything, i also have run microsoft antispyware and adaware, and spybot search and destroy, all programs have the latest definitions as well. am i looking at a new installation of windows? i really want to avoid it, as this is a fairly fresh install.

Before you consider a new installation of Windows I would deffinitely recommend trying a repair install first, as I suggested above.

That way at least you will be able to keep your data.

Obviously if that doesn`t work then maybe a fresh install is the way to go, but I`d only do that as the last option.

Regards Howard

You might want to try another keyboard. I very very highly doubt it has anything to do with Windows. Keyboards break.

It's a LOT less time consuming and frustrating, to borrow another keyboard and try that out, OR take your own KB and try it on someone else's PC.
It's hardware, not software!

Hey guys,

this is really strange, when i was first suggested to try another keyboard, i didnt have one on hand, but i checked to make sure the keyboard was tightly in the port, which it was. I just tried another keyboard in there and it worked fine. I go and plug my keyboard back in and it works too! Thanks for all your help guys!!!

That is definately strange. But glad to hear all is well now!!

:angel: ur gonna love me for this one!

1.get hijack this
2. run scan
3. look for anything close to this O17 - HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip\..\{78B44176-C987-40AA-B09
4. it shoud be the same all the way to this^ point (the numbers may be diffrent
5.check mark it
6.hit fix checked
7.close hijackthis
8.restart
9. press control alt delete

VIOLA! :angel: (this of course ur keyobards not broke)
this is probably the most common virus out there...i fixed mine bout a half hour ago and i just had to get the word out...trust me this shiza works!