Question Control Stuck even after disabling.

[FancyFlamingo]

It's been years since I've visited, so pardon me if I'm not in the right category. I can't be sure where this fits given every fix I've tried.

I have this problem where Windows 10 acts as if I'd tapped the Control button, and by default will magnify/zoom out the size of my browser -- any browser version -- without me touching it, and right now, with it fully disabled via Registry. I'll explain below.

• I'm on a desktop, and there's no pinch zoom option.
• No filters, sticky keys, etc are active. I made sure they were all disabled.
• I've checked every setting for my mouse and keyboard, used troubleshooter, nothing showed any issues.
• I've checked for any Windows Update fixes, nothing changes this either. I even rolled back updates to be sure.
• I've both tried other keyboards* and unhooked my mouse and keyboard, but it literally spastically zoomed in and out just to spite me.
• I've uninstalled drivers, tried other keyboards & mice, no luck.

I pulled up my on screen keyboard to see what's actually being pressed. Since web pages, notepad, anything with a zoom magnify feature zooms in & out, it looks like plus/minus or the wheel is activated. The On Screen keyboard won't show plus/minus if I press them, only Control being activated, when I'm not even near it. Sometimes it's a few seconds, sometimes it's going on for a few minutes.

As of today, I'd seen it happen after disabling both Control buttons via SharpKeys. It shouldn't be possible for Control to activate, but the On Screen keyboard shows otherwise. I'm not sure if it's just me or odd timing, but the zoom issue gets worse with Control re-enabled. I'm testing disabling both Controls and the -/= key, just for kicks & giggles. Because I'm going insane now. Forget water torture. This.

 

[rgd1101]

test with a different keyboard?

 

[FancyFlamingo]

test with a different keyboard?

I forgot to add, yes, did that. But please note, the control activates with both keys disabled via registry. So another keyboard is kinda moot, right? 😅 (😭) At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if some Konami level key sequence would help.

 

[FancyFlamingo]

Disable Specific Keyboard Functions:In the Control Panel, go to "Accessibility Options" > "Make the keyboard easier to use" and make sure options like "Turn on Filter Keys" are disabled.

Did you read my initial post?

No filters, sticky keys, etc are active. I made sure they were all disabled.​

 

[rgd1101]

test in safe mode?
malware scan the system?

 

[FancyFlamingo]

test in safe mode?
malware scan the system?

Yes. I forgot to add that to this thread. I think that's in my reddit thread and I forgot that here. But I'm one of the few to rarely visit anywhere sketchy. I don't visit sketchy sites to find out what my birthstone's spirit animal is. 🙄😆 It's very rare for me to catch anything. When I do, it's usually one of those annoying search "tools" that open a link to their site. But Malware Bytes usually catches that easily.

In safe mode, the issue didn't happen. My fresh install was actually fine until seemingly when I made Windows Update installs. But I rolled those back & it continued. I had a few Windows Updates that couldn't be uninstalled.

 

[rgd1101]

if it is working in safe mode. check what you installed, could be some tool from the motherboard.
and also check task manger to see what is running.

 

[FancyFlamingo]

if it is working in safe mode. check what you installed, could be some tool from the motherboard.
and also check task manger to see what is running.

After my fresh Windows install, I hadn't installed anything new for my mobo. This began without me installing anything for hardware. A month before, the game Palia required DirectX, but I hadn't had problems at all. Updates for their current event hadn't rolled out yet.

The only new thing was Windows update. I custom built my PC, and replaced my mobo with a more updated AsRock, and it hasn't needed any updates since September.

Task Manager showed things I'm used to seeing. I currently have much less now than before reinstalling Windows. Because of the random rapid Control activity, catching it with Task Manager up us impossible. I don't have time to see what might be active.

I've combed through my installs a dozen times before posting here. I've racked my brain and gone through my own checklists to get any plausible idea of what might conflict. I even tried other browsers since I think Brave had an update (I keep 2 or 3 different browsers installed). But the problem persists.

My last ditch effort is to do a clean install and take better notes after installing programs one by one, then Windows updates one by one manually. For all I know it's the ones I can't roll back.

 

[FancyFlamingo]

I've done a fresh install again. Here's the list of updates Windows has me installing. I have a restore point set, in case something once again goes crazy.

 

[rgd1101]

let us know how it goes

 

[FancyFlamingo]

I spent the day carefully installing a couple programs and games. I made a restore point just before installing Brave. My problem only came back after I installed it. It's been 4 hours since my restored state and no issues. I'm not officially saying Brave is the cause, but a recent update with Brave may be buggy. I saw a forum post from 2020 on their forums, where someone had a no keyboard input problem. So... maybe?

 

[rgd1101]

does Brave run in the background? it is crazy to think a browser would cause keyboard issue

 

[FancyFlamingo]

It does seem crazy, but I've been problem free since rolling back via restore point. I don't recall ever seeing it run in the background, but clearly something was conflicting in the latest update. I've installed other software, my drawing tablet driver, yet no problems.

I stopped questioning tech fixes a long time ago. I can speculate, but stop myself because I'm not sure if it's driver related exactly, given it's basic plug & play.

I'm just taking the win, along with my cat actually taking her pain meds in food (tooth pulled). And not pawing at her mouth wound.