Keyboard remapper fritzed out after upgrade from 76.2 to 78

[pasley165]

Microsoft PowerToys version

78

Installation method

Microsoft Store

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Keyboard Manager

Steps to reproduce

After installing the v78 updates my keyboard became unstable. Rebooted, reinstalled v76.2 from GitHub, ran as admin, disabled the app. Nothing fixed it until I uninstalled Power Toys.

✔️ Expected Behavior

Same behavior as before.

❌ Actual Behavior

Unstable keyboard. Entered stuff I did not type.

Other Software

No response

[pasley165]

I know this is light on details. I'm hoping you already have other reports and this can be added to the pile. If I am the only one I will be happy to provide input if you want to try to fix it for me, but I doubt that is a good use of your time. Please let me know what you need if you want my help to look into it further. I have a second, pretty much identical machine that I am leaving on 76.2, but it might be instructive to see if it also breaks when upgraded. I am running current Win11 on an Asus Zenbook. Thanks.

[Jay-o-Way]

Entered stuff I did not type.

What kind of stuff? Single letters or more? Quick Accent or Keyboard Manager would be my first suspects.

[pasley165]

Single letters will set it off. For example, I enter a P and it sometimes (not always) launches Print.

I don’t use Quick Accent and the problem is almost certainly related to Keyboard manager. Weirdly though, once the problem starts it does not stop even if I turn all Power Toys off. It only goes away when I uninstall Power Toys.

Here is an example of my keyboard mappings.

c

This is from version 77, which I saw on GitHub and installed in passing to see what happens. I changed these in v78 to

be just Ctrl, Alt and Shift (no “left”) qualifiers. I don’t know how they got changed back in v77. They were still

changed (no “left”) when I restored v76.2. Make no sense to me.

Also, as I write this (in Outlook) with V77 active the keyboard is behaving. The problem has always first appeared in Google Sheets, which I am about to re-enter. I will send a followup note regarding whether or not it reappears there.

Two (of many) possible scenarios –

1. It does not like the “no left” mappings – unlikely?
2. Some problematic interaction with Google Sheets causes a generic problem - likely?

Thanks,

James

[pasley165]

Hmmm. The problem is not happening now. Evidence seems to point to the removal of the “left” settings.

Still on v77. Made this change –

… and … when I used Ctrl-5 the problem appeared. Turning off Keyboard Mapper did not help. Neither did turning

off all modules. So I uninstalled PT yet again. And all is well now.

So that seems to be the problem. I will now reinstall v80 and put put the “lefts” back to see if it fixes it.

James

[pasley165]

Well, based on just a little evidence it looks like that fixed it. I’m surprised.

So there’s your target. Good luck.

When this is fixed it will be useful for me, but it’s a low priority. I can just use separate right and left settings until the

broader option works.

If the problem reappears I will let you know.

Thanks,

James

[jaimecbernardo]

Hi @pasley165 , Responding through e-mail won't show us the screenshots on GitHub. Can you please show us the mappings on GitHub? Faulty vs nice ones?

This sounds like one of the mappings pressed a key and then didn't release it.

[jaimecbernardo]

/needinfo

[pasley165]

Thanks. Further diagnosis showed that the upgrade did not cause the problem. I made another, I thought innocuous, change at the same time. I reassigned some keys from Ctrl LEFT to just Ctrl. When I changed it back the problem went away.

Here is a picture of the differences.

I don’t really need this, as I can simply assign both right and left when I need to.

However, it is a bug.

James

[Jay-o-Way]

@pasley165 attachments are not passed on to the online issue. Please open this issue in a browser and edit a comment (preferably the first) to add pictures etc.

[pasley165]

It’s pretty well commented already. Is that enough? I’ll figure out how to post a picture if that would be useful.

James