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I am having an odd problem with my ctrl keys. I find that my control keys (both at once) will stop working globally for a period of time (or a number of keystrokes?), and then sometimes it will be off and on. I often find that if I hit ctrl enough times (20? 40?), it will start working again for a while. When they are not working, both ctrl keys are dead to any program. Even ctrl + alt + delete does not work.

The problem seems to have started after playing a downloaded game, but it continues even after restarting my machine (with almost all third-party startup processes and services disabled). I might suspect a virus, but Windows Security doesn't identify any. In any case, it seems there must be some process or driver (etc) that is blocking/absorbing the ctrl keystrokes.

I would be happy to hear thoughts on what might cause this behavior, but my specific question is: is there any way to monitor keystrokes in Windows 10 at a low level and identify processes that might be absorbing keystrokes?

Giacomo1968
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Aaron Campbell
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1 Answers1

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Processes intercept key strokes through hooks. Effectively, there is an event chain. A process can "cut" a link in the chain, inserting itself in the middle. For example, the key down event might have originally gone from app A to app B. App X intercepts message so that they now flow A -> X ->B. Theoretically, one could examine all processes intercepting key events, But apparently, this is non-trivial.

Instead, open Task Manager, on Details tab, or Process Explorer and go though the list of processes one at a time, looking for anything that might be trapping Ctrl, such as AutoHotkey, Clavier+ or a similar key utility. In particular, also look for anything that game installed...

DrMoishe Pippik
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