tab key acting weird

northturton · Mar 30, 2010

Hello,

If this is the wrong forum, please move to the appropriate one!

I have Windows 7 installed, IE8, Office 2007 etc. Recently I've noticed that the tab key isn't doing what it should be doing - i.e. tabbing between cells in a form, or web page. When you press the tab key, the form appears to lose focus. Shift Tab does not bring focus back to the cell. So if you have a form to fill in, you have to type, click with mouse, type, click with mouse... very annoying!

Any ideas whats happened to the tab key? Its a new PC and new clean keyboard, its only just gone do-lally, and I don't believe its a hardware problem. Its like some setting has come into play from a hotfix.

All other keys are okay.

Advice appreciated.

Brian

northturton · Mar 30, 2010

how odd, the tab key is working again now (IE, Outlook etc etc)

never mind.

jspencer4 · Jun 14, 2010

Tab Key Not Working

Hello everyone,

I also have been having this problem. We use a program called Wennsoft on our Windows 7 RDC and I "tab through" the fields on a daily basis. Sometimes the tab function stops working or will only toggle between two fields, rather than tabbing through to the numerous fields waiting to be entered. This is an intermittant problem for me. Now today, two other coworkers that use the same program and have the same connection are having the same issue.

In order to "fix" the problem, our IT department has told us to log out of the Wennsoft program and the RDC, then log back into both. That "fixes" the problem until it surprises us again.

I'm wondering if I'm hitting some sort of key combination (which is what the IT guy has also suggested), but I haven't found anything anywhere that tells me what would cause this.

It's pretty annoying, so if anyone can offer any insight or can explain as to why this is happening, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Jen Spencer

Allenb · Jan 3, 2011

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I, too, am experiencing this intermittent Tab key symptom. In Quickbooks 2010 on a new Windows 7 64bit install, the tab key switches between entry fields intermittently. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, it stops moving between fields. Can anyone help with this frustrating problem?

Thank you in advance.

Frank1 · Jan 3, 2011

If you have another keyboard, you may want to try it. It may be the keyboard itself.

Allenb · Jan 4, 2011

Different keyboard

Thank you for your reply. We have already tried a new Microsoft USB keyboard with no change in symptoms. This seems to be a problem with Windows 7. We also tried the key combinations to insert a tab, but it just inserts a tab without moving to the next field.

Thank you for any help.

loewenconsult · Feb 12, 2011

Same problem

Having same problem with two of my clients. Both running Win 7. One has tried a new keyboard, which doesn't work. I noticed that Shift-Tab (reversed Tab order) works fine on both, so it's obviously not a keyboard problem. I'm hoping someone comes up with a fix

loewenconsult · Feb 12, 2011

Xerox printers anyone?

I've been doing some more research on this, and there are quite a few references to the latest (and greatest) Xerox printer drivers causing the tab key to stop working. Sounds totally unrelated, but my clients have 2 Xerox printers, as well as 2 Xerox copiers, so I wonder if that's the problem. Do any of you have Xerox printers? Apparently it's the PrintScout component that stays loaded and causes the Tab to not work.

northturton · Feb 13, 2011

Hi, I originally posted about this a year ago, and I still have this problem, not just on the original PC I referred to, but also my works desktop PC as well.

I personally don't think its hardware related, if you reboot, the problem goes away.... only to come back again at some random stage.

Maybe its a particular item of software that causes this - I have VMware Workstation running on both machines, so too Installshield... and Office 2007, and Visual Studio 2005/8/10. My AV is the Microsoft Security Essentials.

...and lastly, I've never used Xerox printers - an Epson Stylus at home, and a Lexmark colour laser in work.

AngelaV · Feb 25, 2011

VMWare

I have the same problem. I am running VMWare also which so far seems to be the culprit. The only way I have found to fix it is to reboot.

dhunt84971 · Apr 6, 2011

VMWare

I also have this problem and am use VMware Player 3.1.3 build-32485. It is the same issue. After a period of time any use of the tab key results in a loss of focus for the active window. VERY ANNOYING when filling out forms. I am going to do some testing and see if it is related in some way to my use of VMware.

Also, to put the suspicion that it may be a keyboard related issue to rest, I am using a laptop and when this problem occurs, BOTH the external USB keyboard and the laptop's integrated keyboard demonstrate the same symptom.

If someone else has found a solution to this, please post it.

kjenks · Apr 11, 2011

I am also having this problem on a Win 7 Pro 64bit Dell Vostro that is basically brand new. I have 4 of the same machines running with all the same specs and they all use Win XP in the Virtual PC mode, but only 1 of them has this issue. Not only does the tab key not respond sometimes, but as another person had mentioned, sometimes the window changes from becoming the active window and other open programs respond to the tab key command. I've also found that sometimes the RUN box opens on the XP VM when the tab key is pressed. Restarting the VM sometimes works, most times doesn't and restarting the whole system sometimes fixes it for a time as well but it is very strange. The user is pretty frustrated by this. Since 3/4 machines are not having this problem, I am wondering if I should create a new XP VM and see if the problem reoccurs in it. ? Has anyone tried that?

rhbgames · Apr 20, 2011

Quitting VMWare worked for me

Running Windows 7 and I noticed that my TAB key was not advancing to the next field, whether it was in a web form or Excel. Shift-TAB would work in reverse, Alt-TAB would do the right thing, but just the TAB key wouldn't work. Read the information here, quit VMWare (it was running, with just a single VM paused). And that fixed the problem, no reboot needed. Perhaps I got lucky. But definitely a VMWare connection. Strange.

YevetteM · Apr 28, 2011

I am having the same issue. Windows 7 64 bit and the tab key frequently quits working. Normally an alt-tab key combination will allow you to tab through active windows, when it starts acting up it does that with every tab key press. Very annoying when filling out forms. So far the only thing that I can find that fixes it is a reboot. I do have a Xerox printer attached as somone mentioned in a previos post, but I ended all processes that I could find related to the printer and it still didn't work. I know it's not the keyboard because I also use Synergy to share my keyboard and mouse with two other machines. When I shift the focus to one of the other two machines, the tab key functions normally, so it must be something running on the windows 7 machine, I just can't figure out what it is. I also can't pinpoint what trigggers it. It seems to happen at random. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

YevetteM · Apr 28, 2011

Too funny, after I re-read my post I decided to turn off Synergy - that fixed it. I turned it back on and it it is still working. Until next time I suppose, but atleast I can fix it without rebooting. Maybe this can help someone else.

JoeHello · May 25, 2011

Found a "work-around"

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate. I have a lot in common with a lot of posters here: I am using both Synergy and VMWare Workstation (6.5.x), I keep my computer on for days at a time and intermittently I have the same issue wherein my TAB key just goes on vacation. I tried turning off Synergy, then VMWare but sometimes the only fix is to reboot. But then I found a work-around. I have found that if I hit the "Windows Key - TAB" combination a few times (around 6 or 7 times), then the TAB key will start working again as it should. I read somewhere else that a user said they have to do "Windows Key - TAB" a few times and then "ALT-TAB" a few times to get it working again, but so far just doing the first one has worked for me. ...definitely quicker than a full reboot.

drgenome · Dec 2, 2011

Control Panel\Ease of Access\Ease of Access Center\Make the mouse easier to use

Uncheck "Activate a window by hovering over it" worked for me. Tab didn't "break", my mouse was set to activate other stuff when ~moved.

:party:

mikeki · Dec 14, 2011

Tab key acting funny

I've had this same problem and the only fix I know is to remove the keyboard driver and reboot. The following article gives a brief description:
My tab key doesn't work - Windows - Office

cma6 · Feb 10, 2012

Win 7 problem

This is a Win 7 problem. It does not happen in Win XP

mburdis · Apr 15, 2012

May I have found a soln...

I was having a similar problem this afternoon with a new laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I knew the problem wasn't caused by newly installed software because the laptop was brand new. Then after a bit of Googling I came across a thread in a CNET forum in which some one suggested the key sequence ALT+0+0+9 and voilà... no more tabbing problem. It would be interesting to see if this works for anyone else.

tab key acting weird

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