Esc Key does Nothing

[BuckSkin]

This has plagued me for years and the problem has followed me through several keyboards.

I have made numerous efforts at getting to the bottom of the problem and getting it put back to rights, all just spinning my wheels and wasting my time.

I have just now tried an online keyboard checker where you press any key and it lights up Green on the on-screen keyboard; I press my Esc key and the Esc in the online checker immediately lights up Green; so, the machine knows I have pressed the Esc key, but that's as far as it goes.

In most situations, there is a backdoor means of getting around the lack of a working Esc key; however, last night, in the photo editing program DxO Photolab 2.3.1 Elite, I clicked to view a photo in full screen; pressing Esc key was supposed to return me back to normal view; of course, mine did nothing.

I tried and tried and nothing I did would get me out of full-screen view.

After a couple wasted hours, I gave up and forced restart of the machine.

None of the soccer-mom fixes that I have found in my searches have worked for me.

Keyboard drivers are up-to-date.

Is there a tweak in the registry or some other hidden fix that will give me back use of my Esc key ?

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.

 

[torchwood]

considering thats its a universal default key, suspect you've run sfc /scannow ! as a potential fix

the only thing i can think of, (as your keyboard checker shows its live) is that there is a policy/rule in place that "dissables" it