Keyboard filter?

[Extreme]

Windows 7 says keyboard filter won't work? what is it, and how can i update it for windows 7?

 

[zigzag3143]

keyboard

Windows 7 says keyboard filter won't work? what is it, and how can i update it for windows 7?

hi and welcome to sevenforums

First we need all the info we can get like what kind of keyboard, 32 or 53bit OS, clean install or upgrade, did you download drivers from the computers maker for the keyboard.

Waiting on info

Ken

 

[Extreme]

hi and welcome to sevenforums

First we need all the info we can get like what kind of keyboard, 32 or 53bit OS, clean install or upgrade, did you download drivers from the computers maker for the keyboard.

Waiting on info

Ken

alright its a compaq persario cq60

im upgrading i haven't yet, 32bit, its a laptop (standard 101/102-key or microsoft natural ps/2 keyboard with hp QLB)


What is a keyboard filter?

 

[fseal]

If this is referring to the windows driver type called a "keyboard filter driver" is a driver that sits in the keyboard data chain and can "spy" on your keystrokes before or after the windows driver handles the data.

This sounds pretty nefarious but there are actually several good uses for it. Card readers frequently use that mechanism when attached to keyboards in order to trap the characters coming off the card reader and redirect them to a special program rather than have the card data show up in a random edit field in windows for example.

Another use is for fancy keyboards with non-standard functionality that use unused scan codes and they need to trap the scan codes before the windows keyboard driver gets them.

Now the REAL way to do this would be to make the keyboards and the keyboard atached devices seperate USB devices but that is considerably more work when you could get by with a simple keyboard filter instead.

But because of the security concerns, I guess they are no longer allowing it. Which means that any peripherals that piggyback on the keyboard are probably not going to work any more :/

 

[Extreme]

If this is referring to the windows driver type called a "keyboard filter driver" is a driver that sits in the keyboard data chain and can "spy" on your keystrokes before or after the windows driver handles the data.

This sounds pretty nefarious but there are actually several good uses for it. Card readers frequently use that mechanism when attached to keyboards in order to trap the characters coming off the card reader and redirect them to a special program rather than have the card data show up in a random edit field in windows for example.

Another use is for fancy keyboards with non-standard functionality that use unused scan codes and they need to trap the scan codes before the windows keyboard driver gets them.

Now the REAL way to do this would be to make the keyboards and the keyboard atached devices seperate USB devices but that is considerably more work when you could get by with a simple keyboard filter instead.

But because of the security concerns, I guess they are no longer allowing it. Which means that any peripherals that piggyback on the keyboard are probably not going to work any more :/

ok so will it not work when i upgrade to windows 7? or could i just go to their website and download the keyboard driver?

 

[fseal]

ok so will it not work when i upgrade to windows 7? or could i just go to their website and download the keyboard driver?

Well yeah the first thing to try is to see if the manufacturer has a newer driver.

It's also possible that the install of keyboard filter drivers is still allowed but only by an administrator, so you can try running the installer in administrator mode. (Right click, run as... Administrator)

It may also be allowed in the 32 bit version and not in the 64 bit version as well since the 64 bit version is supposed to be a lot more driver secure. Other than the requirement of signing, there may be other issues like this one.

I used to write keyboard filters for card readers some time ago but I don't have any way to readily test this on W7 any more.

 

[Extreme]

Well yeah the first thing to try is to see if the manufacturer has a newer driver.

It's also possible that the install of keyboard filter drivers is still allowed but only by an administrator, so you can try running the installer in administrator mode. (Right click, run as... Administrator)

It may also be allowed in the 32 bit version and not in the 64 bit version as well since the 64 bit version is supposed to be a lot more driver secure. Other than the requirement of signing, there may be other issues like this one.

I used to write keyboard filters for card readers some time ago but I don't have any way to readily test this on W7 any more.

oh, the website doesnt have a updated driver for this, i had no issues installing windows 7 on my desktop and that had windows xp HE on it

 

[nsideline]

oh, the website doesnt have a updated driver for this, i had no issues installing windows 7 on my desktop and that had windows xp HE on it

I have pretty much the same Compaq model (CQ50 130 US) and it is having the exact same problem when I go to update to the Release Candidate of windows 7. Did you ever find a fix for this? Can the drivers for the keyboard be rolled back, or uninstalled and another version installed possibly? It halts the installation of the new O.S. and no love anywhere on the web in regards to this... I would love to test the RC, but it wont allow me to install... And my desktop is now crashed (sort-of) due to the nvidia video drivers not being compatible somehow, and the monitor is not recognizing properly... I cant get it to recognize being plugged in, and its now impossible to see anything I am doing to fix it...

Someone please save me!

-Jason

 

[Extreme]

!

I have pretty much the same Compaq model (CQ50 130 US) and it is having the exact same problem when I go to update to the Release Candidate of windows 7. Did you ever find a fix for this? Can the drivers for the keyboard be rolled back, or uninstalled and another version installed possibly? It halts the installation of the new O.S. and no love anywhere on the web in regards to this... I would love to test the RC, but it wont allow me to install... And my desktop is now crashed (sort-of) due to the nvidia video drivers not being compatible somehow, and the monitor is not recognizing properly... I cant get it to recognize being plugged in, and its now impossible to see anything I am doing to fix it...

Someone please save me!

-Jason

What i found i kind of screwed the alert.. i did a upgrade and every driver was installed no problem, its basically like i just added a new operating system but kept everything, but maybe its just my computer i didn't do a clean install if you can try to do a upgrade it takes longer but its better than finding every driver for your laptop.. hope i helped

-Mark

 

[DarkXeno]

This keyboard filter is tied to HP/Compaqs Quick keys at the top of the keyboard for their laptops. What you want to do is remove the quick-launch software from the machine do your upgrade then install the newest quick-launch softpaq.
Sorry I didn't see this post when it went up I have been messing with two hp and a compaq laptop so I know this comes up when doing the upgrade from vista to windows 7.

 

[rorobobo]

This keyboard filter is tied to HP/Compaqs Quick keys at the top of the keyboard for their laptops. What you want to do is remove the quick-launch software from the machine do your upgrade then install the newest quick-launch softpaq.
Sorry I didn't see this post when it went up I have been messing with two hp and a compaq laptop so I know this comes up when doing the upgrade from vista to windows 7.

Hi,

How do I remove the quick launch software from my machine?

Thanks

 

[adaviel]

I found it in control panel "uninstall programs" called "HP Quick Keys" or some such. I had to reboot to get Windows 7 compatability check to say it was OK. Seems to be running now, cross fingers.

Thanks for help everybody.
(As this was an HP computer with a Win7 upgrade driver disk provided by HP, It kind of annoys me that most of the incompatible programs found were HP ones. They could have fixed these issues in the first disk.)

 

[fseal]

Heh, sadly I've found HP to be at best downright sluggish and at worst completely obstinant about upgrading their software/drivers to work with the latest OS offerings

They make some good equipment, but I've had to completely stop buying from them because of that. Got burned on a printer that was only a year old that they would not support in XP when that came out. I still smoulder over it

 

[macgig]

do I need the quick launch software? can I just remove that and be done with it? upgrading from vista to 7, Im getting the message also, that the "keyboard filter" is not compatible.