unwanted behavior by on-screen keyboard, bug?

[Mike jones]

greetings,
because of a back injury I spend much of my computer time flat on my back and use a wireless mouse and the windows on-screen keyboard. This Windows 7, 64 machine constantly will cycle the open window when I click on the on-screen keyboard, for example if I have a browser page open and need to enter a bit of text, I will mouse down to the application bar, click on-screen keyboard, which will popup, but instead of that same active browser window staying up (which it would seen obvious that's what I am working with) that window will minimize and another currently minimized window will now be maximized, and I will have to go digging around to re-maximize that window. It is completely random, It could be a windows explorer window, it could be a Windows photo-viewer window. This is extremely annoying and costs me much time and aggravation

 

[marsmimar]

Hello Mike, sorry to hear about your situation. This may help:

Go to Control Panel, click Ease of Access
In Ease of Access Center tab click How Your Mouse Works
Then click Make The Mouse Easier To Use
There should be an option to Make It easier To Manage Windows
Uncheck the option to Activate The Window By Hovering...

I'm not at a Windows 7 computer right now so this is from memory and the wording may be slightly different. Please post back if this helped or not.

 

[Mike jones]

marsmimar,
Thank you for responding, that option was already unchecked, so no changes. None of the options are selected in either the Make The Mouse Easier To Use nor the Make The keyboard Easier To Use sections. I didn't see any options that would seem to dictate that behavior either.

 

[marsmimar]

Try running a system file checker scan from an elevated command prompt (option two.) If problems are found, run the scan 3 times and reboot the computer after each scan. After running SFC run full scans with anti-malware products.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[Mike jones]

Apologize for the late response, have away from the computer. I have run SFC and no "integrity violations" were found, also have run full scans with Microsoft security essentials and Malwarebytes, everything comes up clean, unfortunately the problem persists.

 

[marsmimar]

I am at a loss as to why this problem is happening.

I ran this by some other folks and they didn't have anything new to offer, either. If this is an operating system problem (ie: software related) then a repair install might correct things. But a repair install is usually a last ditch effort to fix things before resorting to a clean install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

On the other had, I have to plead complete ignorance when it comes to using a wireless mouse. I'm just wondering if something within the mouse is sending out a false or otherwise defective wireless signal that is adversely changing the various screens. Kinda like having a defective garage door opener that opens every other garage door on the block just by driving by ... without anybody even touching the opener. Perhaps trying a different mouse?

I supose there could also be an application conflict that's causing this weird behavior. You could try doing a clean boot (AKA clean startup) to see if you can isolate an application or service that is interfering.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ation-conflicts-performing-clean-startup.html

And I suppose you could also go through these troubleshooting steps just on the off chance something may help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html

Really sorry I don't have anything else to offer.

 

[Mike jones]

I will try using a wired mouse (don't have one handy at the moment) as well as your other suggestions, I do have a strong suspicion it is the on-screen keyboard application itself causing the problem, upon clicking the OSK icon there is usually a little pause until it comes up on the screen and it is not until then that the open window will cycle. Thank you for the help.

 

[Alex Gibbs]

This is a bug with Windows' On-Screen Keyboard in Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Minimizing the On-Screen Keyboard can lead to undesirable window switching when the On-Screen Keyboard is restored.

Here's how to reproduce the problem using Windows Explorer and Notepad, though any applications can be substituted for those two:

- Start Notepad, Windows Explorer, and the On-Screen Keyboard. Do not minimize any of them.
- Click Windows Explorer's title bar once so it has focus.
- Minimize the On-Screen Keyboard.
- Go to Notepad as if you were going to type something in it.
- Restore the On-Screen Keyboard to start typing.
- Move the mouse toward the keys on the On-Screen Keyboard.

This should cause Windows Explorer to pop to the foreground, in front of Notepad. To continue typing in Notepad you have to bring it to the foreground again.

The On-Screen Keyboard probably remembers the last window it was providing input to (Windows Explorer in the above example). It doesn't see the user change to another application while it is minimized. Upon being restored the On-Screen Keyboard brings that "last" application it was working with to the foreground, even if it isn't what the user was working with most recently.

I believe this is part of the On-Screen Keyboard software so I can think of only two solutions:

- Don't minimize the On-Screen Keyboard.
- Use a 3rd party on-screen keyboard that doesn't do this

 

[marsmimar]

This is a bug with Windows' On-Screen Keyboard in Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Minimizing the On-Screen Keyboard can lead to undesirable window switching when the On-Screen Keyboard is restored.

Here's how to reproduce the problem using Windows Explorer and Notepad, though any applications can be substituted for those two:

- Start Notepad, Windows Explorer, and the On-Screen Keyboard. Do not minimize any of them.
- Click Windows Explorer's title bar once so it has focus.
- Minimize the On-Screen Keyboard.
- Go to Notepad as if you were going to type something in it.
- Restore the On-Screen Keyboard to start typing.
- Move the mouse toward the keys on the On-Screen Keyboard.

This should cause Windows Explorer to pop to the foreground, in front of Notepad. To continue typing in Notepad you have to bring it to the foreground again.

The On-Screen Keyboard probably remembers the last window it was providing input to (Windows Explorer in the above example). It doesn't see the user change to another application while it is minimized. Upon being restored the On-Screen Keyboard brings that "last" application it was working with to the foreground, even if it isn't what the user was working with most recently.

I believe this is part of the On-Screen Keyboard software so I can think of only two solutions:

- Don't minimize the On-Screen Keyboard.
- Use a 3rd party on-screen keyboard that doesn't do this

I can confirm that exactly what you said does happen. Nice find! Hopefully the OP will see this post.

 

[Mike jones]

The op has now seen the post.
Apologies for not responding sooner, I have been AFC for an extended time. And thank you for confirming what I suspected all along, and SHAME on microsoft for allowing such an egregious bug to remain, in my opinion this renders the OSK virtually worthless, it is difficult to convey how utterly maddening it is to relentlessly have to deal with this, it's as if you are trying to eat and every time your fork gets near the plate it is jerked off the table and set on the floor behind you. I have tried dragging the keyboard to an unused area of the screen (not minimizing it), but even that doesn't work, once you drag it back the moment you strike a key, pop, it flips the screen again. A few other points, it doesn't necessarily go to the last application it was working with, seems completely random, trust me I very familiar with it's behavior. Also if you have done some preliminary inputs with the mouse, highlighting, context menu, whatever. all that will have to be repeated once you have gotten back to where you were, a real time waster. At the moment I am using a wired keyboard positioned so I can access it reasonably well and am exploring speech recognition software ("Simon", any recommendations?) anyway, please forgive my venting, but with all it's highly paid engineers it is absolutely unacceptable of microsoft not to have dealt with this.

 

[alphanumeric]

I can relate to your problems. I also suffer from chronic back pain. I have a media center PC in my bedroom and use a Logitech K-400 Wireless plus track pad for input. It's a nice small keyboard that has a track pad where the num pad is on a full sized keyboard. It would at least stop you from having to use the onscreen keyboard.