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I am using a number of different keyboard layouts, depending on which language/keyboard I am woring with. Some of these rely on the AltGr key for producing certain symbols like @ (e.g. the Swedish layout).

Since I updated to Windows 10, the AltGr key intermittently ceases to work (while Ctrl + Alt + still works). Similar issues have been reported with Win 8 and Win 8.1, but the solutions to these do not apply to my case (and perhaps not to other Win 10 cases. So I will try to be very precise in describing the issue here.

To start with, when I say "the AltGr key stops working", what I mean is that it fails to act as Ctrl + Alt (which is what it is supposed to do). However, it does do something: for example, when I press AltGr + 2 and then another ordinary key, say "A" what I get is "2a". Note that the 2 does not appear until I press the A. In other words, when pressed with AltGr, the "2"-key is somehow treated like a dead key.

Changing between different keyboard layouts does not help. AltGr will not work neither in those other keyboard layouts nor in the original one when I switch back to it. The only way to get AltGr working again seems to be to reboot the system (though I have also seen instances where a reboot from a system with a working AltGr key led to a system with a non-working AltGr key).

It also does not make a difference whether I use the Windows 10 screen keyboard or the hardware keyboard. In the case of the On-screen keyboard, pressing the AltGr key correctly displays the characters on those keys that have one assigned to them (in combination with AltGr), but despite this, tapping one of those keys does not produce the displayed character.

GabrieleMartini
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Christoph
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    Does it help pressing one of the following key combinations: left alt+space, alt+shift or ctrl+shift? These are keyboard shortcuts for changing between langage and/or layout and may be the cause of your problem. Yes, I read that changing keyboard layout doesn't fix it, still please test this. – LPChip Nov 23 '16 at 22:00
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    I have long turned off those language changing shortcuts (they were driving me nuts). So: no, pressing these key combination does not help. – Christoph Nov 24 '16 at 01:50
  • In my case, it was the Virtual Desktop Manager program. It started working when I closed it. – Cagil Seker Jan 16 '21 at 12:39

7 Answers7

326

The issue happens when you open a RDP connection. Just bring the RDP window in foreground and press Alt+Enter.

The issue will disappear on all other windows too

Source: How to Fix Alt Gr Key Not Working.

kenorb
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nergeia
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    This should be the accepted answer! Been looking for a solution for this weird problem for ages. Until now I had to close an reopen my RDP sessions. Thanks for this Alt+Enter finding! – MemphiZ Jan 19 '18 at 10:49
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    My AltGr-key is gone after sleep if I had a RDP-session on when I closed the lid. To get the AltGr back, all I had to do is open the RDP-session and tap AltGr there. Then it stats working on my Windows-side too. Really weird bug. – Jari Turkia May 22 '18 at 08:01
  • Works perfectly. In my case, it was one of many RDP Windows, trying them one at a time worked in the end :) – Calciol Oct 10 '18 at 07:13
  • Yes, I had to go to each RDP window in turn, press altgr there, and it suddenly worked in windows. How odd. – wcndave Jan 28 '19 at 16:38
  • In my case could not find a window, therefore I killed something looking like RDP in the task manager. Maybe not a recommandable procedure but luckily it helped me. – grenix Feb 21 '19 at 10:06
  • What helped me was running c:\windows\system32\ctfmon.exe Alt gr worked in devenv.exe (visual studio) but not in Linqpad and Notepad. This program is responsible for alternative input and OfficeLanguage Toolbar. The tip was found here: https://windowsreport.com/altgr-stopped-working-windows-10/ – Tore Aurstad Jan 10 '20 at 22:48
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    why ... what the ....works perfectly, thanks! Did not even have a full remote session but a published app. – klaas Mar 20 '20 at 11:44
  • I did not need to switch the fullscreen status of the RDP window. I think just focus/unfocus using Alt+Tab helped. (Not sure if I pressed AltGr when the window was focused.) Is Microsoft trying to fix this long-standing bug? – pabouk - Ukraine stay strong Jan 11 '21 at 21:45
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    just swallowed water on my dektop and thought my keyboard was wrecked, luckily it was just the RDP window which was screwed – wutzebaer Apr 23 '21 at 17:16
  • Altgr was stolen by an XRDP windows in my RDP window – Kiruahxh Jul 06 '21 at 12:19
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    For me a solution was simply to minimize the RDP client window. After this I returned back to the text editor and "AltGr" button started working again. – Mariano Paniga Nov 22 '21 at 15:36
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    why is this not being fixed by Microsoft?? It also affects the clipboard when you want to copy paste from the RDP window. – sofsntp Dec 07 '21 at 12:04
  • What is an RDP window?? – Maxter Dec 12 '22 at 19:17
  • @Maxter The "RDP window" is just the remote machine – nergeia Dec 14 '22 at 10:53
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    I know that the thread is old but I just realized that the problem also occurs when using a Windows Sandbox, which might be sort of an RDP connection – laloune Jan 04 '23 at 11:08
40

In my case left Shift+Caps Lock+AltGr helped. I have no idea what it does, but it works.

nKn
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Qba
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4

Some utility programs can also "steal" the keyboard stroks.

In my case it appeared that the VirtualDesktopManager resulted in non-functional AltGr, so I could not write [ and ].

EquipDev
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  • Thanks mate... my host did not respond to AltGr until I saw that a virtual Win10 in HyperV demanded input. After dealing with the virtual environments request the AltGr on host was working. – user3114702 Feb 18 '21 at 21:29
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It turns out that, in my case, the reason for this was wincompose, a program that I had uninstalled but for unknown reasons that uninstall partially failed so that the core of the program was still running in the background and interpreting some of my AltGr keyboard inputs as shortcuts (without any function).

This question has been extremely popular over the past few months, which means that many people are facing similar issues. Most likely, this will not be the solution for them, but I hope that more answers will eventually come up so that everyone finds a solution.

Christoph
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It might seem silly but in my case I had accidentally switched keyboard locale from "German" to "US" and nothing was working as expected.

Herbi Shtini
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  • I have set up 2 keyboards: ES and US. I was using the US keyboard which doesn't have the '[' key in the same place so I thought the key stopped working. – Adrian Apr 29 '21 at 14:47
  • This may happen when pressing Alt+Shift accidentally. This toggles between configured keyboard layouts. – gehho Mar 11 '22 at 13:30
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On my black widow keyboard I solved this by turning off the macro button for AltGr+Fn.

I say Reinstate Monica
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Thomas
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In my case i solved it by noticing the problem fast after the problem was installed wich in this case was fortnite stealing the keybind for ALT (left&right)

unknown caller
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