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I have a computer mouse that has extra buttons. I attached the shortcuts Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab to these mouse buttons. I have also done this with gestures on my laptop's touchpad. I use these combinations a lot and they are very useful.

Every now and then when I use these buttons/gestures a lot, at some point my computer enters an abnormal state characterized by two problems:

  1. Changing tabs with the above shortcuts ceases to work, on any browser or IDE (e.g. Visual Studio Code). Instead it behaves as if singular Tab command was detected. Important to note is that Ctrl, Shift and Tab all work fine in isolation in this state. It is only the combination of them that does not produce the results it should.

  2. Modifier keys tend to get stuck (as in sticky keys) if Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab are pressed (when the PC is in this abnormal state). It is always either Shift or Ctrl getting stuck. This happens even when sticky keys is disabled in windows accessibility settings. I can turn the sticky keys off again by pressing the stuck key multiple times, but once my PC is in this abnormal state (identified most easily by problem 1 above) it is only a question of time before Ctrl and Shift get stuck again. When the PC is not in this abnormal state, the modifier keys never get stuck.

This issue has persisted for years, and it pops up every now and then. Looked for solutions multiple times, could not find any. The only solution that I know to get out of this abnormal state is to restart the computer. However that is annoying for obvious reasons so I'm looking for a fix that is quicker and less invasive.

What I've tried:

The laptop is an HP Zbook G5, Windows 11.

Any help much appreciated, very annoying problem!

Jackdaw
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Daan
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    I'd suspect whatever software is controlling the additional mouse/key commands. I have a Logitec which periodically exhibits similar behaviour. Launching the actual control app rather than just its background process tends to fix it. – Tetsujin Jul 03 '23 at 14:13
  • Hi @Tetsujin, what do you mean with "Launching the actual control app rather than just its background process tends to fix it"? What control app should I be launching if a gesture from my touchpad puts my PC into an abnormal state? Thanks – Daan Jul 03 '23 at 14:42
  • Whatever app you use to change the settings – Tetsujin Jul 03 '23 at 15:00
  • What is the mouse model and what is the software where you assign actions for additional buttons? – miroxlav Jul 03 '23 at 23:42
  • The software I use to assign Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab for mousepad gestures is Windows System > Bluetooth & devices > touchpad > advanced gestures (four finger gesture - custom shortcut -> start/stop recording). For the mouse buttons it is "Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center". The mouse is a Microsoft Precision Mouse. Note: the abnormal state can occur either as a result of the mouse buttons, or as a result of the gestures. – Daan Jul 04 '23 at 07:17
  • Thank you. So you say that in *mouse pad* customization, you only create Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab key combination. In *mouse buttons* customization, do you also create only Ctrl+Tab/Ctrl+Shift+Tab key combination or you have defined some different action? – miroxlav Jul 04 '23 at 20:28
  • For the mouse, I also have a middle button (not to be confused with the scrolling/wheel button) and for that one I assigned Ctrl+W to be able to close tabs. As for the mouse pad, I have a bunch of other gestures with actions assigned to them, but those are all standard actions (e.g. volume up/down, switch apps, show desktop etc.) and not custom shortcuts/actions. – Daan Jul 05 '23 at 08:17
  • OK. I wanted to know something else, but anyway... Are you able to uninstall all the mouse and keyboard handling software and try sending all these shortcuts with [AutoHotKey](https://www.autohotkey.com) instead? The solution then will be easy-to-understand: if your computer stops having problems, then your original software was a problem. If your problems persist, then the source of the problem is in a 3rd-party app, which can be analyzed later. I personally use 50+ keyboard and mouse shourtcuts, managing them all using the AutoHotKey, without "Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center" installed. – miroxlav Jul 07 '23 at 17:11
  • When responding, please use @miroxlav in your comment, otherwise I may not be notified about your new post for me. Only the original poster and author of the answer gets automatically notified – all others must be mentioned explicitly by at-sign. – miroxlav Jul 07 '23 at 17:14
  • okay thanks @miroxlav, I will give that a try and notify you when I"ve done that! – Daan Jul 09 '23 at 14:25

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