Tangled up in Sticky Keys? Get untangled.

 By Lee Brannon

 Revised - re-posted 1/31/09

If you have ever found your keyboard acting strangely or seemingly locked into some strange series of bizarre keystrokes chances are that you have tuned on one of the Accessibility Options by accident.

These options are available in Windows XP and they can be useful, but if you have a bad habit it can be a constant pain. By Bad habit I am referring to my own bad habit of resting a pinky on the Shift key. When I forget and fall into this habit I almost always end up in stuck in Filter key land.

(The screen below shows an explanation of what StickyKeys, Filterkeys and ToggleKeys are used for.)

So, when this happens how can you turn it off?

Option 1: Reboot.

Option 2: Go into the Accessibility Options and turn them off.

What if it happens repeatedly because you have a habit like mine of resting a finger on the Shift key?

Turn the key press shortcuts off.

1. Click on the Start Button.

2. Select the Control Panel option.

3. Double – Click the Accessibility Options ICON.

4. You will get the following screen with options for using or not using StickyKeys, FilterKeys, and ToggleKeys.

5. Selecting the Settings button next to one of these gets you the options screen for that particular Accessibility option.

6. Now just uncheck the Use Shortcut option and click the OK button.

Your sticky keys issue is now gone.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.