Tab key not working after installing VMWare Workstation 8

[ahmd9]

Just curious how to fix this issue. I just installed VMWare Workstation 8 and even after the program is closed the tab keyboard key doesn't work as it used to before. What happens, say, I'm typing a text in Notepad and hit tab key on the keyboard, so instead of adding the tab the Notepad app loses focus. This is absolutely tied in to VMWare Workstation, because I just installed it and the tab key worked before it.

Can someone suggest how to fix this?

[AM1959]

I just had the same tab key problem while running VMware 8.0.2 build-591240, in the background on my Windows box running Win7 x64) in Word 2010, Excel 2010 and in Firefox.  Hitting the tab key seemed to kick the active cursor out of the program (eg, the window running Excel was not the active window, the desktop was).

I do not have the enhanced keyboard driver installed, as determined by the method suggested above.  (General Settings - Enhanced Virtual Keyboard Driver - Off, and a message below it says "The VMware keyboard driver is not installed on the host.")  I shut down the virtual machine I was running (Windows 8 public pre-release) and quit VMWare.  The problem still persisted, even after quitting and restarting Word, Excel, and Firefox.  I opened the Task manager, and the only VMware process running was vmware-tray.  I force ended the process, opened Word, Excel, and Firefox and the tab key functioned normally.  No computer reboot needed.

I tried to replicate by quitting Word, etc, starting VMware, and launching the virtual machine and then starting up Word, etc on in Win 7 on the computer, but the tab key functioned normally.

Hope this is helpful.  VMware folks, let me know if you want me to try anything to help troubleshoot.

[admin]

Interesting.  It's nice to (finally) have some confirmation that the keyboard driver isn't the culprit.  I would not have expected the vmware-tray.exe to have been involved at all, though, and I'm still mystified how it could cause this to happen since it doesn't have any code to handle keys.

[vicrivera]

Hello - first let me applaud the patience of the VMware engineers for having repeatedly asked the same question over and over with most people having not answered yet feeling entitled to get more and more upset.  For those folks (earlier in this thread) the question was whether or not the enhanced keyboard driver was installed.  The way to determine this is easy:

From within Workstation 8, go to the VM menu > Settings > click on the Options tab > look at the bottom right of the window for the indication as shown in the following image.  If you do not see this image then the driver is installed and could be causing a conflict:

That being said, I am having the same issue of the tab key losing focus from the current window and I have in fact verified that the driver is not installed as shown in the screen shot attachment.   The workaround of pressing Windows+Tab several times did not work for me, however, I think I did find the resolution - at least in my situaiton:

The Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel has a Hot Key Manager and is enabled by default.  I found that after disabling those hotkeys as shown in the image below, the Tab issue went away.  I don't think it's a mere coincidence that so many VMware Workstation users are having the same issue though so based on a recent post about the vmtools tray icon, I'm guessing that there is a conflict between the way VMware Tools and the Intel Control Panel both monitor the ALT key for hotkey combinations, since the underlying issue wasn't really with the Tab key itself.  The reason I say this is because having the Tab key switch focus is really the result of pressing ALT+Tab and the Intel hotkeys have a similar issue - when I pressed CTRL+right arrow within a document  (to go to the end of a word) it was switching the orientation of the entire display to be portrait instead of landscape  (a hotkey of CTRL+ALT+Right Arrow within the Intel Utility).   It's really as if the ALT key is stuck somehow.

[cogaritis]

I've been reading up on this issue for about an hour now and I came across your (ahmd9) post.  It's quite appaling.

This doesn't appear to be an isolated issue with VMWare.  What finally fixed it for me was pressing Windows + Tab until I cycled through the open applications at least once.

This also can occur with a "stuck" alt or ctrl key, but tapping those once or twice will fix that issue.  Sticky keys can have an effect on it too.  However, it appears that you already know all of this.  :smileysilly:

VMWare Team - I have had nothing but great success with your software.  Even Linux installations are quick and painless, and that's saying something.  Thanks for all of your hard work.

[0WayneH0]

Throwing this into the mix. Sorry, but it's mainly anecodotal.

I have seen, with Windows x64 hosts, something that may be the same, or if not the same, very similar. The symptom is that certain keys on the keyboard start behaving strangely. Usually the test that something weird is going on is to open Notepad and start typing. Instead of getting what you typed you'll end up with maybe some letters in Notepad, but mainly with windows changing focus and others opening.

The work around I have used for this is to hit CAPS - SHIFT - CTRL - WINDOWS - ALT - WINDOWS - CTRL - SHIFT - CAPS (basically follow an L shape (and back again) on the bottom left corner of my keyboard. It's easy enough to do and it always results in the issue going away. I figure that since people talk about a modified TAB behavior that it essentially boils down to a modifier key getting stuck (or virtually stuck).

I never really thought that the issue would be related to VMware (I had pegged M$ for it), but as far as I can recall it has only happened on machines with VMware installed and only on specific machines so far. The weirdest part of this anecdote is that it still currently happens on a machine that it used to happen on, but since the original times that machine has had its hard disks removed and replaced with different ones, new keyboard and full re-install of the host OS, yet the problem still happens on that machine just as it did before the rebuild. That could imply some kind of hardware/driver issue on the host, perhaps.

On the machine I am currently using (a new system, just a month old) I have not yet run into the issue and it is using the keyboard that the previous machine used (where the problem occurred), so again, it for now at least, it takes the keyboard itself out of the equation.

No virtual keyboard driver here (any machine).

Overall this problem, for me at least, doesn't happen very often and it's easy to spot and work around and thus not a reason for me to even remotely consider removing VMware, but since I spotted this thread I figured I'd chime in with my experiences.

ps/ Along the same lines as cogaritis, I'm also having great success with VMware (8.0.1); it's embedded in my psyche. I can't live without it now.

[RagingOtter]

I have been able to reproduce the problem consistently.  Here is my setup:

Host: Windows 7 Enterprise v6.1 Build 7601: Service Pack 1

VMware Workstation 8.0.3 build-703057

To keep it as simple as possible.  If I press ctl+alt+delete while my focus is with-in any VM (this even happened when I did it inside of the vMA appliance) obviously my Host Win7 screen goes to the lock menu, then I press ESC and curse myself for not pressing ctl+alt+ins ... the problem happens.  Following that with focus back on my Host whatever I do on the keyboard it’s like the windows key on my host machine is pressed down at all times and if I press any other single key that works as a hot key in combination with the windows key that particular hot key function occurs.  I found this out when I started pressing the down arrow a bunch of times looking through a note and the screen flipped on me and refreshed over and over and over ...

I hope that helps you guys to narrow down the issue.  Good luck hunting

O ya if I press alt+tab from the host then I'm all good and the "lock" on the windows key is removed.

[kbender7980]

This has happened to our tech support department several times. I work as IT for a company and recentrly implemented VM as a solution for VPNs that cause a disconnection to our network. I have only seen this on 32-bit Host and 32-bit Guest. I have not seen any issues on our 64-bit OS's.

The fix proposed by Raging Otter. Specifically hitting the alt key freed it up. Instead of losing focus, it was if the ALT Key was being held down. I have also had a couple time where it would lose focus. By running the "L" it worked.

Thanks and hope this helps come up with some sort of patch.

[JosiahBecker]

Hi, I'm having this issue right now at my organization and we have also created a ticket with VMware about this. We don't have the Intel application install, or the keyboard driver. We are using Windows 7 x64 Host OS, and Windows 64bit guest OS.This is happening for 3 different people with similar configurations. Thanks!

[sshetty]

In relation to this perticular scenerio we have been able to reproduce the issue internally and here is want is found to be the cause per engineering.

* Pressing Ctrl+Alt+del makes the host switch to the secure desktop.
* The Esc key-down event goes to the host and it switches back to the regular desktop.
* The MKS is still grabbed, so the Esc key-up event goes to the VM.

So the host still thinks that Esc is pressed.

Pressing Esc cancels drag operations.

If you press 'Esc' again while the VM out of focus or by ungrabbing the mouse from Vm using Alt+Ctrl, drag/drop works again.

While steps are taken to get a soultion permanetly, this step should easily resolve the situation, without having to restart.

[mm22]

the ctrl in my guest vitual machines is sometimes stuck like your tab.

I reinstalled the vmware workstation 8 without the keyboard dirver on and reboot my host (Win 7 64bits). Everything is fine now.

the suggestion works! thanks.

[mm22]

i found the problem is still there after using the guest machine for a while.

the difference is: previous the ctrl got stuck very often but now the ctrl got stuck not that often.