'Sticky' keyboard keys in Windows 7 (Fusion 8.5.10 on MacOS 10.13)

[cs2017]

This is a really strange one.

I am running Win 7 Pro as a virtual machine under Fusion 8.5.10.  Since updating my iMac to MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra), I am often seeing weird keyboard behaviour where some keys appear to temporarily 'stick'.  It seems to mainly affect the Ctrl, Cmd and Alt keys, and frantic pressing of these keys will usually unstick them.  I suspected the keyboard, but that is working fine in all other MacOS apps.  The issue is mainly apparent when using CAD software, since that uses these keys quite a lot.

I have tried re-installing Fusion, and VMWare Tools, and I have also checked that the keyboard driver in Windows is up to date.  I cannot upgrade to any later versions of either Fusion or MacOS because my iMac is quite old (2010 iMac).  I did try using Win 10, but that was just too slow to be usable.

Any ideas?

[wila]

Hi,

There's a mega thread here:

Re: High Sierra and Fusion "stuck" keys

which -besides other people having the same problem- might have some ideas you can try.

FWIW, I have personally never experienced this issue.

But to be fair I skipped High Sierra and am now on Mojave with Fusion 11.

--

Wil

[cs2017]

Hi Wil,

OK thanks.  I looked right through the thread, but there doesn't seem to be a solution.

Upgrading to Mojave and Fusion 11 isn't an option for me because my iMac does not support either. (My machine is 2010 iMac, Core2 Duo).

Some suggested switching to Parallels, and I did try that a couple of years ago, but it had an equally annoying bug.  When viewing an open window in Windows Explorer in List View, the mouse wheel caused huge jumps in the view when scrolling.  It did this regardless of the mouse settings.  Parallels refused to fix it.

Before using Fusion, I used Virtualbox, but that also had an annoying bug, which resulted in extremely slow graphics when dragging a window.  By 'extremely' I mean up to 10 secs to move a window across the screen!  I found the Virtualbox support to be atrociously bad.  They are appallingly rude and arrogant.

Chris.

[wila]

Hi,

I believe that all products have their shortcomings, it is just the nature of the beast.

Re. solution that I remembered that was in the thread - without rereading it all, as I'm afraid I don't have the time.

There where participants that had contacted VMware support which had reset their keyboard settings and profiles.

Eg. in the menu: Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Keyboard & mouse ->

Select a windows profile .. try restoring defaults...

Sorry can't remember the exact details, but try switching keyboard profiles. Perhaps create a new profile.

--

Wil

[cs2017]

Hi Wil,

I tried the 'Restore defaults' in the keyboard & mouse settings, as you suggested.

I also tried the registry hack on Page 7, Post 98 of that mega-thread.

So far, the combination of those two things seems to have worked.  I've not had any sticking keys since.

Chris.

[wila]

Hi,

Keeping my fingers crossed and hope it keeps on working.

Sticky keys are incredibly annoying.

--

Wil

[cs2017]

Hi Wil,

I've just spent the last 3 hours using some PCB design software on Win7/Fusion, and it has performed flawlessly, with not a single stuck key.  This software requires repeated use of the Ctrl, Shift and Alt keys, so it was a good test.  So far, so good.

Chris.