Forum Discussion
US International keyboard with dead keys not working
Hi, I'm a big fan of the US International keyboard since Windows 7. As you know, the US International keyboard layout uses specific keys (like ') as "dead keys" to create accented characters by pressing the symbol followed by a letter (e.g., '+e=é). This keyboard is available and works fine on Windows 11.
However, for one of my Windows 11 PC, the dead keys are no longer dead, meaning that when pressed once, the corresponding symbol is typed twice (e.g. ' pressed once results in '').
To diagnose the problem, I restarted the PC in safe mode and confirmed that the US International keyboard works as expected.
Then I ran "sfc /scannow" and "Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" to make sure all windows components are ok.
Then I used "msconfig" to play with the services and startup items. After many restart with different startup configurations, I found that when the service "DNS Client" is disabled at startup, the US International keyboard works as expected.
I don't think the "DNS Client" directly affects the keyboard configuration, but being disabled at startup probably prevents another task to affect the keyboard, but which one?
Also, during my different tests, I noticed that if I quickly log in and open notepad, the US International keyboard works fine for the first few characters typed. So, during the startup sequence, a task dependant on "DNS Client" runs and change the US International keyboard layout.
How can I monitor/log the sequence of tasks during startup?
Hello, it turns out that my PC was infected with a malware.
As I said, just after the startup sequence, if I quickly log in and open notepad, the US International keyboard works fine for the first few characters typed. So, I checked the Task Scheduler and found three unknown processes being started after logon: "CrashReporter.exe" in the "Internet Explorer" folder, "One Browser" update process and a suspicious "Rar64.exe" process. After disabling all three, the US International keyboard works as expected.
So, I cleaned up everything and my PC is back to normal.
Issue fixed and closed.
1 Reply
Hello, it turns out that my PC was infected with a malware.
As I said, just after the startup sequence, if I quickly log in and open notepad, the US International keyboard works fine for the first few characters typed. So, I checked the Task Scheduler and found three unknown processes being started after logon: "CrashReporter.exe" in the "Internet Explorer" folder, "One Browser" update process and a suspicious "Rar64.exe" process. After disabling all three, the US International keyboard works as expected.
So, I cleaned up everything and my PC is back to normal.
Issue fixed and closed.