Robert in CA wrote:
I took the 780 back to 12-1-20 for the restore and disconnected
the Internet connection as you advised. I have the keyboard back
(whew!) but the backspace key still does not function?

https://postimg.cc/tZr5FB9v

https://postimg.cc/RWrT16zm

I had to sign on again with the free version of Avast and did a update
for FF from version 83. to 88. also Macrium had an update and installed
Malwarebytes. I've changed the boot menu three times now and it still
returns to the messed up WBM. At this point I'm not going to restore the
8500 backwards because it hasn't fixed the backspacing key function on
the 780.

I'm thinking even though we tried the other keyboard it may be suspect and
I would still like to get a new keyboard as backup in any case since they are
becoming hard to get but I hadn't expected them to cost so much!

This is my present keyboard:

https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-nat...8643-_-Product

but I also saw this for $52.99

https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-lxm...-400-_-Product

why the big difference in price?

Thoughts/suggestions,
Robert


The review over on the right for the lxm-00001 points out
some of the issues with it. It uses stickers on top of the keys.

The 4000 keyboard appears to be out of production and the
MSRP is $50 or so. The company that is selling those, likely
cleared out the factory that is making them.

There are certainly manufacturers who make better keys, ones that
don't wear off as quickly.

*******

Deleting this key, causes all hardware drivers to be reinstalled.
I've tested this on Windows 10 and it still works. I used the
Kaspersky rescue CD I had, which has a Registry Editor. Their
Registry Editor can edit "system" registries but not the "user"
registry. You would delete the ENUM key using their registry
editor, then reboot and watch as Windows rediscovers all the hardware.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\

That option is reserved for times when you suspect there is
something wrong in ENUM, but don't want to spend hours searching.
Using Kaspersky Registry Editor, is to make the permissions issue "easy".

*******

This article, mentions that keys can be remapped. The SharpKeys
application, displays the current remappings present. The
WindowsReport site shows a picture of what the SharpKeys
program screen looks like. You would be looking to see
if the Backspace key is remapped to nothing. That would be
the basic idea. I don't see a "nothing" option in the
interface though - I don't know how you just disable
a key. It would be naive to think this is how it was done.

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...e-wrong-result

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Keyboard Layout

https://windowsreport.com/software/sharpkeys/

*******

It could be that you have Microsoft Intellitype installed.
Maybe in an attempt to get some multimedia keys working.
Check Control Panels, Programs and Features, and see
if it is installed. If so, check and see if it has a
Repair option.

*******

And this article, isn't a solution as such. It's an example
of the analysis of a keylogger. It uses a BHO (browser helper object)
to log activity while Internet Explorer is used. And it registers
a COM object for some other activities.

https://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-...-analysis.aspx

A helper in one of the Microsoft forums, suggests

tasklist /m bpkwb.dll

as a means of detecting which programs are injected
with the keylogger DLL file.

Now, the reason I threw that in, is to show that there
are lots of ways for individuals to interfere with keyboards,
and I don't really have a good model of all of them, and
a nice laundry list of things to check. In the above
example, that "check" only makes sense if you know
you're infected with that particular one. Malware
doesn't all go by the name "bpkwb.dll" for example.

And this is why it's hard to come up with a strategy
to detect where the interference is happening. It
could be a filter driver, perhaps using Device Manager
you could display whether there is a filter in the
keyboard item.

If the backspace key disappeared on my machine, I
would have trouble diagnosing this with it sitting
right in front of me.

Paul