Problems with CTRL-A / Select all

[thklinge]

I've been running RTM for a week now and suddenly CTRL-A stopped working. Pressing it does absolutely nothing. Also, if I right-click in a folder, there is no "select all" option in the folder. Now how the hell am I supposed to copy all files in a directory? I cant select files individually with ctrl either, nor select one file, hold shift, select the last file to select all. And yes, I've tested the keyboard. It works in XP.

Wtf is going on here?

Did some more experimenting. Selecting "Classical folders" didn't work either. It gave me the old file, edit, view, tools, help menu, but the "Edit -> Select All" option is grayed out..

[Spooky]

Hmmmm...odd.

Just guessing right off; If you hit the ALT key does the file, edit, view, tools, help appear in the menu bar? Did you re-map some keys some way or another in Vista or its it just a generic standard 101 key keyboard? It was working OK and then just stopped working? What changes have you made, what have you added for software, what files have you modified (if any) and what registry changes (if any) have you made? A reboot? Did you remove the keyboard from Vista in the devman and the re-boot and let it be re-detected? Any detections from anti-virus or trojan software (i've heard a couple of reports that some older key-loggers will mess with the keyboard in Vista, don't know about this myself). Does this keyboard need, or did you install or change, any software from the manufacturer? Is the keyboard supported in Vista with in-box drivers or did you need to install drivers from the manufacturer and are those drivers Visa drivers? Did you some way disable that functionality (yes there is a way to do it)? Could be lots of things.

I've been running RTM for a week now and suddenly CTRL-A stopped working. Pressing it does absolutely nothing. Also, if I right-click in a folder, there is no "select all" option in the folder. Now how the hell am I supposed to copy all files in a directory? I cant select files individually with ctrl either, nor select one file, hold shift, select the last file to select all. And yes, I've tested the keyboard. It works in XP.

Wtf is going on here?

Did some more experimenting. Selecting "Classical folders" didn't work either. It gave me the old file, edit, view, tools, help menu, but the "Edit -> Select All" option is grayed out..

Edited January 9, 2007 by Spooky

[thklinge]

The keyboard is a Microsoft Comfort Keboard 4000 with the original, Vista compatible, Microsoft driver and Intellipoint software installed.

I doubt this is driver related, as this method of selecting items (ctrl-a, hold ctrl for individual selects, hold shift for sequential selects, and so forth) works in other programs, for instance for selecting emails in Opera. That also eliminates trojans and keyloggers.

This issue is restricted to Windows Explorer only, as far as I know. And I'm pretty sure it worked when the install was new. Haven't installed anything that I suspect could cause this error, the only one would be ffdshow, related to thumbs in Explorer.

Oh, and the file-edit-> menu appears when I press ALT.

Edited January 9, 2007 by thklinge

[Spooky]

Yeah, I didn't think it would be a trojan or key logger really either.

ffdshow...hmmm, i've heard of some odd problems with this but nothing to do with key board, and besides if it was it's sort of doesn't make sense that it would only pick explorer to do it in.

Really kind of odd, just that key combination and then only in explorer, hmmmm. I don't remember any setting in explorer that affects keyboards.

Did you do any reg tweaks of any sort....any changes to the registry?

Try removing the keyboard in devman, reboot, and let it be re-detected. Also, try being logged in as the administrator and see if it works. Did you make any changes in gpedit.msc (there used to be, not sure if it still exists as I haven't checked, something in gpedit.msc that could be used to affect certain key combos)

It's just really is odd and really doesn't seem like any sort of hardware issue, maybe software, or some quirkiness in Vista. Haven't ever heard of it happening tho.

The keyboard is a Microsoft Comfort Keboard 4000 with the original, Vista compatible, Microsoft driver and Intellipoint software installed.

I doubt this is driver related, as this method of selecting items (ctrl-a, hold ctrl for individual selects, hold shift for sequential selects, and so forth) works in other programs, for instance for selecting emails in Opera. That also eliminates trojans and keyloggers.

This issue is restricted to Windows Explorer only, as far as I know. And I'm pretty sure it worked when the install was new. Haven't installed anything that I suspect could cause this error, the only one would be ffdshow, related to thumbs in Explorer.

Oh, and the file-edit-> menu appears when I press ALT.

Edited January 9, 2007 by Spooky

[thklinge]

Seems I'm not the only one, found two forumhits with google:

Microsoft TechNet Forums

Lockergnome.com Forums

The people solve their ctrl-a problems by going through diffrent types of folders and reset folder options in most of them. They have no clue to what folders create the problems. Also, the strange thing is that I haven't customized them at all. All I've done in Explorer is copy/move, haven't gotten around to the specific settings yet.

Will give reset folder options a try later and let you guys know.. Also, I'll try to be a bit more specific about it and try to narrow the problem down. Those two forums weren't much help.

[Spooky]

Read your links, that is a really stange thing. I customize my folders all the time, sometimes several times a day depending on what i'm doing and i've never encountered this. Couldn't be too wide spread though because if it was people would be posting all over the net about it.

Yes, by all means let us know how it works out for you...and post a few clearn instructions also on how to solve the problem.

Thanks

Seems I'm not the only one, found two forumhits with google:

Microsoft TechNet Forums

Lockergnome.com Forums

The people solve their ctrl-a problems by going through diffrent types of folders and reset folder options in most of them. They have no clue to what folders create the problems. Also, the strange thing is that I haven't customized them at all. All I've done in Explorer is copy/move, haven't gotten around to the specific settings yet.

Will give reset folder options a try later and let you guys know.. Also, I'll try to be a bit more specific about it and try to narrow the problem down. Those two forums weren't much help.

[thklinge]

Tried rebooting first and voilà! My ctrl-a shortcut is back and I can now properly select files in Explorer. Strange bug... Will try some more testing if it reappears.

[thklinge]

Update:

Same problem today, couldn't select multiple files. Tried rebooting, didn't work. I still supect that this relates to preview of files and creation of thumbs so I uninstalled ffdshow and reinstalled the version from this site: Software compatible with Vista RC2. All I did was uninstall and reinstall this version and now selection works as it should.

[Spooky]

Hmmm...thats really odd. ffdshow had a few problems in the beta versions but nothing I remember like you described. The lastest K-Lite package had a version of ffdshow that works fine in the RTM but had some problems in RC 2 for people still running RC2.

The only way your ever going to be sure if its Vista or the ffdshow is to re-install the version of ffdshow you had several times and duplicate the problem with each install. Other then that you will never really know if you have a problem somewhere else thats going to get you later.

Update:

Same problem today, couldn't select multiple files. Tried rebooting, didn't work. I still supect that this relates to preview of files and creation of thumbs so I uninstalled ffdshow and reinstalled the version from this site: Software compatible with Vista RC2. All I did was uninstall and reinstall this version and now selection works as it should.