This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Hello,
I am using a Surface Pro with Type Cover.
When I am selecting multiple items e.g. in Outlook or Windows Explorer I apparently hold down the Ctrl-key and left-click the items with my mouse.
When I select many items it takes certainly a while to select -- if that time span is let's say 10 seconds (may be it's just 5 sec) then my CTRL key locks, meaning, I do not have to hold it down in order to select multiple items. Problem is that you e.g. can't even hit the Windows button on the keyboard and not even the hardware Windows button on the Surface. If your machine falls into Sleep mode you cannot type the password any more. You have to reboot.
It took a while to find out that the Ctrl key was the trouble maker -- then after identifying it as such I tried to unlock it by hitting it 1 more time which works.
So, that is a remedy, however, if you do not notice that the Ctrl key gets locked then your machine also slows down, even the Task Manager (e.g. Performance tab) doesn't update any more. That looks like an overload -- may be because Thousands of 'key down' messages are processed, even if the key is not pushed any more? Just a speculation.
One more thing: the Ctrl key gets only locked when I make the selections with the mouse -- if I select them with the Surface Pen the Ctrl key gets NOT locked.
BTW, I tried two mice: bluetooth and wi-fi -- both deliver the same result, it doesn't matter.
Anyway, I am not aware that something like a 'sticky key' would exist for the Ctrl key? Does it? At least I have not turned on or seen such access feature activated. Also, no, my keyboard is not filled with crumbs. And it is unlikely that it would lock when I use the mouse but not if I use the Pen...
And the Ctrl Lock-down seems wrong -- is it?
Type cover bug? or am I unaware of the 'sticky key' feature?
Frank
The Surface family includes Surface Pro, Surface Laptop, and other Surface products. Surface is designed to help organizations, students, and consumers be more productive.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Greetings all,
New update: 5/21/14
We are still investigating this issue and hope to make progress soon.
Just a quick update (2/10/14).
We are actively investigating this issue and will work on a resolution to ensure our customers have the best possible experience on their Surface devices.
I have Windows 8.1 on a desktop with a Microsoft Sculpt wireless keyboard. I've been working on configuring ArtRage 4 for painting and ran into an issue after using the app that the Alt key would be held down everywhere else. I use Alt to eye drop colors in the painting I'm working on. I have been trying to reproduce the issue with CTRL, ALT, and Shift... They all do it with the sculpt keyboard and my wacom intuos 5 with wireless adapter.
I think I figured out why though (I'll get to my theory further down)....
So I went on my wifes Windows 7 laptop where the keyboard is listed as a ps2 keyboard (all wired in its really the laptops keyboard and its a 3rd gen i7) anyway, I was going to steal the driver its using if it was't repeating the same problem. Long story short, her computer is not doing the same thing. One of the responses in here was that if you hold any character key like say 's' in notepad, it would eventually stop outputting s. This does not happen on her laptop. I can not get it to repeat any of my 'sticky' key issues that I'm experiencing with the sculpt keyboard on windows 8.1.
Upon holding down 's' on my wireless sculpt keyboard on my desktop it stops repeating the 's' after 5-8 seconds, and that got me thinking...
I believe the actual hardware keyboards are the issue or at least the firmware of them. Its probably to conserve battery if someone accidentally leaves something sitting on top of the keyboard after walking away or leaves it upside down or something. I think the keyboard itself just turns off the 'stream' after a timeout from when a key is first pressed or more specifically from the 'key down' event. This timer is probably reset every time you hit a new key (keydown). I think with the way ctrl,shift/alt works, if the keyboard stops the stream of input while its held down (say 5-8 seconds) the ctrl/shift/alt - UP signal is not sent and the computer thinks that you are still holding down ctrl/shift/alt until you toggle the key again.
Continuing my troubleshooting, I've now plugged in the same keyboard in xp and windows 7 and the issues are not present. I was hoping to borrow the inf's to install the same drivers, although I think only setting it on the keyboard itself is not helping. I've tried installing a logitech driver and picking a random logitech wired keyboard from the list and that has seemed to work. I'm sorry I can't lay out the steps right this moment because while I was messing around it didn't work until I plugged the receiver into a different usb port and upon using the keyboard it works with no issue now!
If it happens again I will try to figure out how to fix the issue step by step but for now you guys might want to start messing with whatever driver the keyboard is using unless there is special functionality needed on your particular keyboard.
Orlando,
You do not need to reboot the computer, but press the SHift or Ctrl key again to unlock it.
This helped occasionally when the problem first appeared more than a year ago; normally, restarting explorer.exe or rebooting was necessary.
The last week or so, only a physical reboot of the PC will work.
(It might be Sleep-, YouTube video-, Numlock-, or extra-keyboards-in-Device-Manager-related.)
Same problem here after all the Feb updates (Surface Pro 1 - 128GB)
Problem returned here recently, too.
Greetings all,
Just a quick update (2/10/14).
We are actively investigating this issue and will work on a resolution to ensure our customers have the best possible experience on their Surface devices.
Hi Steven,
as this answer is almost 4 months old, I would like to know if there is a fix to the modifier keys (ctrl, shift, alt) sticking on the Surface Pro 2 after a couple of seconds pressed.
I have the latest February 2014 firmware update and yet the modifier keys get stuck even if STICKY KEYS are disabled on the keyboard configuration.
Is the problem with Windows, the Surface or the Type Cover 2?
Thanks!
Emilio
HTPC with Logitech diNovo Edge and Windows 8/8.1 also.