Keys defined improperly for winXP

[mikea454]

So I didn't see any info on this anywhere, hopefully I didn't miss it. So my parents are a bit computer illiterate and somehow manage to break their computer all the time. Usually I can fix no prob but this one Im stumped on. I went through every option menu I could find and nothing:

Both Ctrl keys don't function properly. When in Word for instance the left ctrl key minimizes the window and the right ctrl key toggles the window full screen to not full screen. I just want to be able to ctrl-C or ctrl-V on their damn CPU. There must be a place to set these functions... anyone? hunter?

They use Windows XP with SP 2 I believe. Its a 1 ghz or so pentium from gateway or something. -- thx

[wm_hunter]

Very strange. I am looking into it for you, get back to you bud.

If it is a problem only occuring in Microsoft Office, go to Tools - Customize and press the Keyboard button at the bottom of the screen. Get back to me.

[mikea454]

thx hunter

if it helps when the ctrl keys first started malfunctioning they used to 'toggle the fields' in Word, which was pretty annoying also. The window minimizing is a recent thing, since we ghosted it.

youd highlight something and ctrl-c it and would end up with
{{{c}}}} <--also highlighted

[wm_hunter]

So the Tools - Customize fixed things up? You should be able to reset them all to default without too many problems.

[mikea454]

Ok so I got my sister doing this, so I can't see it first hand, but I tried in my word to. Went to tools - customize and then clicked keyboard. the reset option is grayed out and the key definations for cut and paste are correct. I couldn't find any examples of window minimizing that were defined as anything.

I used the reset in the customize menu to normal.dot and now the left ctrl toggles fields again and the right ctrl toggles maximum/restore down. Should I send her a normal.dot file?

[wm_hunter]

If Reset All is grey, then no editing has been done. This looks like it could be a very strange problem, I will get back to you when I can but I am sure that this is going to give me some headaches.