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When I run Photoshop CS4 on Windows 7, other running programs don't receive the ESC key (I noticed in PuTTY and Total Commander's Lister). When I close Photoshop, they start receiving the ESC key again.

  • I tried multiple keyboard layouts, no change.
  • Photoshop is an out-of-box install, no settings changed
  • I exported the list of keybindings from Photoshop (ctrl-alt-shift-k) and ESC isn't used in any combination

Why is this? Is there any way to disable or bypass this so that I could use other programs normally?

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3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Photoshop CS4 and ATI Catalyst Control Center both hook the Escape key. To fix it, use Windows Task Manager to terminate ccc.exe and restart Photoshop.

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Thanks, it does work. This describes both the problem and solution accurately and works without the need to run an external program, therefore I chose it as the accepted answer. – user46935 Feb 20 '11 at 9:51
(when in fact neither of them should mess with the Esc key...) – romkyns Feb 27 '11 at 21:21
I think you can leave CCC running, but DISABLE hotkey support in the CCC menus – horatio Jul 28 '11 at 14:53
Thanks! This solved the problem for me too. Disabling hotkey support in CCC did not work; I just stopped CCC from starting automatically. – adurdin Feb 25 at 10:38
I just ran into the same problem, but with Intel's HD Graphics driver rather than CCC. (My machine uses both NVidia discrete GPU and onboard Intel SandyBridge GPU. Had no probs with NVidia only, but enabling Intel GPU as well made me see this problem when Photoshop was running.) -- To fix it I right-clicked Intel's tray icon, then chose Graphics Options, Hotkeys, Disable; then restarted Photoshop. Many thanks to all for pointing me towards the solution; hope this extra info helps someone else. – Leo Davidson May 18 at 13:01
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up vote 3 down vote

It's a issue with the Photoshop and it happens on other programs too. (It's probably related to some Photoshops plugins) You should be able to use SHIFT+ESC to bypass it.

This issue is fixed in CS5.

You could also try one of these programs from here http://forums.adobe.com/message/1636461#1636461 if you are not happy with the SHIFT-method or upgrading to CS5.

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Thanks. I tried PsEscFix.zip but it doesn't work with my Photoshop CS4 64-bit. I wouldn't want it hanging around all the time, anyway. The shift-ESC workaround is good enough for me until I get CS5 or later. – user46935 Nov 16 '10 at 19:52
Shift+Esc might work in some cases, but usually does not. I mean it might close the odd menu, but programs that expect ESC won't respond to Shift+Esc. – romkyns Sep 11 '11 at 15:11
The issue still occurred for me in CS5 64-bit, when CCC was also running. – adurdin Feb 25 at 10:38
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up vote 0 down vote

The problem wasn't related to any other software in my case.

This is what helped me (Win 7 Professional x64, had no such problem with Win 7 Professional x86).

Run CS3 - esc did not work. Run CS3 in compatiblity mode with WinXP SP3 - that solved it, but no drag&drop into photoshop (due to different user rights maybe).

I turned off the compatibility mode and the ESC still works as it should :)

EDIT: not TRUE that it wasn't related to any other software. When I was testing it I already had Catalyst Control Center (CCC.exe) shut down from another round of testing. So CCC IS somehow involved in this problem. Simply turning off Keyboard shortcuts in CCC DID NOT work I had to shut it down (in my case via the TaskManager, but I guess normal quit would work the same, ie. not leaving some other part of CCC.exe running).

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