Tab key settings with Win XP & MS Natural Ergonomic KB 4000

Question

HELP!!! I do a lot of photo processing. My desktop pc is a Dell 4700, win xp, and I'm using a MS Natural Ergonomic KB 4000. I also use a Toshiba laptop with Vista.

The issue at hand is the following...

When I five pix open on laptop and click on one, than click again, allowing me to rename file, I rename it, than can simply hit tab (on the laptop) and go to the next file rename it and so on all the way down the line. On the XP PC, once I've renamed the file and I hit TAB it advances the cursor 4 or 5 keystrokes in same window.

I hope I have been clear enough. I know it is a simple setting somewhere in the PC. I just looked at the KB hardare settings in the Control Panel, it shows many keys that can be set to do different things, just not the TAB key.

Looking forward to a solution to this nuisance once and for all.

Thanx JD.

Answer 1

The issue you are having isn't really keyboard related. From what I understand, you are experiencing different behaviors for file renaming in Windows explorer between your Vista machine and your Windows XP machine.

It would seem like Explorer in Vista and XP are programmed to understand a standard TAB input differently when renaming files. I don't have an XP system handy, but you might want to make sure that folders on the XP machine you are working are set to the save view type (DETAILS seems to be default for Windows Vista/7 for folders with many documents.) Try right-clicking inside the folder you are working on, selecting VIEW then DETAILS from the menu and then attempting the TAB renaming again.

If this doesn't work, on XP you might want to try simply using the F2 button to start renaming the file, hitting enter, moving down to the next file with the arrow key, and then hitting F2 again.