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usually AltGr Works fine on my computer but latelly it stops working. I can still use Ctrl+Alt but it's a pain as I need it to write {} and I'm a c# programmer :S

Any idea on what can happen? If I reboot the laptop everything Works fine. It's not a failure of the key itself becasue when I press it the menus get the _ drawn, so the keyboard is sending the message to the OS.

Thanks in advance.

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10
  • What's your keyboard layout? Do you have any other layouts enabled?
    – gronostaj
    May 31, 2013 at 10:24
  • I already checked the layout and it's ok. I have two layouts but almost always I use just one. The issue has stopped a few minutes ago without restarting, It has come and gone.
    – Ignacio Soler Garcia
    May 31, 2013 at 11:50
  • You say computer, I assume laptop, because my first test would be replacing it.. but somehow I have the feeling you lack that choice.
    – NickW
    Jun 12, 2013 at 15:06
  • 1
    I'd try swapping keyboards, just to be sure. Just as an aside, it isn't a bluetooth keyboard is it? I've had issues with interference make my keyboard do very strange things.
    – NickW
    Jun 12, 2013 at 15:11
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    This happens to me too, randomly stops working, I used to have another language installed but this still happens after i removed the language, sometimes a restart fixes it and another times it fixes its self.
    – Juan Zamudio
    Jul 9, 2013 at 17:55

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
169

There are many blog posts out there, which try to explain what the issue could be. Many times specific programs are the cause of the problem.

For me it was a Windows Remote Desktop connection I had running, that prevented the key from working. I didn't have to close it, just opening the window and clicking anywhere inside it somehow made my [AltGR] key work again!

EDIT: It seems to the related to the full-screen mode of RDP.

Just try to close all your applications one by one to find out what could be the cause.

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  • 17
    Works for me after closing all RDP sessions, thanks.
    – Ezombort
    Jul 18, 2013 at 12:34
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    I had a remote desktop session running fullscreen on other monitor and that was causing the issue. Minimizing the remote desktop window was enough to solve the issue. The problem does not occur always when remote desktop is fullscreen.
    – Juha Palomäki
    Oct 24, 2013 at 2:58
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    It just happened to me (Winows 7). I noticed it in Eclipse, but it did not work in other programs either (like the system Run... dialog). I had a RDP window running, so I clicked inside it, tried to type to the remote system and now AltGr worked. Then I went back to a local program in there it worked too. Bizzare...
    – David Balažic
    Jan 16, 2014 at 19:12
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    Worked for me. Really crazy, but at least for me it was enough to click on the remote desktop window and then click an open program in the remote desktop. After that it worked again everywhere, without rebooting or closing anything.
    – Juha Untinen
    Jul 8, 2014 at 7:19
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    Wtf Microsoft ... I'm on Windows 10 and closing RDP worked - one should think it would be fixed by now ... sigh.
    – MojoDK
    Jun 9, 2016 at 11:14
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Here it turned out to be a running VirtualBox-instance that had tampered with my keyboard setup. After shifting focus to the VM and back to the editor the AltGr-key worked as expected.

I'm running Windows 7 SP1, so AltGr acting as Alt is a problem not only on Windows 8.

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  • It was the cause of my problem too. As I use the VM to run a debian server, I turned off the GUI like stated there: without-brains.net/blog/2011/05/06/… it also increased performence a little bit.
    – Salketer
    Jan 16, 2014 at 8:41
  • Me too. Annoying how a user mode application (with half a dozen drivers, no doubt) messes up something as essential as users keyboard layout, without Windows even suspecting it or issuing a warning to the user of said layout.
    – Armen Michaeli
    Feb 14, 2014 at 12:35
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For me, it was caused by Hyper-V (Microsoft virtualization). When I go to virtual machine, press AltGr it works. Return to desktop, works again!

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  • I had the same issue and focusing to Windows Phone emulator running in the background fixed it.
    – juarola
    Dec 21, 2013 at 0:54
  • Windows 7 virtual machine triggered the problem for me, and I had already closed it. But activating a linux VM and hitting AltGr there also fixed the issue, so it doesn't require correct OS to revert the problem.
    – red
    Oct 28, 2014 at 15:19
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My problem with this key was sometimes when I am in a remote desktop session. As in, not a problem on the host. I am seeing the problem on the client, in the remote session.

I tried the following - without luck:

  • Switching and clicking on the remote desktop session: Didn't work.
  • Minimizing the remote desktop session: Didn't work.
  • Restarting the remote desktop session: Didn't work, it just re-attaches to the existing session - which still has the issue.

But, minimizing all application windows in the remote desktop session and then restoring (maximizing) the window where I needed the @ key it works.

I am actually writing this entry in the remote desktop session, and the @ key works as it should.

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0

The questioner have a laptop, so this is not probably answer for him/her. But nevertheless:

One possible reason of AltGr problems is Gigabyte EasyTune. It adds some own shortcuts to keyboard (or something else), which causes the problem.

Atleast with nordic keyboard maps: it causes problems with '@' [AltGr+2] and '€' [AltGr+5].

With Win8.1 solution was: uninstalling of EasyTune.

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