11/15/2004

How to Turn Off StickyKeys / Filterkeys in Windows XP

Filed under: — Andres @ 6:21 pm

I am posting this as a public service, as a JesusH Honeypot like the Lane Staley and ODB tribute pages, and for my own future reference. Windows has a great feature for the differently abled and AOL users where if you hold down the shift key for more than 8 seconds, filterkeys (a really annoying function that sticks your shift key permanently on, among other things) will turn on. Here are the steps to turn off the damned thing.

1) When the dialogue box comes up to ask if you want filter keys, you can choose from Yes, Cancel, or you can just hit escape to close the box. Go ahead and choose any of those options. YOUR FILTER KEYS ARE NOW ON>

@) TRY HOLDING DOWN BOTH SHIFT KEYS AT THE SAME TIME> THAT WORKS A LOT OF THE TIME>

#) DIDN”T WORK? TRY HOLDING DOWN THE RIGHT SHIFT KEY FOR * SECONDS.>

$) NO DICE? TRY REBOOTING>

%) STILL STUCK? TRY A SYSTEM RESTORE (PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS> SYSTEM RESTORE>)

^) IF IT”S STILL STUCK, FIND YOUR WINDOWS CD< AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO REINSTALL THE OPERATING SYSTEM> CHOOSE THE FULL FORMAT AND REINSTALL OPTION>

&) HERE”S WHERE IT GETS TRICKY: AT THIS POINT< YOU MAY WANT TO CONSIDER INSTALLING LINUX OR BUYING A MAC> With Linux, you can use your existing hrdware^h^h^h^h^h^hardware but you’ll invest a lot of time setting it up. With a Mac, you’re probably good to go but it will cost you a few large.

8) Important: If you do reach step 7, you may want to quarantine the affected system just to be on the safe side.

I’m something like 100% confident that following the above progression is absolutely, positively, nearly guaranteed to fix your problem.

It’s probably worth trying to disable this function permanently in Control Panel > Accessibility options > Filter Key Settings > Uncheck “Use Shortcut”, but I believe that option has been disabled by Microsoft for your own protection.

Good luck fellow Windows users. We’re all in this together, so help a brother out.

Google Key Words
filter keys filterkeys sticky keys stickykeys microsoft windows accessibility options disabled shift key stuck how to turn off motherfucking microsoft bill gates i hate you i hope you rot in hell die die die die die aaaaaaaargh

43 Comments »

  1. HELLO> THANK YOU FOR POSTING ON THIS AS IT IS A PROBPLEM I”VE HAD FOR SOME TIME> I BELIEVE THAT MY PROBLEM HAS SOMETHIN TO DO WITH AQ VIRUS OR MAYBE NOT> I HAVE TRIED ALL OF YOUR TIPS WITH NO SUCECS> PLEASE HELP> THANKS< JEFF

    Comment by JEFF — 11/15/2004 @ 7:48 pm

  2. Hey, thank you for your advice on pressing the both shift keys at the same time, this was driving me nuts! Thank you once again!

    Comment by Velja — 11/27/2004 @ 11:46 am

  3. LMFAO, that hotkey thing really is so dumb. I had the same problem too, a couple of times and had to reboot, hoping it wouldnt save my settings (which it didnt thankfully) grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! M$ suck, both shift keys at once?! It dont even say that on the filterkey options :P it worked tho! :-)

    Comment by Harry — 12/1/2004 @ 7:01 pm

  4. Check out the excerpt from this page that Google uses when you search under “turn off filterkeys”. Diabolical.

    Comment by Andres — 12/2/2004 @ 11:36 am

  5. Thank you so much! The holding down both shift keys at the same time trick worked! I was so annoyed trying to disable the feature to no avail.The information you posted is very much appreciated!

    Comment by maggie — 12/27/2004 @ 8:40 pm

  6. Deep joy, pressing both shifts at once worked for me on Windows XP Professional. Previously I have had to restart.

    Thanks.

    Comment by Barry Wheeler — 1/17/2005 @ 2:50 am

  7. I just encountered this annoying problem myself. I couldn’t even enter anything when I went to google to get help, because none of my keys worked. I have windows XP. I finally found filterkeys in the control panel under accessibility options. I clicked on the keyboard tab and unselected filterkeys. Everything is back to normal again. I hope this helps someone.

    Comment by Stephanie — 1/22/2005 @ 12:07 pm

  8. Thank you for this. A repeated and vexing problem.

    Comment by N Wagoner — 9/14/2005 @ 4:45 pm

  9. You’re a genius for posting this Dre!

    Comment by Dave — 9/15/2005 @ 8:34 am

  10. Pressing both shift keys helped. Thank you - this was making my life miserable.

    Comment by pleonce — 9/23/2005 @ 4:05 pm

  11. I just have to say the way this post was put together is pure genious! Thank you :) I honestly can’t stop laughing

    Comment by Dangerousdave — 1/29/2006 @ 11:42 am

  12. why in the world M$ create filterkeys u can not turn off?

    Comment by thunder7 — 3/3/2006 @ 9:28 am

  13. You are a god send holding down the two shift keys worked for me to. i am currently studying advanced higher computing at my school and am the top in my class (love to bost) anyways this problem has annoyed me so much over the years an finally i can get it off thank you so much

    Comment by Kareem — 3/3/2006 @ 6:22 pm

  14. God God, I was ready to kill somebody, I disabled it but it still turned itself, I’m a gamer so I press and hold shift all the time,

    Comment by Me — 3/11/2006 @ 9:12 am

  15. hey, thanks a million. u really r a genius!!! pressing both left & right keys together worked for me when microsoft helps scattered all thru google didnt even mention this & whatever it mentioned was totally useless. sine in control panel none of the options were selected in the 1st place so that they can even be deselected.

    Comment by diya — 3/11/2006 @ 2:05 pm

  16. I even tried disabling the options using the registry edit!! And it still does it! Maybe I should just delete the entire key.. =_=

    I used:

    ;Disable Sticky Keys
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys]
    “Flags”=”506″

    ;Disable Filter Keys
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response]
    “Flags”=”122″

    ;Disable Toggle Keys
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys]
    “Flags”=”58″

    … But it dosen’t seem to have worked. :(

    Comment by basser — 3/23/2006 @ 9:52 pm

  17. Thanks for your advice, it worked perfectly!

    Comment by Dejan — 5/9/2006 @ 11:51 am

  18. i tried holdin down da 2 shifts at da same time and it wont work please help me

    Comment by caz — 6/20/2006 @ 6:57 am

  19. All y0ur sh1fts ar3 bel0ng 2 us caz… pwned!!!!!111!!1

    Comment by B1ll G@t3$ (Microsoft) — 6/21/2006 @ 3:45 pm

  20. Thank you so much! I was so pissed because I couldn’t log in anywhere because the damn thing was in caps lock! You really saved me. I had no idea what to do!

    Comment by Kitty — 7/6/2006 @ 3:58 am

  21. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HELPING ME WITH THIS PROBLEM1 I”M SO GLAD MY SHIFT KEY DOESN”T STAY ON PERMANENTLY ANYMORE111111111

    W))T

    Just kidding. But seriously, thanks a billion.

    Comment by goldpump56 — 10/6/2006 @ 2:21 pm

  22. Hold both shift keys at the same time? I fix this a different way, i just hit the right shift a couple of times.

    I got the impression that the reason stickykeys got stuck on, despite saying “no, don’t!” was because it wasn’t detecting the release of the right shift key. Tap it again, after turning off the stickey keys, and, and windows gets the “Key up” message it needs.

    Could be a false assumption, but it works!

    (NOTE: Only works with Right shift key. Left shift won’t help you).

    Comment by LordLucan — 11/27/2006 @ 2:42 pm

  23. thanks for posting this. i have wasted more time rebooting, and attempting to disable this damn feature. using this xp computer at work makes me hate windows even more than i did before i used it on a daily basis. i particularly love how if you cancel, sticky keys are STILL turned on anyways.

    Comment by ryan — 2/14/2007 @ 11:07 am

  24. yay! thank you!

    Comment by KJ — 3/26/2007 @ 2:01 am

  25. I think I’m in love with you. I tried everything, like 19 times. I was able to do a Google search somehow, but none of the other sites mentioned the double shift key action, which was just the little trick I was hoping to find. I even had to cancel my tutorial this afternoon cause I couldn’t finish my paper cause I couldn’t even punctuate!! I am not in love with Windows, to say the least. :)

    Comment by Alison — 5/16/2007 @ 5:18 am

  26. Thank you. I love this post. I accidentally held the shift key, while I was reaching for a bite of my meal, and this showed up, along with an annoying little alarm clock icon in the tool bar. I thought I had it licked and when I rebooted later, it showed up again. I will keep this in mind when I have problems again. YIKES. Funny post thanks
    a

    Comment by Annieofbluegables — 8/9/2007 @ 11:31 am

  27. Hi Guys

    I know this thread is old, but I just spent a couple of hours working on this freaking issue, so I thought I’d let the world know a workaround.

    I went to the control panel, and unticked ALL the “Use {feature}” and “Use Shortcut” checkboxes, then exported the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility” key in the registry.

    if it ever turns itself back on, just double-click the file to restore the “unticked” version.

    the contents of this file, to save you all going through the pain:


    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility]

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Blind Access]
    "On"="0"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\HighContrast]
    "Flags"="122"
    "High Contrast Scheme"="High Contrast Black (large)"
    "Volital HC Scheme"="High Contrast Black (large)"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Preference]
    "On"="0"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\Keyboard Response]
    "AutoRepeatDelay"="1000"
    "AutoRepeatRate"="500"
    "BounceTime"="0"
    "DelayBeforeAcceptance"="1000"
    "Flags"="122"
    "Last BounceKey Setting"=dword:000001f4
    "Last Valid Delay"=dword:000003e8
    "Last Valid Repeat"=dword:000001f4
    "Last Valid Wait"=dword:000003e8

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\MouseKeys]
    "Flags"="58"
    "MaximumSpeed"="80"
    "TimeToMaximumSpeed"="3000"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\SerialKeys]

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ShowSounds]
    "On"="0"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\SoundSentry]
    "Flags"="2"
    "FSTextEffect"="0"
    "WindowsEffect"="0"
    "TextEffect"="0"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys]
    "Flags"="506"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\TimeOut]
    "Flags"="2"
    "TimeToWait"="300000"

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\ToggleKeys]
    "Flags"="58"

    Enjoy!

    Comment by ben — 9/21/2007 @ 10:52 am

  28. Thank you very much, i was just going to install freebsd or zos and you saved me a lot of that time.
    Cheers !

    Comment by Garouppa — 9/28/2007 @ 12:31 am

  29. i got around this by hold both shift keys for a few secs then inopeneb the on screen keyboard then hit the right shift key. hope it works for you

    Comment by the_sinister — 11/10/2007 @ 11:42 am

  30. hey thnks dude…… can i have ur email address so that we can share our computer skills???

    Comment by Firdaus — 1/7/2008 @ 1:40 am

  31. Ben, you’re the best. Your Registry fix was the only thing that worked lastingly for us. For anyone who doesn’t understand how to make Ben’s code into a solution, I’ve posted a Reg file with simple instructions here:
    http://www.craig.copperleife.com/tech/

    Comment by Craig — 2/24/2008 @ 7:23 pm

  32. Well, hmmm … didn’t you just thought about going to accessibility options in control panel, then enabling (check) filterkeys option, click apply, and then unchecking the option (for those saying that it wasn’t enabled when in reality it was)? Just use your brain next time ;) , it helped me in XP home while both shifts didn’t.

    Comment by Johnny — 3/1/2008 @ 4:04 am

  33. THANK YOU!

    Comment by Sara — 3/12/2008 @ 1:06 pm

  34. fuckty fuck fuck damnit fuck argh

    Comment by fuckity — 3/26/2008 @ 9:16 pm

  35. Thanks for that. Just when I thought Windoze couldn’t throw anything more retarded at me… it did. Accidentally held down shift for 5 seconds, CANCELLED filter keys, then the caps lock key was working in inverse and no numbers, etc. Yay! Turning off the options had no effect, evidently, only holding down two keys at the same time. Imagine the board meeting at MS for the design of that wonderful feature.

    Comment by James — 6/20/2008 @ 2:42 am

  36. By the way ‘Johnny use your brain’ going to control panel and deselecting the options DID NOT EFFING WORK. Use YOUR brain, this is Windows we’re talking about!

    Comment by James — 6/20/2008 @ 2:43 am

  37. This was hilarious!
    I was about to loose my mind trying to get that STUPID sticky keys feature thing turned off..! I read this and pressing both shift keys at the same time actually worked! Thanks!!!

    Comment by Jamie — 7/23/2008 @ 5:07 pm

  38. I tried everything but believe it or not, I hit the left control key and sticky keys turned off. Go figure. Microshaft does it again!

    Comment by Howie — 7/28/2008 @ 5:28 am

  39. This was a fun solution to our Microsoft woes. Thank You.
    (”Are you a jackass spammer?” in the leave comment section …. Hilarious!)

    Comment by Adric — 9/19/2008 @ 10:11 am

  40. I have found a workaround for the problem, simply navigate to a web page that has the letters you require, then cut/paste each required character to construct a sentence.
    Finding a lower case ‘Z’ or ‘X’ or ‘Q’ when you need it can be challenging, making it difficult to write _ebra, _ylophone, or barbe_ue.

    Comment by Felix — 10/9/2008 @ 12:41 am

  41. Andres… Excellent information sharing… Thanks a billion! Both Shift Keys down seems to work a treat! Great cos workarounds suck!

    Comment by Jaques Ithan — 10/14/2008 @ 8:51 pm

  42. Johnny is a condescending person! Why does he say things like “use your brain”… was he mistreated as a child?

    Comment by Jaques Ithan — 10/14/2008 @ 8:54 pm

  43. That’s true, Jaques. Don’t be a dick, Johnny.

    Comment by Dave — 10/15/2008 @ 9:43 am

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