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Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Win key pops up a message or caption when pressed on Windows Vista

Posted 4 May, 2010 at 10:10pm by Michael Chu
(Filed under: Personal Computers)

Recently, I installed a tablet device (in my case, it was to test the Hantech Tablo but I've heard of this happening when installing Wacom tablets) and after that, whenever I press a Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Win key on my Windows Vista machine, a little caption pops up in the middle of my screen with whatever modifier key I was holding down.
Ctrl Alt Shift Popup

It's not really a problem except that it's distracting and not real useful when not using the pen device. After removing the device, it continued to occur and was starting to get on my nerves. Unfortunately, it's not obvious how to remove this "feature" on Windows Vista. To fix it, go to the Pen and Input Devices control panel. You can reach it by clicking on the Start button and typing "Pen and" into the search box and select "Pen and Input Devices" OR load it from the Control Panel (search for "Pen and" in the control panel). Once it's loaded, go to the Pointer Options tab (should be the second tab).
Pen and Input Devices Dialog Box

In "Dynamic feedback", uncheck "Press the pen button". Hit the "Apply" button and the pop up captions should no longer show up. Like I said, not obvious.
No pop up setting

2 comments to Ctrl, Alt, Shift, and Win key pops up a message or caption when pressed on Windows Vista

Ian, June 14th, 2010 at 1:44 pm:

  • Thank you! This was starting to drive me crazy.

Amy, August 29th, 2010 at 2:33 pm:

  • So helpful! Wouldn't have guessed to do that since it pops up when I use my keyboard and not a pen button.

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