Solved Alt + X shortcut not allowing me to choose letter option

[sirsteve1968]

If I do Win-X, yes, they are still underlined. If I just hover my mouse in the lower left corner, right click then no they are not. What next?

 

[JohnOfE]

If I do Win-X, yes, they are still underlined. If I just hover my mouse in the lower left corner, right click then no they are not. What next?

Try this please:

Hit Windows + X and then press the arrow Up key a few times; does the relevant options highlight when you do?

I ask you to do this to make sure the Win-X menu is in focus. Because if it's not in focus, pressing letters will not work.

If you have a window open when you press Win-X, you should see it's top bar colour change as it's brought out of focus in favour of the win-x menu.

IF... If when you hit Win-X and it doesn't switch focus to the menu (as it should), there must be something misbehaving somewhere that is stealing focus.

Please confirm...

 

[Brink]

Well, if they are still underlined in Win+X and the letters display in File Explorer with Alt, then they have not been disabled.

You might see if doing a system restore using a restore point (if available) dated before this started may be able to fix this.

 

[DavidY]

If I do Win-X, yes, they are still underlined. If I just hover my mouse in the lower left corner, right click then no they are not. What next?

Hang on though - and this may be me being dumb again - but isn't that normal behaviour? It certainly seems the same when I tried it.

* If I do Win-X I get underlined letters;
* If I hover lower left and right-click they aren't underlined, although if I press one of the keys that would have been underlined, they still work. For example {hover lower left} + {right click} then press {E} = File Explorer.

 

[sirsteve1968]

I will double check both of your posts this evening. It is an interesting issue I think. Thank you as always. This forum is awesome btw.

 

[sirsteve1968]

Here's what I found out - Win-X brings up the list of shortcuts and I CAN use the arrow to highlight the various options and then either hit enter or use the mouse to select it. I still CANNOT use the letter. Hovering my mouse in the lower left, R click to bring up the same options w/out the underlined letters, I am NOT able to press a letter as mentioned above. Does the arrow activity mean I'm close to getting resolved? Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Steve,

By default, the underline shortcuts will still work regardless if you used Win+X or right click to open it. It's just that you only see them underlined with Win+X.

Were you able to do a system restore to before you had this issue?

 

[sirsteve1968]

The system restore I have not done yet Brink. Is that what we feel is the next/best option?

 

[Brink]

I do believe so for now. It may save you time from trying to troubleshoot.

 

[JohnOfE]

Another quick gathering of evidence:

Can you go into a folder, right click on a random file then press the R key on your keyboard.

Does the Properties dialogue come up?

I want to tell if this issue is limited to just the Win-X menu, and not across the board.

 

[sirsteve1968]

Thank Medab1 and Brink! Brink - my only restore date I show is 1.21, but the issue happened before that, so that won't do much good sad to say. I'll see about calling that # too.

 

[sirsteve1968]

I tried this on a couple of different folders and files - there are no underlined letters, so this would not allow me to choose the option unless I clicked on it. I would expect that behavior, no?

 

[Brink]

Well, with everything we already tried, it may be time to consider to reset Windows 8.

 

[topgundcp]

This might have something to do with your sticky key settings.
Go to control panel - > Ease of access center -> Make the keyboard easier to use

Sometimes when you play games, they change your sticky settings.

Tap on SHIFT key 5 times to turn on/off

 

[JohnOfE]

This might have something to do with your sticky key settings.
Go to control panel - > Ease of access center -> Make the keyboard easier to use

Sometimes when you play games, they change your sticky settings.

Tap on SHIFT key 5 times to turn on/off

Good idea, but if sticky keys is enabled and you attempt to press Windows-X the usual way by holding the Win key down, when you press X sticky keys will disable automatically, because it see's you're capable of pressing two keys at once.

One would have to change the sticky keys options from it's default to prevent it from disabling itself when more than one key is pressed.

Thinking outside the box though, I like it.

 

[fafhrd]

I have a feeling that the presence (or lack) of underlines is a feature of the Windows 8 interface - if you are using mouse clicks, or taps, then the underlines are not displayed (because you are unlikely to need keyboard shortcuts), but if you use shortcut keystrokes to get to a menu, then the underlines are shown as an aide memoire. It is clever and part of the perfect typography philosophy that underlines the new design elements in Windows 8.
If the ability to use shortcut keystrokes is missing, then there is almost certainly some setting that can restore it either in the policy editor or directly in the registry - but of course, the registry is as full of mysteries as ever.
One thing that you may try is to enable the on-screen keyboard - :winkey:+U then Alt+K (or Mouse or Tab etc) - see if that tells your system there is a keyboard attached that can do shortcuts.

Mods (Thanks for including the "WinKey" :winkey: and the "Orb" start symbols in the smileys)

 

[sirsteve1968]

Awesome tips everyone and I appreciate it. I'll check this out later and let ya all know! Thank you! Love this forum!!

 

[sirsteve1968]

Here's what I found to work - Win-X to bring up the underlined letter options and Win-(letter of underlined shortcut) to actually bring up the desired result. This seems to be fine. Is that what we would expect or should we still expect just typing the letter? I'm fine w/the result I mentioned and it seems more consistent. Just my two cents.

 

[Brink]

Odd, but glad you found a workaround.

 

[sirsteve1968]

Me too. Thanks for all of your help. Maybe, it's a keyboard option/setting that coincides w/the Win-X option.