The Definitive Stroke-Friendly Keyboard Driver Specification
I have had further thoughts on this and one of my late son’s best friends has sent me an e-mail, describing the programming techniques that need to be employed. Unfortunately, his company don’t have the time to write the driver.
The objective is to write a driver similar to the one that comes with the Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard 5000, which allows certain keystrokes to be disabled. The driver version is 6.0.6002.18005. When you install this driver it gives more details about the files involved.
But the ability to disable keystrokes needs to be extended.
- Microsoft allows you to disable a lot of keys, but I want to disable, such as control, Shift, Windows and Alt.
- In fact, I would like to be able to disable both left and right control and shift keys independently, as I sometimes find it easier to give up on my left hand completely and say do Shift-O, by spanning my right hand.
- I would also like to allow certain pairs of keys, like Control-C and Control-V, as I use them extensively to cut and paste.
- I think the Microsoft driver allows various profile of keystrokes to be setup, so that should be retained, so that if two users use the same machine, their optimum keystroke settings can be used.
There is an alternative approach to this driver, that I am investigating. The Microsoft Driver must store the list of key reassignments in the Registry. If I could find out how they do this, then I could write a Visual Basic 6 program to adjust that instead. That would in some ways be my preferred solution.
After all, there isn’t anything that a good Visual Basic 6 programmer can’t do! Microsoft know this and still use it to get themselves out of big holes. Otherwise, why would they have spent millions of dollars making sure that all Visual Basic 6 programs work on Vista and Windows 7? Not for charity for old farts like me!
I have made a bit of progress in this approach in that I have found where the Registry stores the settings. It is detailed on this web site.
Another Annoying Keystroke
When I blog, I use a lot of shrieks, as my father would have called them! Or exclamation marks as you would call them!
But if I hit Control-!, I get everything reformatted large. Is this a WordPress or Windows shortcut?
It is so infuriating! Especially as when I hit Control-Z to correct my mistake, I lose everything I have typed.
My typing seems to be getting better though, but it would be nice to have the new keyboard driver.
I Just Broke a Glass
I was drinking a glass of wine, when I wrote the last post. Because I make so many typing mistakes and have to correct them, I constantly shift from side-to-side on my chair, as I have to hit backspace all the time and then correct all of the mess created by inadvertant control keystrokes. The outcome was that the phone cable got tangled in my chair and as I pushed against it, the desk moved backwards and the glass which was in a safe place to my right toppled over. It may have been actually toppled by a fly-spray canister that was handy to zap the aerial irritants, inhabitating my office.
So no harm done really and it’s the first accident for about a week. I think, I’ll log them, as it would be progress to do a month without a problem. At least my little cordless Dyson mopped up all the broken glass, I couldn’t pick up with my right hand.
But it just goes to show, how frustrating computing is for a man with a gammy left hand! I believe that if I get the keyboard driver I want, it will improve my life in a very positive way.
Bonkers Windows
Because of my gammy left hand Windows is a nightmare.
Take just now. I was writing a post using WordPress and typing things into a large text box. For some reason, it just locked up and refused to accept any characters. I must have hit some control or Windows combination. It did allow U and then started talking to me through a dialog saying it would make my computer easier to you. What a load of crap!
Now if I try to restart the computer, it says my password is wrong. So I have to login to another account and then switch to the one I want.
It’s bad enough having a stroke, without having to fight all the way to work on the computer.
I’m actually on another laptop now, as the other is completely unworkable. For instance if I type a search into this blog, each key seems to bring up a new dialog. It’s almost as if the computer, thinks that the Windows Key is locked down.
Does anybody out there have any idea what is wrong?
w
Keyboard Frustration
It is usually after using the computer for about an hour or so, that I hit control and some key to mean that the only way out of my mess is to reboot.
It is so frustrating! Especially, as I know the solution is to be able to cut out the control key, just like I’ve cut out caps lock.
An E-Mail To The University of Ulster
I wrote this e-msil to the team developing the computer games at the University of Ulster.
You could argue, that I’m in a sorry state, being a 62-year-old widower of three years, who has just lost his youngest son at just 37 to pancreatic cancer. To cap it all I have just had a series of strokes,which have left me with a gammy left hand amongst other smaller issues.
As someone who has spent nearly 50 years programming, writing reports and lately blogging on the Internet, the standard PC keyboard totally frustrates me. You want to hit shift to get a capital and you hit caps lock or control, which means the precise document you are creating gets into a mess, because you have capitalisation all over the place or say you hit something like control-W which opens a new window in Internet Explorer.
I have found a partial solution in the Microsoft Comfort Keyboard, but sadly it doesn’t quite go far enough.
One of the features of this keyboard is the ability to disable individual keys, so they don’t work.For example, I have disabled the Caps Lock key and this now means that I don’t have to rewrite large portions of documents, when I accidentally toggle the key. Having no Caps Lock is no problem to me, as I have never ever used the key in my work.
I also want to disable other keys :-
- One and/or both of the control keys – Disabling just the left would be an interesting option, as for things like control-C and control-V, which I still use would be available using the right one. My right hand is still 100%.
- The Windows key – I’ve never used that key and used with some keys it does lot of things that you don’t want to do in a Word Document or Internet Explorer. With L it locks the computer, which is something you don’t want to do inadvertantly.
- The ALT key – Who uses that? Except in control-alt-del.
The driver of the keyboard should be able to be modified to disable any key and perhaps allow certain combinations, such as those commonly used ones with Control, but that would need co-operation from Microsoft. Microsoft’s driver and control panel is a good template and starting point.
I should say that I programmed quite complex keyboard drivers in some of my software, but that is actually a level above the actual deep-level driver. When you hit a key, you first check which of the modifier keystrokes, (control, alt etc.) are depressed and take an appropriate action, so it should be easily possible to ban single keystrokes as Microsoft do in part, but allow the combinations you want. If I could write a Windows keyboard driver, I know I could do it. I also have the money to pay someone who can to create something that would ease the lives of many stroke sufferers and disabled individuals.
I have discussed this driver with my doctor at Addenbrookes and he feels it would be worthwhile, but has never come across anything like it. If you search my blog for keyboard you will find more thoughts. As this e-mail is effectively a specification for the driver, I shall probably post it on the blog, together with a link to your work.
I see that you have developed computer games for stroke sufferers. I have never played any computer games, as I prefer games to be real. I am going to get back to playing real tennis, which is a game with a world-wide handicapping system, that can be used to measure your progress. You can also find quite a few gentle players, like the elderly or kids to play with, so that you can build up your skill and power levels gradually.
Keep up the good work.
But as my Irish racehorse trainer, Tadey Regan says, “The Struggle Continues”
Some might say that publishing here is just giving away an idea, thst might be stolen by someone else.
As Rhett Butler said in Gone With The Wind, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”. If I get my driver I’ll be pleased.
How to Replace a Key On a Laptop
I am a computer professional of long standing or should that be sitting. But my expertise is software and not hardware!
On the other hand, my friend, Pula, has had little computer training, other than on how to use Windows and the various applications. But she comes from a family that prefers to face up to challenges rather than duck them!
So when the B key on her laptop became sticky, she attempted to fix-it. Getting the key out was the easy part, but putting it back was a but tricky.
So Pula struck and searched the Internet for some help and found this web site, where there was a page for her computer.
Well done Pula! If she can do it without any experience, surely you can try!
More on the Keyboard
I’ve started a topic in Microsoft Answers to see if I can get further with the keyboard driver.
A Better Keyboard
I’ve just installed a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 5000, which I bought from PC-World in Cambridge for £49.99 as it was on special offer and also because a guy called Simon took the trouble to sympathise with my needs.
It’s a lot better, as the keys have a good feel and the mouse seems properly bal\nced with the keyboard. I’ve also started to use my left hand to do other than shift and control. Now that I’ve installed the special software, I’ve also been able to disable the caps lock key. It’s a pity I can’t do this for control and Windows. So at least one of my problems has been mitigated.
I do hope the next version of the software allows disabling most of control, but retaining those like control-C that I want.
It certainly a lot better than anything else I’ve tried. All the driver needs is a little bit of thought and we would have a stroke-friendly keyboard.
For some reason this post attracts a large amount of spam comments in Russian. Whoever is posting these, could they please Foxtrot Oscar and get back to their vodka. If they are comatose, Isuspect they can’t post. I delete all the comments which WordPress marks as spam, so they are not getting any gain, but I’m getting a bit of pain.
On July 14th I deleted 23 of these comments. On the 16th, 34 hit the dust. 2 so far on the 17th.
Toolbar Problems
My computer now has all sorts of toolbar problems and in some sites the clicking doesn’t work.
I’ve obviously hit some keystroke. But what?
The Anonymous Widower 