What do most people do when a computer peripheral or accessory stops working suddenly? We slam it with our palms or bang it on the table. We know it’s not the way, but hey, we still do. And honestly, sometimes it works too. Alt + F4 shortcut is one of the most useful keyboard shortcuts to close/close most applications. What if the Alt+F4 keys don’t work on your Windows computer and slamming the keys doesn’t help either?
While I understand your frustration, it didn’t help. Instead, try one of the solutions mentioned below to solve the problem for good without banging the keyboard or banging your head on the desk.
Let’s get started.
1. Fn Lock (Function Lock)
Check if your keyboard has an Fn key somewhere. Usually, you’ll find it somewhere near the Space key. If so, press the keyboard shortcut Alt+Fn+F4 to check if the open window closes on your computer. More often than not, this works.
The Fn key is mostly found on laptop keyboards to act as a modifier key. Some keys have dual functions, and the Fn key is used to activate the key’s secondary function. Why do some keys have dual functions? That’s thanks to the laptop’s compact design and keyboard layout. Due to space constraints, the Function keys are assigned two functions.
Some other examples might include changing volume or brightness settings.
2. Update and reboot
Open Settings and click Update & Security first.
Check if there are any updates available in Windows Updates and if so, update and restart your computer once before checking again if the Alt+F4 shortcut is working.
3. Keyboard driver
We’ll try and update the keyboard driver first to see if that solves the problem. Drivers are programs designed to help input devices work correctly. Printers, keyboards, mice, and even pen drives all have drivers that are first installed on your computer before the device can function properly. It is possible that the files were corrupted.
Search for Device Manager in Windows Search and open it. Double click on Keyboard and you will find your keyboard device. In my case it was the Lenovo Keyboard Device.
Right-click on the keyboard name to select the Update Driver option. At this point, I also recommend updating the HID Keyboard Device option as it might help. Once done, restart your computer and test the Alt + F4 shortcut again.
If updating drivers doesn’t work, you can try reinstalling them after uninstalling. For that, go to the same menu and this time select Uninstall device. Now, follow this link to discover two programs that will help you find and update device drivers.
5. Turn off sticky keys
Fixed keys are part of a suite of accessibility features designed to assist people with different abilities. It is a key modifier that will allow a key to work even after it is released.
So the user can press the Fn key then the Alt key and then the F4 key to close the window (one by one) instead of pressing all three keys at the same time. Sometimes, press the Shift key repeatedly to enable this feature. To check, search for Ease of Access keyboard settings in Windows Search and open it.
Scroll a bit to find and disable Sticky Keys.
6. Keyboard Troubleshooting
Windows 10 comes with a Troubleshooter program that can find and resolve various problems with pre-installed apps and services on Windows 10. Open Settings by pressing Windows key + key I and search for ‘troubleshooting keyboard’.
Follow the onscreen instructions and see if this resolves the Alt+F4 not working error on Windows 10.
7. Edit the registry entry
Press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run prompt and type re-edit before pressing Enter.
See detailed directory structure below.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Do you see an entry named NoWinKeys? If it is, double-click it to open it and change the decimal value to 0. If not, right-click to create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value entry and name it NoWinKeys.
Double click on the newly created entry, select Decimal under Base and set the value to 0. Save everything and restart your PC. If you’re editing an existing entry, make sure to create a backup on an external drive first.
8. Change BIOS
This is an advanced step and making changes in random parts can prevent Windows 10 from booting normally. So copy everything on a piece of mobile phone paper as you will shut down your PC and reboot in BIOS. That means you won’t be able to browse the web and read the instructions afterwards. ALRIGHT?
Restart your computer and as soon as you see the Windows logo, repeatedly press the F1 or F2 or F12 keys to enter the BIOS. It should be a blue screen. You may have to try a few times before you get it right.
In the Configuration tab, use arrow keys to navigate, you will see Hotkey Mode. Disable it to use legacy Fx functionality directly. In case you see different options, you need to find the Function Keys or Fx options yourself.
9. Using AutoHotKey
This is a workaround until you find something wrong with your settings or Alt+F4 keys. AutoHotKey is useful for remapping keys and can be configured to automate repetitive tasks. In addition, you can assign different functions to keyboard keys and mouse clicks. It’s free and open source and you’ll fall in love right away. So while you assign some hotkeys to mimic the function of the Alt+F4 key, you can also use the software for other work.
Change the keyboard
Well, if all else fails, you should buy a new keyboard. I use an external keyboard with my laptop. If you think that’s too much and you’re having this problem on your laptop and not your desktop, have an IT person check it out, who will scrutinize it to find it. hardware related errors.
Next: Do you use Firefox for your browsing activities? Learn how to customize keyboard shortcuts for Firefox to treat it like a pro using the link below.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
