FastKeys Forum

No idea what is going on, but FastKeys will just stop expanding text. I have to quit and restart to get it working again and then it will stop working again.

I have turned off all the other programs I use that record keyboard input--Grammarly, ditto (clipboard manager), and antivirus software-- but it makes no difference.

Any idea what's going on?

Thanks.

This means that another program takes the control over the "keyboard hook", preventing other application to use it. Known programs include Microsoft Powertoys, VDOS, Microsoft Intellitype etc.

Check also antivirus or other security software - look for the features called "keyboard logger protection" or "keyboard hook detection".

Also check Windows settings if "Show text suggestions as I type" is enabled in Devices/Typing.

Sorry for my ignorance, but can you tell me how I find the Windows settings you're referring to?

On my Windows 10, I can press Window key and type "Typing". The setting is under Typing, Hardware keyboard.

Figured it out in case anyone has a similar problem: It was a shareware program called DisplayFusion. It's for dual monitors, but I guess also has a hook into typing. Thanks.

I purchased Fast Keys recently a few days ago and noticed the same thing. It usually stops working after some hours and I need to restart it.

I do have power toys, but actually, it works fine with power toys until after some hours when it just stops responding to any shortcut, even F8 will not open FastKeys setting anymore.

I actually suspect this could be either Windows Remote Desktop, or Stream Deck or when I switch from one virtual desktop to another one with the default Windows 11 keys. I have more than one thing that is supposed to take over keyboard shortcuts but I'm sure they are not overlapping with FastKeys (using the same keys).

Clearly something is taking over the Fastkeys, and not just some shortcuts but disabling the triggers in the app entirely, but if that was the case only some shortcuts should stop responding and not all of them. It seems everything related to fastkeys, even start menu does not work anymore.

I still have to find the cause of what is disabling Fastkeys and why. I tried closing the other programs one by one to see which one makes Fastkeys work again but none of them after being closed actually returns Fastkeys, the only option is to close manually Fastkeys and start it again.

Is the FastKeys tray icon working?

When the hook is disconnected you need to reload FastKeys, the hook will not connect back automatically. So to test this
- open the Task Manager,
- disable the app or a process,
- restart FastKeys,
- repeat.

I changed something since I posted this.

Instead of launching Fastkeys manually (after all my other apps are already running, including power toys) I set it up to start at boot which means it starts before those apps and so far, it's working fine in the past 2 days.

Not sure yet what software caused this because in my tests, when this happened, I did close other apps one by one (until everything was closed except FastKeys) and that did not recover Fast Keys either. This means I could not find the specific app that is causing the interference. But so far, it seems to be working in the past day or two if I start it at Windows boot instead of manually.

I will post back if this happens again, or after I have some time to debug it. When this happens, the FastKey process is indeed still running (in the task manager) as well as the icon tray, I can also manually open (settings), the app does not crash, and it's still working, it's just the hooks that don't work anymore until I close it entirely and restart it.

Hello,

I am having the exact same problem. FastKeys will randomly stop expanding text despite the application responding to clicks in the UI.

The only way I've found to resolve this is to restart the application.

Any help is appreciated.

As explained this means that another program on your computer takes the control over the "keyboard hook", preventing FastKeys to use it. Known programs include Microsoft Powertoys, VDOS, Microsoft Intellitype, clipboard, keyboard or typing managers etc.

Check also antivirus or other security software - look for the features called "keyboard logger protection" or "keyboard hook detection".