ESC key not working outside PS in Vista...

[Eli_...@adobeforums.com]

This haunts our users since we migrated to Vista. When Photoshop CS2/CS3 is running under Vista the ESCAPE key does not work correctly with other programs. When PS is running, the escape key works only when pressing SHIFT+ESC together. This is extremely annoying when multiple programs are used, what could be the root of the problem?

Thanks!

[Fraxinus Excelsior]

I see this too... any more insight from anyone... ?

[ramz...@adobeforums.com]

Serge: Your fix is working!Thanks a lot.
Unfortunately I've another problem with Vista and CS3:
shortcut "ctrl+0" (Fit in Window) did'nt work :(
I resolve a problem by: ctrl+alt+0, but it is not confortable :(
Could You help me with it?
PS. sorry for my english...

[soulb...@adobeforums.com]

Got the same trouble under Vista Business SP1

Thanks a lot for Shift+Esc hint and for the software!

[John Joslin]

Can't reproduce it here!

[mil...@adobeforums.com]

HOW I SOLVED THIS ISSUE.

I had the same problem and in the end I discovered that Photoshop was not responsible for this issue alone. I am using ATI Catalyst, so I have killed all the ATI Catalyst related processes that were running in background, restarted Photoshop and that solved the problem. The same procedure worked for my colleague.

[elip...@adobeforums.com]

I have no Catalyst drivers or software, but I have this problem on Vista Business and PS CS3. When I remove all my plugins (incl. the orginal ones) from the PS folder, the ESC functions normally. Any solution?

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

elipsoid - figure out which of your third party plugins is messing up the escape key...

[Bria...@adobeforums.com]

Normally, the Escape key works just fine for me in 64-bit Vista with Photoshop running. The exception is when Photoshop is busy running an action or script (e.g., any batch action, Image Processor, etc.). Now the Escape key seems to be swallowed by Photoshop, whether or not it has keyboard focus. This has happened to be with XP and Vista, with CS3 and CS4 (I forget if I had this problem with CS2 and earlier).

Sending a literal Ctrl-[ keypress (also ASC 27, same as Escape) works for me. No issues sending Ctrl-0 either.

[elip...@adobeforums.com]

Chris Cox: Both the original plugins that came with PS as well as additional third party plugins. I've tried clearing the folder and adding plugins one-by-one, starting with the original ones. It worked when there was just the "Import-Export" folder present.
It looks like if there is a plugin in the Plug-Ins folder, the ESC doesn't work.

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

elipsoid - but that doesn't happen to most other users. I still strongly suspect that this is due to a third party plugin.

[elip...@adobeforums.com]

Chris Cox - I did a full reinstall, could there still be a conflict with third party plugins?

[John Joslin]

Why should a re-install affect third party plug-ins?

[Fraxinus Excelsior]

No third-party plugins here, and I can confirm that the problem goes away if there are no plugins in the folder, but it seems it doesn't need many of them (tried folder by folder) for the problem to manifest itself. It may have to do with the plug-in interface.

Here is an AutoHotkey script/routine for a workaround:

ESC::
ifWinExist, ahk_class Photoshop {
IfWinActive ahk_class Photoshop
{
SendInput {ESC}
} else {
SendInput +{ESC}
}
}
return

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

The Photoshop plugin interface doesn't even touch event handling (which is what it would take to interfere with key presses).

[Rick_I...@adobeforums.com]

It's not just Vista - I get the same with PS CS4 on XP. Fresh install, too, so unless some plugins crept in there without my asking for them then that's not the issue either.

[Pavel...@adobeforums.com]

I have the same problem with a completely new installation of Photoshop CS4 on Vista 64-bit. When I remove all plugins, it works fine. But it's quite stupid to do it that way, isn't it? This is a complete list of my plug-ins, so you can check there is no third party

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\3D Engines\Photoshop3DEngine.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\ADM\ADMPlugin.apl
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Automate\CropPhotosAuto.8LI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Automate\HDRMergeUI.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Automate\WIASupport.8LI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Effects\Filter Gallery.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Extensions\FastCore.8BX
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Extensions\MMXCore.8BX
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Extensions\MultiProcessor Support.8BX
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Extensions\ScriptingSupport.8li
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\BMP.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\Cineon.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\Dicom.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\FilmStrip.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\FXG.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\GIF.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\IFF Format.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\OpenEXR.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\PBM.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\PCX.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\Pixar.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\PNG.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\Radiance.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\Targa.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\U3D.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\File Formats\WBMP.8BI
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Average.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\ChannelPort.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Clouds.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Color Halftone.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\CropPhotos.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Crystallize.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\De-Interlace.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Displace.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Extrude.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Fibers.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lens Blur.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lens Correction.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lens Flare.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\LightingEffects.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Liquify.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Mezzotint.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\NTSC Colors.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Pinch.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Pointillize.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Polar Coordinates.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Radial Blur.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Ripple.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Shear.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Smart Blur.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Solarize.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Spherize.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Tiles.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Twirl.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\VanishingPoint.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Wave.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Wind.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\ZigZag.8BF
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\2 O'clock Spotlight
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Blue Omni
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Circle of Light
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Crossing
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Crossing Down
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Default
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Five Lights Down
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Five Lights Up
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Flashlight
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Flood Light
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Parallel Directional
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\RGB Lights
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Soft Direct Lights
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Soft Omni
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Soft Spotlight
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Three Down
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Filters\Lighting Styles\Triple Spotlight
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Image Stacks\statistics.8BA
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Import-Export\Paths to Illustrator.8BE
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Import-Export\Save for Web.8BE
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64 Bit)\Plug-ins\Measurements\MeasurementCore.8ME

[Pavel...@adobeforums.com]

Maybe I have found where is the problem. If there is ANY plugin within \Plug-ins\Extensions\ folder, the ESC key is not working outside Photoshop. If you remove all plugins from this folder, it seems to be ok. But the plugins names seem to be quite "system level" so is it a goog idea to remove them?

FastCore.8BX
MMXCore.8BX
MultiProcessor Support.8BX
ScriptingSupport.8li

And is there a chance to solve the problem? It is 100% NOT in third party plugins, but it seems to be in the core of Photoshop.

[Fred M Stevens]

Pavel- what processor do you have?

also, to clarify, if you have, for example, only the the MMXCore plug-in in that folder, the problem occurs? Basically, the test is: can you put one in at a time, restart Photoshop, and see if you can use ESC.

[Pavel...@adobeforums.com]

Here is my System Info. My Processor is Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8500 @ 3,16 GHz

Adobe Photoshop Version: 11.0 (11.0x20080919 [20080919.r.488 2008/09/19:02:00:00 cutoff; r branch]) X64
Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit
Version: 6.0 Service Pack 1
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:6, Model:7, Stepping:10 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2
Physical processor count: 2
Processor speed: 3172 MHz
OpenGL Drawing: Enabled.
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 x 4294967296 colors
Video Card Driver: atidxx32,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atiumdva,atiumd64.dll,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver Version: 7.01.01.821

I have tried to have only MMXCore plug-in in Extensions folder and it doesn't work. It seems to me that if ANY plug-in is in Extensions folder, the ESC key is blocked just for Photoshop.

[Ge...@adobeforums.com]

Same here. Intel Dual Core 1.73 GHz, Vista 32bit SP1, Intel 965 chipset,GMA x3100.

Only by emptying or placing a tilde in front of the folder do I get the ESC key back.

[Jacek...@adobeforums.com]

I do have the same issue with ESC key not working, but the suggestions above either hardly work (the small program seems to get stuck after few hours) or do not work at all (removing plugins).

I've spent quite a bit trying to figure out the solution, but there just weren't anything working, so I did some reseearch on my own - I installed a fresh copy of Vista x64 Ultimate SP1 (Polish) on my PC, then I installed Photshop's trial... and guess what - ESC key worked fine on this setup.

But since it was a mint installation I wanted to try what would happen if I installed drivers. I tried the display driver first - newest version availabe of ATI catalyst and ESC key stopped working outside PS. I know that Catalyst drivers tend to be crappy and have their stupid hotkeys enabled, but that wasn't the case here as the hotkeys were off.

I googled that some other guy found the same issue and ATI's support said something about permissions and that it isn't their fault or something.

Majority of other people I googled and contacted with had ATI 4850-4870 cards and a few were using laptop x3100 (intel) or 8400m (nvidia) chips. Most were on 64bit Vista's, but the 8400m guy used 32bit.

I have no clue what is wrong :(

[Fraxinus Excelsior]

Friends,
Please report the problem here: <http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform>

Be extensive in describing the problem, and please refer back to this thread.

[elip...@adobeforums.com]

Another observation: when I am editing a text field in PS, the ESC key works in other programs. As soon as I finish editing the text, it stops working again.

[Pavel...@adobeforums.com]

I had some troubles with ATI drivers so I needed to uninstall all ATI stuff - and voilá, ESC key is now working fine outside PS. So I believe there is definitely problem with Photoshop running on machine with ATI Catalyst Center.

[mil...@adobeforums.com]

I just discovered that last ATI Catalyst v. 08.12 does not cause the problem with ESC anymore. Now I can run Photoshop while having Catalyst center running as a background process and everything works well.

[elip...@adobeforums.com]

Too bad I have a NVIDIA based system, no ATI here.

[Ge...@adobeforums.com]

I decided to pound on this problem and the ATI fix gave me a hint. I right-clicked on the Intel (965)GMA icon in my system tray and clicked on "Disable Hotkeys" which had been enabled by default.

Now the ESC key works normally inside and outside Photoshop.

So to Adobe's credit,it was a graphics driver setting that cross threaded with CS4 (and Vista) and not a bug with Photoshop CS4.

[Ge...@adobeforums.com]

Extra note: In the Intel driver settings (965/x3100),unchecking "rotate display" seems to allow the hotkeys to be turned back on without bringing up the CS4 ESC key issue.