Keyboard (and more?) broken in Win 10 VM

C

ChristophB6

Bit poster
Hello,

I'm running Windows 10 via Parallels on my MBP 16" on the latest version of Catalina.
Today, I've run into a seemingly unsolvable keyboard issue (which coincides with low performance, even switching between Excel and Explorer causes hickups...):

My Escape key is not working anymore, plus some other weird keyboard behaviour like Alt key and Win key having "swapped" and unexpected keystrokes being registered without touching the keyboard.
I used Microsoft's own "mskey" application to inspect actual keystrokes (it shows any keystroke including functional keys):
  • When I press "Escape", nothing happens
  • When I press "Escape" together with Ctrl, Alt or Windows, these combined keystrokes are noticed! (And e.g. Ctrl + Escape opens the Windows start menu)
  • Sometimes, when I press Ctrl, Alt or Win, all of a sudden Escape is engaged and released one or several times
  • Without me doing anything, Num lock is sometimes engaged in release, sometimes just one time, sometimes several times in quick succession
This is super weird. I cannot use my VM anymore! I know I once experienced a similar behaviour before but can't think of the solution anymore.
I have not consciously installed software or changed any (even unrelated) settings during the last few days. The only thing I could think of is hitting some obscure keyboard shortcut which causes Parallels to act weirdly?

Here's what I tried without success:
  • Change keyboard layout (language settings) in Windows 10
  • Make sure all accessibility features with regards to the keyboard are deactivated
  • Try to use the MBP's internal keyboard rather than the external keyboard (exactly the same issue)
  • Reboot virtual machine
  • Reboot Mac OS
  • Make sure Parallels 16 is up-to-date (it is)
  • Make sure Windows 10 is up-to-date (it is except for functional update 2004 which I did not install on purpose)
  • Uninstall keyboard drivers and reboot
  • Check Parallels keyboard settings, deactivate and activate Gaming mode
  • Check Parallels keyboard shortcuts settings, try out default settings
  • Update Parallels Toolbox
  • Uninstall Parallels Tools within the virtual machine
  • Restore old Virtual Machine-Image via Time Machine (still the same problem)
  • Uninstall and reinstall Parallels 16 (unfortunately, this does not delete the configuration apparently which still hides somewhere in the Library-folder I suppose?! Why is there no proper uninstaller?)

I'm pretty certain that this a problem in the layer "between" Mac OS and Windows, i.e. Parallels is doing something weird. Everything on my Mac is working just fine, and restoring to an older VM didn't help. Between the keystroke as registered by my Mac and the keystroke actually passed through to Windows, something is off.

I have wasted the entire afternoon but couldn't find a fix. I'm still kind of hoping this is just some hidden checkbox somewhere in the Parallels config but am losing hope. Any suggestions?

If nothing else, how can I properly and completely uninstall Parallels 16 including all configuration files?
Please do not post a link to the knowledge base article which tells me to just drag and drop the app into the trash bin but rather tell me a) every single location of configuration files to delete or b) even better, where to find a proper uninstall script for Parallels 16 on Mac OS Catalina. Thank you!

Best regards,
Christoph
 
One more thing I tried:
I attached a different USB keyboard and had it connect directly to the VM instead of to Mac OS. With this keyboard, everything works as it should, including the Escape key. This is the final proof that Parallels itself actually is the problem.
 
And one additional piece of information which may or may not help:
Running the little helper as described here: https://kb.parallels.com/119070
When I press Escape within the VM, nothing is registered at all. The output in the terminal reads:
hidhook - 18:50:52 +1.09 sec
action.acted 0
action.delayed 0
action.ignored 0
keyboard.dropped 0
keyboard.grabbed 2
keyboard.hooked 0
keyboard.injected 0
keyboard.processed 0
keyboard.sent 0
mouse.grabbed 0
mouse.hooked 0
mouse.injected 0
mouse.processed 0
mouse.sent 0
When I press any other keys (at least any key I tried...), or press/move the mouse, Performance Counter counts this. But the Escape key remains completely ignored.
 
Solution found:
For some reason, the configuration of BetterTouchTool, combined with GoldenChaos-BTT, had the Escape key activated as a trigger - though without any action attached to it, apparently. This caused this weird behaviour.
What to do:
  • Check if the escape key also does not register without running a VM in Parallels. (Shut down your VM, open the top menu bar, and then hit escape - does the menu bar close?)
  • If so, do you have BetterTouchTool or any other tool for keyboard automation and the like installed? Try to deactivate it.
  • If it's BTT: Open configuration -> all apps, look for an Escape key-based trigger and deactivate it.
I have no idea why this problem occurred from one day to the other, because I did not change the configuration for weeks and did not install an update.
But at least, the problem is now solved.
 
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