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What to do when your mouse or keyboard stops working?

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Getting a working mouse or keyboard is the best option but what if you need to do something urgently. Lets take a look at both the cases one by one. We are not going to use any third party application but just windows built in tools to achieve the goal.

What to do when your keyboard stops working?

This can even work when only some of your keys are not working as they are meant to. Windows come with an on-screen keyboard that you can click on and it acts as if you have pressed those keys from your keyboard. You can run the on-screen keyboard by typing osk in the Run dialog box. Press Win + R > osk.

run_onscreen_keyboard

Alternatively you can run it from

Start > Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > On-Screen Keyboard.

onscreen_keyboard

What to do when your mouse stops working?

You can do almost every thing without mouse with the help of shortcuts. Here are some of the shortcuts:

  • Win + E Open Explorer
  • Alt + Tab Switch Windows
  • Ctrl + Tab Switch between Desktop Icons, Start Menu, Quick Launch & System Tray
  • Win + D Minimize All
  • Shift + F10 Right Click (Although keyboard comes with a separate right click button)
  • Alt + F4 Close current application
  • Alt + Space bar Gives the option of maximizing, minimizing and closing the window
  • Ctrl + C Copy
  • Ctrl + X Cut
  • Ctrl + Z Undo
  • Ctrl + V Paste
  • Ctrl + A Select All
  • Hold Ctrl & Select by Space bar to select multiple items
  • Hold Alt & a single key for selecting menu in Menu bar

If you find shortcuts hard to remember, then you can use your numpad as a mouse. To activate it, press Left Shift + Left Alt + Num Lock. Pressing Right Shift & Alt button will not work.
Now you can move your pointer through the following keys:

2 = Move Down
8 = Move Up
4 = Move Left
6 = Move Right
7 = Move Top Left Diagonally
9 = Move Top Right Diagonally
1 = Move Bottom Left Diagonally
3 = Move Bottom Right Diagonally
5 = Single Left Click
+ = Double Click
- = Right Click

Press the combination again to disable. By default, the mouse pointer is set to move very slowly. You can change the settings so that it moves faster. To change the setting, Go to Control Panel > Accessibility Options.

accessibility_settings_1

Select the Mouse tab and click Settings.

accessibility_settings_2

Increase both the sliders of Top Speed and Acceleration to the right for maximum speed and acceleration. You can change them as per your need but their maximum value doesn’t make the mouse pointer moves fast. So you can select the maximum values without thinking.

I have myself used on-screen keyboard for more than a week and regarding the scenario when mouse don’t work , I prefer shortcuts. Even when the mouse is in absolute fine condition, I stick to keyboard only. What about you? Have you ever been into such a scenario? Do share with us in the comments.

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Leave A Comment

17 responses so far ↓

  • 1 RP Mar 18, 2008 at 10:33 pm

    “Press Ctrl + R > osk.” Just so you know it’s Win + r > osk. Ctrl + r is reload :grin:

  • 2 Ashfame Mar 19, 2008 at 10:31 am

    @RP
    Thanks for correcting me. I have edited in the post.

  • 3 Rakshit Mar 20, 2008 at 12:55 am

    Good post. Nicely written. I’ll try to remember as many shortcuts as possible. Although I know some of them but I am sure that’s not enough.
    Thanks for sharing….
    :-)

  • 4 Ashfame Mar 20, 2008 at 12:59 am

    @Rakshit
    If you forgot the name then just remember where you read about it. Thats my blog. heh :mrgreen:

  • 5 Jake Mar 24, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    Hey. How are you supposed to type OSK in the run dialogue if your keyboard isn’t working. You can open it the other way but its a wrong step.

    Thanks, Jake

  • 6 Ashfame Mar 27, 2008 at 7:23 pm

    @Jake
    Read the first line of the paragraph. It says “This can even work when only some of your keys are not working as they are meant to.” So if all of your keys are not working other than o,s & k you can still do it.

  • 7 just kiddin Mar 30, 2008 at 3:19 am

    I got up the OSK and clicked on cntl-alt-del but my pc didn’t reboot

    Am I doing anything wrong ;)

  • 8 Ashfame Mar 31, 2008 at 11:18 am

    @just kiddin
    This combination doesn’t work for me either.

  • 9 Blog Statistics For March 2008 Apr 2, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    [...] What to do when your mouse or keyboard stops working? [...]

  • 10 bobp Apr 7, 2008 at 3:55 am

    For those using Linux, there is gok. Gnome Onscreen Keyboard.

  • 11 jersey girl Apr 9, 2008 at 10:28 am

    really that is neat

  • 12 Dave Bowker Apr 9, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    Excellent. If my keyboard stops working, all I have to do is open up the run dialog box and type… wait… what?

  • 13 XtCrAvE Apr 10, 2008 at 3:52 am

    A Nice post and well laid out! Thanks!

    Also if you like to keep things keyboard only give launchy a try, alt + space brings up it’s launching menu and a few more letters gives you the most relavant applications on your pc!
    ie:
    alt + space (to bring up launchy)
    fir (brings up firefox)
    (lanuches firefox)

    once you get used to it you want it everywhere!

  • 14 Dummy Apr 10, 2008 at 4:36 am

    “What to do when your mouse or keyboard stops working?”

    “…You can run the on-screen keyboard by typing osk in the Run dialog box. Press Win + R > osk.”

    Hey, how the fuck are you going to do this without a keyboard?

    Not to mention how anyone who doesn’t ride a shortbus knows about this feature…

  • 15 WTF Apr 14, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    How on earth will you be able to TYPE in osk in the run dialog if your keyboard is broken?

  • 16 Ashfame Apr 19, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    @all

    As I said earlier in comment 6

    Read the first line of the paragraph. It says “This can even work when only some of your keys are not working as they are meant to.” So if all of your keys are not working other than o,s & k you can still do it.

  • 17 Valdemaras Jun 29, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    i’m currently using osk cause both my laptops and periferal keyboaardss are not working. thats sucks but hey…