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I encountered this problem several times. I want to use a character accessible using the AltGr Key but for some reason it doesn't work. As if I didn't press the AltGr key.

Usually I experience this in remote Desktop but not on my local machine. I think that this is triggered when doing a combination of those keys : Alt/Ctrl/AltGr/Shift + Enter. But I tried many of those combinations, and it didn't solve the problem.

I also figured out that I could access the characters I needed while doing Ctrl+AltGr+Key instead of AltGr+Key.

peterh
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Xeltor
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  • You are probably invoking the "change keyboard layout" hot key by mistake. – Raymond Chen May 06 '14 at 01:31
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    I'm not, i've checked for this one, and i'm sure Alt+Shift isn't involved. Anyway i only have one keyboard layout available, i disable the others. – Xeltor May 06 '14 at 12:50
  • I had this problem also when using UWP 10 emulator. Closing the emulator fixed it. – Dpedrinha Feb 17 '17 at 19:26
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    This happens to me when I have an open remote desktop window. – Mathias Dolidon Jan 17 '18 at 19:24
  • It only applies to me, and that is frequent, when I have a remote desktop window open and I am entering data on my local computer. Switching to the RDP and entering an Alt-Grp key fixes it – Chris Chris Jan 17 '22 at 16:33

1 Answers1

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I found a solution for my problem while writing my question !

Going into my remote session i tried two key combinations, and it solved the problem on my Desktop : Alt+Enter and Ctrl+Enter (i don't know which one solved the problem though)

I tried to reproduce the problem, but i couldn't... but i'm almost sure it's one of the key combinations described in the question above (since i experienced this problem several times)

So it seems the problem comes from the use of RDP (windows7 and 8)

Update 2017: Problem occurs on Windows 10 aswell.

Mwiza
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Xeltor
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    I've ran into the same issue. In my case, the culprit was indeed RDC (fullscreen mode). It's easy to reproduce : open a RD connection, but before the focus switches to the newly opened window, you switch focus back to your normal desktop using alt-tab... and voila, alt gr stopped working. – Steven K. Dec 24 '14 at 09:25
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    Related SuperUser question with answers: https://superuser.com/questions/602067/altgr-randomly-stops-working-on-windows-8 – janv8000 Feb 11 '15 at 07:51
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    What exactly do you mean 'Going into my remote session'? When do press Alt+Enter? – Rune Jeppesen Oct 15 '15 at 14:15
  • @RuneJeppesen i mean bring the focus to your remote desktop window – Xeltor Nov 30 '15 at 13:13
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    it used to remote desktop, too, which was causing the problem all the time. At least, after clicking anywhere in the remote desktop (sometimes I had to try out all remote desktop sessions), the problem disappeared. However, now I am experiencing the problem without having run remote desktop since the last system boot. – riddleculous Mar 29 '16 at 16:59
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    Can´t believe it.... I closed my running RDP and Alt Gr is working again. Thanks. Had this already a lot of times and THIS time I was really pissed ;-) – cljk Oct 18 '16 at 09:40
  • Had exactly the same issue, but wasn't running any RDP clients. However, I was connected to a Hyper-V image, and going into that session pressing Alt+Enter / Ctrl+Enter solved the problem in my host os (windows 10). – Dan May 15 '17 at 12:29
  • Didn't work for me (Windows 7). I had to switch my language to EN then switch back to FR. – Jibato Aug 10 '17 at 09:56
  • Simply pressing and release Ctrl and Alt in turn in an editor on the remote host fixed it for me. – galmok Jan 24 '18 at 11:12
  • Many thanks. I lost the AltGr on my local machine. Closing all my remote desktop sessions restored it (Windows 10 1703). – Mark Willis Feb 01 '18 at 07:56
  • My Alt Gr key suddenly stopped working (could not write @ with a Norwegian keyboard layout). I went to my remote connection, pressed Ctrl + Enter, which immediately solved the problem. How odd. – leifericf Jun 27 '18 at 07:36
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    This fix also adds an unwanted US keyboard layout to the keyboard layout selection, which cannot be removed (and is not listed) in the language settings. Clearly a bug in Windows and/or Remote Desktop. There is no way this can be intended behavior. – Florian Winter Oct 22 '18 at 11:13
  • Same for me. Problem was solved by closing the Remote Desktop windows! – Daniel Sep 08 '20 at 12:36
  • After Closing "ngRemote" the issue in my case was solved – Gill-Bates Sep 30 '21 at 10:58
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    The issue happens when you open a RDP connection. Just bring the RDP window in foreground and press Alt + Enter . The issue will disappear on all other windows too. | Source: [How to Fix Alt Gr Key Not Working](https://tommynation.com/fix-alt-gr-key-working/#comment-2775211175). Additional : https://superuser.com/questions/1149165/altgr-randomly-stops-working-on-windows-10 – iifast2 Dec 08 '21 at 11:16