How To Fix Escape and Tab Keys Not Working In Windows XP under Windows Vista or Windows 7

The Escape, Tab and other assorted keys can sometimes stop functioning under in XP running in Virtual PC under Windows Vista or Windows 7.

After searching for a possible solution, I found one, but it didn’t work for me, but I found a workaround, though it is a bit tedious.

First, the solution I found:

1. Shut down Virtual PC after shutting down any running virtual machines.

2. Go to Local Security Policy under Administrative Tools, which can be found under Control Panel.

3. In the Security Settings section on the right, select Additional Rules under Software Restriction Policies.

4. Create a new Path Rule.

5. Specify %AppData%\Microsoft\Virtual PC\VPCKeyboard.dll as the path.

Alternatively, C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Virtual PC\VPCKeyboard.dll can be specified, where %UserName% is the username under which you log into Windows.

6. Specify Unrestricted as the Security Level.

7. Restart Virtual PC and the misbehaving virtual machine and note that the Escape, Tab and other keys are now working.

Now, the problem is that the above solution did not fix the issue for me, while running under Windows 7. However, the following does work, intermittently.

1. Shut down Virtual PC after shutting down any running virtual machines.

2. Open Windows Explorer.

3. Type %AppData% in the address bar and press Enter.

4. Navigate to the path Roaming\Microsoft\Virtual PC under the %AppData% folder.

5. Locate the file Options.xml in the above folder and delete it.

6. Restart Virtual PC and the misbehaving virtual machine and note that the Escape, Tab and other keys are now working.

NB: The issue will occasionally reappear requiring the above process to be repeated. Needless to say, that is irritating.

This solution does work for me. I hope this helps. Please drop me your comments and if you know of a better way of fixing this issue.