ESC key not working outside PS in Vista...

[_Eli_Roth_]

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!

[_SKYNET__MJ_]

've same problem. I'm using an Russian Vista version.

2Eli: Thanks for suggestion of using SHIFT key ;)

[_Jack_Cole_]

Thanks for the Shift+Escape key suggestion and for pointing that it's related to Photoshop. Just googled "Escape key not working in Vista" and got this topic.

[frax_-L75d7K]

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

[IntelliSerge]

I wrote a tool which fixes this problem: http://amip.tools-for.net/files/tools/PsEscFix.zip . See the readme inside.

[IntelliSerge]

I wrote a fix for this issue in a form of the small app and posted a link here, but Adobe has removed my post without any explanation.

Here it is again: http://amip.tools-for.net/files/tools/ .

Adobe, before silently removing user posts, try to explain why you are doing it.

[DC Cardwell]

Thanks so much for the tool, IntelliSerge! This issue has been driving me nuts for a long time and I never made the connection with Photoshop until today. I wondered why I couldn't ESC out of Irfanview, which I often have running to preview files before opening them in Photoshop.

The tool fixes it admirably. Well done!

- DC

[_ramzesnet_]

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...

[_soulburner_]

Got the same trouble under Vista Business SP1

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

[Guest]

Can't reproduce it here!

[_milosh6_]

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.

[malcolm341]

I was having the no escape key issue in Win 7 64bit with Photoshop CS4 32bit, it was also happening with XNview, going to task bar and killing the ccc.exe process fixed it for me. ATI Catalyst Control Center.

[Jörg_Wagner]

Same problem here:

CS4 with PShop64 on Win 7 Ultimate 64

Catalyst Control Center

Switching off the hotkeys in CCC did not improve the situation.

But killing the CCC process in taskmanager did indeed!

Thanks you malcolm341, this was a great help.

And shame on Adobe. Considering the prices of their products (especially outside of the US) they behave lousy. Whatever bad reputation Microsoft has earned over the last decades, Adobe is doing their very best to catch up on them if not beating them. Very typical North American mind set: The only remaining focus is EBITDA and shareholder value. I am not at all happy that I have to use products of this company.

[Noel Carboni]

Shame on Adobe?  You have an oddball system software setup on your machine interfering with normal operation of Photoshop (proven by your closing another app and making it work) and you blame Adobe?  That seems a little irresponsible.

FYI, I've used ATI cards and Catalyst Control Center for years, and I haven't seen the problem.

-Noel

[Jörg_Wagner]

Sorry Noel, wrong conclusion. If you read through this thread thoroughly you will find that the effect happens in conjunction with at least three different graphics card related products but is ultimately triggered by Photoshop CS4 (or lower). It happens only with Photoshop, no other software is reported to create the problem (not here and not elsewhere on the web).

Conclusion:

Is it an interference effect between different products? Yes.

Is it originally caused by the graphics card products?  Probably not.

Is it caused by the Photoshop? Probably yes.

I haved used CS4 myself without any problems for years on an XP system with Catalyst. This proves nothing.

Right now, on a completely new and clean Win7 system, I experience this problem. It happens ONLY with Photoshop. No other software triggers it.

As I cannot resign Photoshop I have to kill CCC, even if Pshop is the culprit.

[Chris Cox]

I thought ATI had already fixed this issue in their drivers some time ago, but apparently you are still seeing the same old bug in CCC.

Please disable CCC, and contact ATI to let them know that you don't like CCC globally grabbing key events when it recognizes certain applications are running.

[Noel Carboni]

No system is completely "clean and new". You have undoubtedly already visited web sites, many of which install Add-on software, and have installed at least some applications.  What antivirus solution are you running?

I'm not doubting that you see the problem; I'm just saying that it's really up to you to ferret out the problem and integrate the parts of your system so that everything works properly together.  This is the price we pay for having inexpensive mix and match computer hardware and software.

Have you updated to the latest Catalyst driver set from the AMD web site (11.9 as of right now)?

Can you describe an exact sequence for reproducing the problem?  As I have both Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64 systems here with Photoshop CS4, along with Catalyst 11.9 (CCC is running), I will be more than happy to check specifics.

-Noel

[Jörg_Wagner]

@Chris:  I have disabled CCC. Simply disabling hotkeys in CCC is not enough.

@Noel:  I am running 11.8. Will update tomorrow and report whether this solves the problem.

[Noel Carboni]

Also, did you try disabling HotKeys then rebooting?

Photoshop CS4 responds to the Escape key in every case for me with CCC running (but HotKeys unchecked) on my Windows 7 x64 system.

-Noel

[Jörg_Wagner]

Updated to Catalyst 11.9 now. Behaviour is unchanged:

PShop eats Esc as long as CCC is running.

Disabling hotkeys in CCC and rebooting does NOT change the problem.

Disabling the autostart of CCC in msconfig and rebooting SOLVES the problem.

How to reproduce:

The problem does not affect all software, e.g. it does NOT affect Notepad.

But it DOES affect the MS Office suite 2010:

Start Excel, hit Ctrl-F to open the Find dialog, hit ESC and the Find dialog is dismissed.

Now start Photoshop. Switch to Excel and try again. On my machine the Find dialog is not dismissed anymore if Photoshop has been started after Excel. The dialog is completely unaffected by ESC when Photoshop is running. (It still can be dismissed hitting Shift-ESC, as others have reported.)

Some programs seem to lose ESC only if they have been started BEFORE Photoshop is started. Restarting them after Photoshop gives them back their ESC functionality. So make sure to start the program to test for ESC before you start Photoshop.

[Noel Carboni]

Thank you for the detailed steps to reproduce the problem.  I can reproduce it using your steps, using Excel 2003 and Photoshop CS4, with CCC running.

For what it's worth, the problem does not show up when I run Photoshop CS5 on the same system under the same circumstances.

As Adobe is no longer actively updating Photoshop CS4, it looks like your alternatives are to run your system without CCC or upgrade to Photoshop CS5.

-Noel

[Chris Cox]

Jorg - you have a few mistakes.

Photoshop does not eat the escape key.  CCC is consuming the event for the escape key.  CCC only consumes that event when certain applications it recognizes are running, and Photoshop is one of those applications.

Again, I thought that ATI had already fixed this issue.  At least they didn't put CS5 on their application list...

[Jörg_Wagner]

Great, so we are back at step zero:  Adobe shifts the blame to AMD/ATI.

You are persistently ignoring the fact that the problem also happens with Intel GMAs - as reported by multiple users in this thread.

The recommendation to invest into an update of your product to solve what is very likely your fault is rediculous and offending.

Please continue your hide&seek game without me. I stand by everything that I have said about Adobe.

[Chris Cox]

We never reproduced this problem on Intel GPUs. We did reproduce it with ATI drivers and debugged it to find a problem in CCC.  We notified ATI, and thought they had fixed it.

I'm sorry you're not happy with the way things are, and sorry that you continue to blame the wrong party.

But you can talk to ATI about the bug, or disable CCC and recover the functionality you're missing.

[Tomas_Eklund]

Dear Chris Cox,

I see that you missed reading my earlier posts in this thread, and you seem to have skipped a lot of other user's posts as well. If you look back you will find that not only did I report using a Mobile Intel 945 Express graphics chip (so you can't blame ATI there), but I also found evidence suggesting that Photoshop CS2 does indeed hijack the ESC key: By pressing ESC in a different application I was able to cancel the loading of a large image in Photoshop. Please explain this in terms of "it's not our fault, blame so and so..."

Others have reported similar issues with other graphics cards still, many users having NVIDIA graphics cards and drivers - and you still claim it's ATI's fault? Even though killing the process of the respective graphics card's control center, or deleting the plugins folders, or turning off UAC seems to alleviate the problem in some circumstances, the one common denominator in all reported cases is... Photoshop!

You should be careful not to utter ridiculous statements like "sorry that you continue to blame the wrong party", when in fact you seem to be doing just that. It's evident that you are not on the Adobe marketing team, or you would probably know better and choose your wording more carefully. Please remember that most customers writing here are not media trained, but rather just frustrated users. You, on the other hand, represent Adobe and should really not be the one taking this discussion to the sandbox level. Perhaps some basic training on marketing and customer communication would be in place if you are to continue participating in these forums? I just took the time to re-read this entire thread and not anywhere did I see the "Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention, we take your concerns seriously and will go to great effort to find a solution to this problem which seem to cause a great deal of aggravation to our valued customers" response one could expect from a reputed software company. Instead all your responses seem to be trying to blame someone else. It's so unprofessional - and immature - it leaves me flabbergasted.

I do recognize that computer systems of today are incredibly complex, with a myriad of potentially conflicting software running simultaneously, there is a slim chance that Photoshop is not actually the culprit here. But let's face it - at this point there is no strong evidence that suggests that. Rather, since Adobe's official attitude has always been "its' probably not our fault..." it's way too likely that your next (silent) thought was "...so we're not even going to look into it with a great deal of effort".

It just goes to show what Adobe really stands for, and frankly - it leaves me quite disappointed.