Java Keystroke and Mouse Event Tutor / Keyboard diagnostic. Application to let you experiment to learn how mouse and keystroke events work. Output appears on the console. Just click the mouse or hit keystrokes and watch what details of the events generated. You can use it to learn how Java events work, how the keyboard hardware works, and to diagnose defective keyboards. To install, Extract the zip download with WinZip, available from http://www.winzip.com (or similar unzip utility) into any directory you please, often C:\ -- ticking off the "user folder names" option. To run as an application, type: java.exe -jar C:\com\mindprod\keyplayer\keyplayer.jar adjusting as necessary to account for where the jar file is. Whenever you hit a key on the keyboard, three events will show up at your KeyListener, first an event at keyPressed, then at keyTyped, then at keyReleased. If you hold a key down and it repeats, you will see that triple repeated over and over. If you hit the ctrl key and hold it down you will see repeated events at keyPressed and finally one at keyReleased when you let go. There is no event at keyTyped. When you hit Ctrl+C you see keyCode 03, ^C, ETX not the letter C. Java combines the keys for you. It is not your problem to track the ctrl or shift state and modify the meanings of other keystrokes. If certain keystrokes are missing, try rebooting with as many autorun programs as possible disabled, One of them may be capturing the keystroke combination, e.g. Winamp or Allchars. Your keyboard may be malfunctioning. Powering off and on may clear it. Don't connect/disconnect the keyboard with the power on. It if is progammable, reset it. If some keys stick or malfunction, try cleaning your keyboard. See http://mindprod.com/bgloss/keyboardcleaning.html See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/event11.html#KEYSTROKEEVENTS and http://mindprod.com/jgloss/event11.html#KEYSTROKENAMES for more detail on interpreting the output. Nothing will happen unless the KeyPlayer window (not the console window) has focus and the console window is not paused. Click with your mouse in the empty KeyPlayer window if you see not response in the console window. I like to run KeyPlayer in a Take Command console window where I can easily control the width, height, colours etc. of the window. See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/takecommand.html Testing Run Keyplayer. Click the Keyplayer window (not the console). You should see one line for each mouse or keystroke event packet generated. mouseEntered ID=504=MOUSE_ENTERED (166,189) mousePressed ID=501=MOUSE_PRESSED (151,155) BUTTON1_MASK mouseReleased ID=502=MOUSE_RELEASED(151,155) BUTTON1_MASK mouseClicked ID=500=MOUSE_CLICKED (151,155) BUTTON1_MASK mouseExited ID=505=MOUSE_EXITED (151,197) Hit the A key. You should see: keyPressed ID=401=KEY_PRESSED raw KeyCode='A'=0x0041=65 VK_A cooked KeyChar='a'=0x0061=97 keyTyped ID=400=KEY_TYPED raw KeyCode='_'=0x0000=0 VK_UNDEFINED cooked KeyChar='a'=0x0061=97 keyReleased ID=402=KEY_RELEASED raw KeyCode='A'=0x0041=65 VK_A cooked KeyChar='a'=0x0061=97 hit the space key. You should see: keyPressed ID=401=KEY_PRESSED raw KeyCode=' '=0x0020=32 VK_SPACE cooked KeyChar=' '=0x0020=32 keyTyped ID=400=KEY_TYPED raw KeyCode='_'=0x0000=0 VK_UNDEFINED cooked KeyChar=' '=0x0020=32 keyReleased ID=402=KEY_RELEASED raw KeyCode=' '=0x0020=32 VK_SPACE cooked KeyChar=' '=0x0020=32 tap the alt key. You should see: keyPressed ID=401=KEY_PRESSED raw KeyCode='_'=0x0012=18 VK_ALT cooked KeyChar='_'=0xffff=65535 ALT_MASK keyReleased ID=402=KEY_RELEASED raw KeyCode='_'=0x0012=18 VK_ALT cooked KeyChar='_'=0xffff=65535 hit the F2 funciton key. You should see: keyPressed ID=401=KEY_PRESSED raw KeyCode='q'=0x0071=113 VK_F2 cooked KeyChar='_'=0xffff=65535 keyReleased ID=402=KEY_RELEASED raw KeyCode='q'=0x0071=113 VK_F2 cooked KeyChar='_'=0xffff=65535