Topic Keyman 9 and Windows 8.1 issues

Hello,
I have similar issues that Stephen K has posted in this forum, using Keyman Desktop 9 (pro). I have used Keyman Desktop 8 (Pro and Light) under Windows 8.1 64b for several months without problems. In my computers, I have two system keyboards, Spanish and Arabic, and one personal keyboard made by myself with Keyman Developer 8 to transliterate the arabic script. As I said, I can choose and use any of these three keyboards quite normally with Keyman Desktop 8.
After upgrading to Keyman 9, my personal keyboard remained installed, but it didn't work. I had to uninstall it and reinstall it again manually. The Windows 8.1 hotkeys to switch the languages are disabled. LAlt + shift is no longer working with Keyman 9. I had to setup these keys to change the languages in the configuration menu of Keyman 9. However, the hotkeys I have choosen for keyboard switching sometimes work, and sometimes don't.
Additionally, Keyman 9 does not seem to be properly integrating with Word 2013 (64b). When I run this program, and can choose my keyboard (which is not always an easy task, as I said), it sometimes happens that I cannot write anything... So I must close Keyman 9 and start it again to use Word as usual...
I hope all these mismatches are corrected soon.
Thank you for your help and support.
Miguel Á. Manzano

Miguel,

Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'd like to get to the bottom of this. Here are a few things to start with, please:

1. Open the Windows languages Control Panel, add a random language and remove it again. This reset the Windows language settings and we've found that sometimes this is enough to resolve.

2. Check that you are on the latest version of Keyman Desktop -- the latest release 9.0.475.0 corrects an issue with keyboard switching on Windows 8.

3. Can you send me a diagnostic report, from Support tab of Keyman Configuration (see http://help.keyman.com/kb/40 for steps)

(I should also note, for those who need to downgrade to version 8.0 for any reason, the steps in KB85 are no longer required.)

Thank you Marc for your quick support.
I've just send the report, and by the way, I'm using Keyman 9.0.475.0 Pro Edition.
Thanks again. Best regards
Miguel

Thanks for the diagnostic report, Miguel. I have reviewed it but cannot immediately spot any issues. Would you be willing to send in a debug log file?

The challenge here would be to note down, as accurately as possible, the steps you are taking when switching languages, while recording the debug log, so that I can then correlate those steps with the actions you are taking.

To record a debug log, tick the Debugging option in Keyman Configuration/Options/Advanced, then exit and restart Keyman Desktop. Use the computer, switching keyboards until you reproduce the issue, noting the steps and keystrokes you make as far as possible (not on the same computer of course!) Once you are comfortable that you have captured the issue, exit Keyman Desktop again.

The debug log file will be located in a keymanlog folder on your desktop. Just send that in to [email protected] with your notes on the steps you took.

After recording the debug log, don't forget to turn the debugging option back off again -- it captures everything you type while active, so is both a privacy issue and a file size issue.

Alternatively, I would be do this interactively with you through a remote support session. Just let me know either way :)

Hi, Marc,
I followed your indications and installed another language on the Control Panel of Windows 8.1, and removed it after a few minutes. So, I have got LAlt+Shift again for language switching, as you said. Keyman 9 is seemingly more stable. At least, I can change the keyboards without problems, and Word 2013 is not blocked till now.
As for the debug log, sorry, but I can only try it in the same computer where I had problems. I don't want to install Keyman 9 on my laptop which works great with Keyman 8. I'm sure you understand me.
Thanks again. Best regards,
Miguel

Miguel,

Glad to hear that the Control Panel trick fixed things for you. We are going to continue to explore this here and do additional testing on Keyman 9 with Windows 8.1. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of why sometimes the language configuration gets out of sync.