Hi Lenny,
There are a few things that I've experienced that have helped me in a
similar situation, especially if your laptop is a fairly new one.
First and foremost, you should confirm that the function, or FN key is not
active. In other words, are you able to shut down an application using the
alt+F4 command, or do you have to press a third key to accomplish this task.
If the former, you need do nothing, if the latter, depending on which
company your laptop is from, you may be able to switch this function off,
either by using the laptop's native software for modifying it's settings,
these are usually provided by the brand of your laptop, i.e. Toshiba, HP,
Dell, etc. If these tools are not available to you, or you don't have
access t the feature, then you must go through the BIOS set up, and make the
changes there.
I'm sorry, but I cannot provide detailed instructions on how to do this, as
it's been a long time since I've seen the BIOS set up screen, but the status
of the function keys are clearly labeled, so, if you have sighted
assistance, they can explain what's on the screen, and you can go from
there. There is a little section of the BIOS screen that houses an
explanation of what each item in the list allows you to change, so if the
person uses the arrow keys or mouse to single click on any option, the
explanation will appear on the right side of the screen. I don't think
that's changed in the years I've lost my sight.
Second thing you want to examine is if you may have another application open
in the background that you may not be aware of. On my friend's laptop, and
on my own that I purchased a few years ago, I found that the camera
application was taking over the screen, so when ever I had shut down all
applications, it turned out that I hadn't even though Jaws reported that I
had landed on the desktop, I hadn't, and had landed on the camera
application, which was always on top of the OS, thus constantly frustrating
my efforts to go to the desktop once my applications were closed.
This option can be shut down on two ways, by going to the task manager with
control+shift+escape, then, once in the task manager window, control+tab to
the services tab, arrow down the list of services until you find the one
that deals with the camera, and set it to manual. This may or may not be
desirable, especially if you have sighted people who use the camera function
for Skype or some other video application. The other way to shut down this
feature is to go through the MS Configuration file, which you can get to
using the Windows+R command, then typing in, "msconfig", without the quotes,
and pressing enter.
On the resulting screen, control+tab to the services tab, and the start-up
tab, and uncheck any items that have to do with the camera. Again, same
caveat as the above for sighted users of the computer.
One thing though, if you get to the services tab and you find less than
seventy-five items in the list, then you may have the checkbox to hide all
Microsoft services checked, so press the spacebar to uncheck it, then
shift+tab back to the list and you should now see a large number of items in
the list.
The third and final thing you may have going on is that you may have the
taskbar set to hide until you arrow to it, or you press the start key.
Fortunately, this can readily be fixed by pressing windows key+I, then in
the search bar, type "taskbar" without the quotes, and press enter. The
result should automatically be spoken by Jaws, which is taskbar settings, so
press enter to go directly to that option in your settings.
When the page loads up, you'll land on the search field, so tab around, and
you'll land on taskbar, which is where you want to be.
Keep tabbing until you find the above options, and make sure they are
unchecked. You'll know they are unchecked if Jaws reads out that they are
simple buttons. If they are checked, Jaws will report it as so.
Hopefully, any of all of the above will allow you to return to what you're
most comfortable with. Good luck.
Scorpio
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