Hi, Michael. Do you remember what the choice you selected said? In other
words, did it say something like:
"Turn off action keys"?
Thank you.
Bill White [email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Mote" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 6:05 AM
Subject: Re: Action Keys Mode - A Warning to Those Buying Certain New
Laptops
I may have been fortunate, but recently when I was setting up a new Dell
computer, I was able to go into the Windows Mobility center, and turn on the
function keys, instead of the media key set up that was originally the
default setting. Anyone who has a new computer may want to check into this,
before going into Bios to make any changes. It's a lot easier, and your
screen reader will read it for you.
-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Solowoniuk [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 8:48 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Action Keys Mode - A Warning to Those Buying Certain New
Laptops
Interesting! I never thought of that. I haven't updated the BIOS since
purchasing my laptop. If I do update the BIOS and mess up my function keys,
I will just take it to work and get one of my co-workers to fix it for me!
:)
Thanks,
Russell
-----Original Message-----
From: David Moore [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2016 3:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Action Keys Mode - A Warning to Those Buying Certain New
Laptops
Hi,
My wife bought me a HP stream for Christmas, I love it except for the
functions going back to having to hold down the FN key to get F1 through
F12. Have a great one.
-----Original Message-----
From: Soronel Haetir
Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 12:44 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Action Keys Mode - A Warning to Those Buying Certain New
Laptops
Unfortunately this is only a temporary fix, at least for HP laptops.
HP laptops revert whenever the bios is updated and that has happened several
times with the one I have now. Thankfully I live with a seeing eye human so
when that happens getting it fixed is fairly easy.
On 1/31/16, Russell Solowoniuk <[email protected]> wrote:
When I purchased my Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 laptop a little over a year ago
from Future Shop, I had the tech guys there go into the bios and set
the function keys to behave the way I needed for Jaws use. I had a bit
of a fight to get them to do this, but insisted they do it or I would
purchase the laptop somewhere where they would do it for me. It took
the tech guy all of 3 minutes to do this. Don’t forget, when you are
spending good money, that you have a right to have your laptop set up
in a way that will work for you.
It’s much easier to get them to do it before the sale is made! :).
Thanks,
Russell
On Jan 31, 2016, at 3:44 PM, Brian Vogel <[email protected]> wrote:
For all I know the following may apply to some desktops and/or
all-in-ones, too, but I've not yet encountered it in these environments.
Since the beginning of the laptop, convention had been that the
function keys across the very top of the keyboard required the Fn key
that's nested along the very bottom of the keyboard to be held before
hitting a given function key to make it perform whatever function the
manufacturer defines for that key. Most people are familiar with
function keys to do things
like: volume up, volume down, mute, wireless on/off, brightness up,
brightness down, etc.
There is a new feature that HP, at least, calls "Action Keys Mode"
which turns this convention on its head. When activated, this makes
a simple press of a given function key trigger its function rather
than being passed along to whatever application as a key press. This
can have some "interesting" effects for screen reader users. This
function is currently enabled by default on my laptop and the F6 key
so happens to be the Mute on/off toggle key. When using NVDA, if I
press F6 it simply toggles the mute state. In order to make it
behave as F6 normally would I must hit
Fn+F6. This does not apply if the SHIFT is pressed along with F6 in
order
to reverse the direction. That works perfectly well. I can only
imagine the chaos this could unleash if you start using the various
commands that employ the function keys on a system with Action Keys Mode
activated.
Action Keys Mode can be disabled, but it is controlled via UEFI/BIOS.
On my machine one disables it by activating the UEFI menu by doing a
repeated ESC key press during boot and selecting F10 choice. Once
the old-fashioned BIOS-like screen pops up, you have to transition to
the System Configuration pane and arrow to the Action Keys Mode entry
and disable it. Since this is done well before the operating system
is even involved, I don't know of a single screen reader that could
be active to accomplish the task.
Since this mode is controlled by the hardware ahead of any
intervention by anything else, you must disable it if you wish your
function keys to operate "the way they always have."
Brian
--
Soronel Haetir
[email protected]
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 12965 (20160202) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 12965 (20160202) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
--
JFW related links:
JFW homepage: http://www.freedomscientific.com/
JFW List instructions:
To post a message to the list, send it to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to
[email protected]
Archives located at: http://www.groups.io/g/jfw/threads
Alternative archives located at:
http://n2.nabble.com/JAWS-for-Windows-f2145279.html
If you have any concerns about the list, posts received from the list, or the
way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the
list owner at [email protected].
-=-=-
Groups.io Links:
You receive all messages sent to this group.
View This Message (#37885): https://groups.io/g/jfw/message/37885
Mute This Thread: https://groups.io/mt/560522?uid=21656
Change Your Subscription: https://groups.io/g/jfw/editsub?uid=21656
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/jfw/leave/46502/1292106160/xyzzy
Group Home: https://groups.io/g/jfw
Contact Group Owner: [email protected]
Terms of Service: https://groups.io/static/tos
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
