F8 and F9 do not work in my Delphi application using Windows 7 64 bit

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I have written a personal Delphi application which uses the function keys F1 to F12 as menu and button press shortcuts in various parts of my application. In XP Pro 32 bit and lower, everything works perfectly. I am now using Window 7 Pro 64 bit and everything works perfectly except F8 and F9 no longer function and I have to manually operate the F8 and F9 menu sequences. Essentially I have a main form where pressing one of F8 to F12 brings up the appropriate window from 5 possible forms where the new forms act as the main form since the main form is closed. When I am in a secondary window pressing the function keys allows me to switch between the 5 secondary windows. F8 to F12 are sub-menu items and are not visible on the main or secondary forms unless the “Select Module”, the first item on the main menu, is selected. F9 is the first sub-menu item, F10 to F12 are items 2 to 4 and F8 is the fifth sub-menu item.

Since switching to Windows 7 64 bit, F10, F11 and F12 work perfectly but F8 and F9 do not function for either the main window or the secondary windows. I have searched through Windows help to try and find out what is happening, whether F8 and F9 have some particular function. Nothing else appears to happen when I press the keys and in any case my application has the focus.

Has anyone got any idea about what is going on and how to fix it?

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It could be a bug with Win 7 x64bit – have you considered contacting the vendor or posting on the Delphi forum http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/login/login.aspx?webtag=dflogin

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It could be a bug with Win 7 x64bit – have you considered contacting the vendor or posting on the Delphi forum http://forums.delphiforums.com/n/login/login.aspx?webtag=dflogin

Same problem with commercial program UltraEdit. They found no problem with their program on Win 7 64 bit so it appears to be a problem unique to my computer setup.

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All I can suggest is to try the programs in a clean boot should the conflict be one of the Start up programs/non MS services http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

As the F keys do function in some circumstances, the program will be overriding the computer’s default purpose of those keys.

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All I can suggest is to try the programs in a clean boot should the conflict be one of the Start up programs/non MS services http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

As the F keys do function in some circumstances, the program will be overriding the computer’s default purpose of those keys.

Thanks I will give it a try.

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Thanks I will give it a try.

It was the keyboard. Absolutely unbelievable!!! It is a brand new Saitek keyboard which backlights up the keys to make them easier to see. This feature is a complete washout because the light escaping between the keys is so bright the keyboard lettering does not stand out. I bought an AZIO Vision backlit keyboard with large print keys to replace it. It just came and I decided to swap keyboards before going through your suggestion. F8 and F9 work perfectly. There is no light escaping between the keys and the keys really stand out.

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Not really sure why this should have worked ?

If you could pick out keys F10 – F12, what was the physical difficulty with keys F8 and F9 ?

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