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On a PC, I use the Xbox Game Bar screenshot and clip features often via their shortcut keys, WinAltg for a clip, WinAltPrntScrn for a screenshot. Note that I prefer Xbox Game Bar Screenshots because they are named sensibly, unlike the OneDrive PrntScrn handler.

Often after hitting those keystrokes the Windows key then becomes "stuck", and pressing any other keyboard key that corresponds to a shortcut (Winx, Wind, etc.), the game loses focus and it's a scramble to bring it back to the foreground and then un-stick the Windows key, which is basically accomplished by me jamming all of the bottom left command keys and hoping that's sufficient.

This is not the Windows Accessibility / Ease-of-Access "Sticky Keys" feature, that as well as it's accompanying activation shortcut is disabled. Nor is the Key physically sticking. Its "down" state in-software becomes stuck, even though it was pressed and released as part of the clip / screenshot activation which does take place.

In case this is a game specific problem, it happens mostly in Rocket League. Is there something I can do about the key state becoming stuck?

Using the Xbox Game Bar overlay via the mouse is not an option because it's too slow, the keyboard shortcut is a mash-and-its-done solution. I looked into accomplishing this via a trigger system like a StreamDeck, but those can't invoke the built in Xbox Game Bar stuff, it can do equivalent stuff off to 3rd party services, but I don't want that.

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  • Have you tried a different keyboard to see if it might be a defect in the keyboard itself?
    – Nzall
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 18:05
  • I doubt it is because I use the Windows key extensively, and it’s never exhibited this behavior except in this case. Thinking it over more it seems like this is Rocket League specific behavior because I use the snap tools even for other apps like a browser, but don’t recall ever having an issue with typing immediately after. Though I use it in Rocket League a lot, and anything else much less often.
    – VxJasonxV
    Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 18:10
  • Do you have rocket league fullscreen when you clip?
    – Corsaka
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 9:47
  • Yup. The inadvertent loss of focus is doubly jarring since the game’s window “goes away”, sound too. Makes me think it’s a crash every time, but it’s not.
    – VxJasonxV
    Commented Dec 18, 2019 at 9:52
  • Did you ever figure this out? Happens to me too.
    – themerlinproject
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 0:36

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This sort of a problem, sticky keys (not to be confused with Windows' accessibility feature "Sticky Keys"), has been around for a very long time. I have fond memories of DOS games in the early Windows eras (Win 3.1-98), and how many of them had problems with the Alt key, because sometimes Windows trapped that, sometimes not.

I didn't "solve this" strictly speaking, I just worked around it.

I was already planning on buying an Elgato Stream Deck for other purposes, and buying it means I could use it as a keyboard macro / input system for this problem as well, which I have done. I believe this also means that a secondary keyboard would work as well, though that may be more dodgy and doesn't entirely mitigate the problems, you can still mis-hit keys on the secondary keyboard and cause problems.

The best part of the Stream Deck is that it runs on phones too, no investment in new hardware, plugs, desk space, etc., IIRC the mobile app was $5? (For me, for iPhone, for USD.) Check out Elgato's site (linked in the previous paragraph) for more info.

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