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rproffitt 3,249 https://5calls.org

My workaday laptop is now an Acer Predator which while being very nice and all started to boot up with Windows Sticky Keys enabled. Now being a long time Windows user I went to the usual control panel, turned it off but it turned back on if the machine was rebooted or you logged out and back in.

The usual Google research was done, registry changes made and still it persisted. As all you needed to do was tap the shift key a few times to turn it off I left it as it was until I had more free time to look into it.

A deeper dive into the machine was done with AUTORUNS which found an odd thing I tossed but still it enabled after login.

So what if it's something to do with this model laptop? A new google found the answer: https://www.google.com/search?q=acer+predator+sticky+keys&gl=US

Aha, Acer and others added a Sticky Keys on/off to their system so there was more than one place this can be controlled which reminds me of the more than one boss stories.

Fix: Press the Acer Predator Sense button till it turns red, then tap button 1. It's fixed and I share this here so others might not spend as much time hunting it down.

Edited by rproffitt because: Add solved to title.
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Dani AI

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Nice catch, . When Sticky Keys keeps returning after you turn it off in Windows, a common culprit is an OEM utility or hardware macro that re-applies the setting at logon. On some Acer Predator models, the left-side 1-5 macro keys are controlled by PredatorSense profiles, and those keys can be bound to OS actions. If a profile is active, Windows’ own toggle may appear to ignore you until you change the OEM profile or clear the macro binding. See Tom’s overview of the Predator’s programmable keys for context: Tom’s Hardware review of Acer Predator 17.

Quick triage you can do right now:

  • In Windows 10/11: Settings > Accessibility (Ease of Access in Win10) > Keyboard. Turn Sticky Keys off, then open its options and disable the shortcut that starts it (Shift x5). You can also reach this via Quick Settings > Accessibility flyout (Win+A). Microsoft Accessibility flyout.
  • Temporarily disable the vendor keyboard utility at startup (Task Manager > Startup) to see if the setting now sticks. If it does, re-enable the utility and remove any macro that toggles Sticky Keys.

If you want to confirm what Windows thinks the state is (no edits, just a read), run these in PowerShell:

Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys' | Select Flags
Get-ItemProperty 'HKU:\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Accessibility\StickyKeys' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select Flags

Those values correspond to the StickyKeys flags used by Windows; understanding them helps when auditing what a macro might be flipping. STICKYKEYS flags (Microsoft Learn).

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