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Why are some of my F-keys not working?

If some of your common responses aren't working, there is probably a process called HKCMD.EXE running on your computer. This nonessential process is installed on computers using certain Intel graphics chips, and can interfere with your F-keys in Appraise-It.

This behavior can also be caused by a nonstandard keyboard configuration, as is often found on higher-end desktop multimedia keyboards and laptops. 

  • If you have a desktop multimedia keyboard, look along the top, near the row of F-keys, for a key labeled "F-lock" or similar; tap it once when you find it, and try again.
  • If you have a laptop, you may need to hold down a "Fn" key while you tap an F-key for it to work correctly. The "Fn" key is usually located on the bottom row of your laptop keyboard, to the left of the spacebar, with the Ctrl and Alt keys.

To Disable HKCMD.EXE
1. Go to StartRun and type "msconfig" without quotation marks, then hit "Enter".
2. In the System Configuration window that appears, go to the Startup tab.
3. Find the "hkcmd.exe" entry and uncheck it, then click OK. Its entry in the list of Startup Items is under Intel(R) Common User Interface; you may need to expand the Command column to find it.

msconfig hkcmd Entry
4. You will be prompted to restart your computer. Click Yes and allow the computer to restart. You will get a popup after logging back in to Windows that there were changes made in the System Configuration utility. Check the box at the bottom of the window to prevent the popup from appearing again, then click OK.

You should now be able to access all your F-keys. If you can't, please contact Technical Support.

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Last Updated
December 17, 2009