How can I prevent my computer from hijacking the F10 Key?

Question

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire 1080.

When I try to debug a program in Visual Studio on this laptop, and attempt to use the F10 hotkey for the "Step Over" command, something else hijacks the hotkey and opens up a vertical control of some sort (ovaled in the screenshot here):

How can I get my F10 back, so I don't have to manually select "Step Over" from the Debug menu each time?

Answer 1

Your keyboard has apparently two keys to control the audio volume level up and down. These functions should be indicated as secondary functions on the keys, but in your computer they are the default.

You may look for a way of reversing the default behavior of the two keys to be function keys (F10 and the other) rather than volume control.

The article How to Choose Whether Your Function Keys are F1-F12 Keys or Special Keys lists some methods that perhaps pertain to your computer:

• Toggle them using the Fn Lock key

• Change an Option in the BIOS or UEFI Settings.
  For example, on some Dell laptops this option is found under Advanced > Function Key Behavior.
  On Acer this seems to be in the BIOS Main menu, where "Function key behavior" needs to be changed to "Function keys":

  

• Other computer manufacturers make accessible these keyboard settings in a configuration tool that is pre-installed or downloadable from their website.

If one of the above methods is not available for your computer, you may still forcefully map the volume keys to their matching function keys using the free AutoHotkey.

The following example AutoHotkey script maps Volume Up to F9 and Volume Down to F10 (these keys are just a guess on my part):

Volume_Up::F9
Volume_Down::F10

After installing AutoHotKey, put the above text in a .ahk file and double-click it to test. You may stop the script by right-click on the green H icon in the traybar and choosing Exit. To have it run on login, place it in the Startup group at C:\Users\USER-NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

AutoHotkey documentation: List of Keys.

Answer 2

That's volume control GUI. Your laptop's F__ keys act as media keys by default. It's a default setting for many (most?) laptops nowadays. These keys should have secondary glyphs on them showing their alternative action. You can use Fn key as a modifier to use them as proper F__ keys.

Some BIOSes have an option to change this setting permanently. Other laptops let you toggle it by pressing a key combination, for example Fn+Esc (unfortunately I don't remember which manufacturer used this shortcut). I couldn't find the manual for the model you've specified, so I can't provide more detailed answer.

If it's just the single F10 key that acts this way and the rest of the top row works as function keys (in particular neither F9 nor F11 also change volume), then this looks like a BIOS bug. Check if newer BIOS versions are available or wait for an update.

It's possible that this feature can be disabled by uninstalling some piece of Acer software, but again, I wasn't able to find "Acer Aspire 1080" on their website to look for anything suspicious in their driver downloads. You can try removing Acer programs related to hotkeys and/or power management - one of these may act as a bridge between keystrokes and OS.

Answer 3

Go to "Programs and Settings" or "Add/Remove Programs". In the list, find the entry for the software "Launch Manager", probably published by Acer. Remove it and reboot.