Q: I'm using XP and my keyboard keys don't work properly in certain games.

This is a known bug in Microsoft's DirectInput sub-system and only occurs on Windows XP. If you are running 9x or 2000 you will not have these problems.

To elaborate, when you run a game like Counter Strike with Ventrilo on Windows XP and you have the shift key bound in game to make your character walk instead of running then this combination will cause an errant event to be sent to the game making it think that you are pressing the shift key when you really are not. Or, if you use the arrow keys for movement and something else seems to happen in addition to the movement you want.

The problem is DirectInput and only occurs when a program in the background is monitoring the keyboard using the DirectInput interface. As mentioned the problem is only on XP. To prevent this problem from occurring follow these steps.

1) Start ventrilo.
2) Click on setup.
3) Uncheck the “Use DirectInput to detect HotKey”
4) Click OK
5) Disable DirectInput in all Binding lists.

If you have any key binds in Ventrilo (via the bindings editor) then make sure you don't have the DirectInput check box enabled in there either.

Restart Ventrilo and the problem should go away. Please note, that if at any time you re-enable either of these DirectInput options you will need to repeat these steps including the restart of Ventrilo. Once the XP/DirectInput bug is activated you can't stop it until you do all these things.

To my knowledge Ventrilo is the only Voice Comm program that will allow you to accomplish this trick. However, some games (like BF1942 and Ghost Recon) will not allow ventrilo to detect your bind keys or PTT hotkey without the DirectInput option enabled.

Additional: You should get used to using the DirectInput option as some features will not work without it. We suggest that you do not bind the SHIFT key to any function in the game if you plan on using arrows keys for other game binds, assuming you experience this problem which no everyone does.