active winedow minimizes when Shift key pressed

I'm running Windows 98SE and IE6. Recently I acquired a problem which results in an active window being minimized whenever I press the Shift key. Not heard of anyone else with the problem. Imagine my frustration on trying to type an email message in Outlook Express and finding that the message pane minimizes and a previously mimimized window is restored. (To type in my required character, I have to restore the Message pane by pressing and holding the Shift key and clicking on the now minimized window. Any subsequent new press of the Shift key will minimize the window again.) The problem doesn't only occur with Outlook, it happens whenever more than one window is in use. e.g typing a keyword into a search engine.

Have re-installed Windows to no avail.

 

Hi,

Try Repairing Internet Explorer to see whether that helps: Description of the Internet Explorer Repair Tool

Good luck,

 

Thanks Tony. Already tried that, but to no avail.

 

Until your problem is resolved, try this. When you want to type an Uppercase Character, press the Caps Lock. Press the Caps Lock again to resume typing Lowercase.

Have you recently installed or uninstalled any programs?
Scanned for Viruses? You should do that on a regular basis with up to date virus definitions.

Try this. Boot while holding the CTRL key down to get the Boot menu. Choose Safe Mode.
Go Into Device Manager and click the + in front of Keyboard, Highlight your Keyboard and choose Remove. If there are multiple instances of the Keyboard, remove them all.
Restart Windows and let the Keyboard be reinstalled.

 

Good idea about re-installing the keyboard. I suppose it's a plug and play model as I don't recall seeing any software for it, but can't see that mentioned anywhere in Properties. The Device Manager recognises my monitor as a plug and play item. Still, worth a chance. I've been using Caps Lock as recommended but not much use when you want a $ or similar.