What's new

How to get on-screen key board to show up?

Opahujo

New Member
I'm ready to fire up my new Surface Pro and need to sign in to my account. How do I get the on-screen keyboard to show up. It popped up the other day, but I didn't have an account then to sign in to. Now that I need the keyboard, I can't get it to show up, even when I point at the sign-in space.

Edited: I have tapped the space where the text goes, but no keyboard shows up. I wonder whether there is something wrong with my Surface Pro.
 
Last edited:

CrippsCorner

Well-Known Member
Actually I was going to ask this too because my girlfriend was using Facebook on Modern IE and the keyboard didn't come up to allow her to search... kinda frustrating.
 

Arizona Willie

Active Member
The on-screen keyboard WILL NOT pop up when you click in a text box in Modern UI.

This is a HUGE bug with the operating system.
The only way to get a keyboard to come onscreen is to hit CNTRL-C and bring up the Charms menu ( or use the mouse on the corner but that is unreliable in my experience ) and then click the keyboard icon in the lower right corner of the Charms menu.

It's a real pain in the ass and it doesn't seem like they are even trying to do anything about it.

I'm ready to fire up my new Surface Pro and need to sign in to my account. How do I get the on-screen keyboard to show up. It popped up the other day, but I didn't have an account then to sign in to. Now that I need the keyboard, I can't get it to show up, even when I point at the sign-in space.

Edited: I have tapped the space where the text goes, but no keyboard shows up. I wonder whether there is something wrong with my Surface Pro.
 

macmee

Active Member
Sometimes the keyboard stops showing up for me in metro UI and I have to reboot to fix it....
 
OP
O

Opahujo

New Member
Hi, Willie. Thanks for your comments.

I plugged in a USB keyboard and that let me type in the security key for my wireless router - now at last I was connected to the Internet. Next came the screen where I was supposed to log in to my MS account. That didn't work because seven lower case keys (uophlcv) were dead*. That keyboard, and another one I tried, both work fine on my PCs. The only reason I was fortunate enough to get my wireless connection established was that the security key consists of all cap. letters and some numbers. In the meantime, with the wireless connection having been established and after some time, the on-screen keyboard suddenly appeared and I was able to proceed with the remainder of the setup.

*According to MS "Restore, refresh, or reset Surface Pro or Surface Pro 2" instructions: "If you're having problems with your Surface touchscreen, connect a keyboard, such as a Surface Cover or USB keyboard." That's just what I did. I connected a USB keyboard(s) but some lower case letters didn't show up. I'm really puzzled about that one. In fact the lower case u started some oral instructions. I hope someone can enlighten me why that happened. Does it take a USB3.0 keyboard - is there even such a thing? What was I suppose to do? Run out and buy a Surface Cover to get the Surface Pro working?

P.S. I am a retired 82-year old engineer and am somewhat PC literate, but this has taken way too much time. I shudder to think how much money people who are less familiar with the technology (my wife would be an example once I'm gone) have to spend for help with getting new hardware operational. It should not be that way!
 
Top