set the environment variable:
sdl_videodriver=windib
and start dosbox
see if that helps

remove Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys and check whether it helps.

Didn't work. Thanks regardless.

Bad luck then. Of course you could have stated WHAT didn't work.
Or posting your dosbox version.

robertmo - I was afraid that my be the problem. I'll try it. I'm hoping that isn't it though, because I like the remote keys and use them quite a bit.

Sorry, the DOSBOX version is 0.73 (the latest I believe). The right-shift doesn't work. If I type something at the DOSBOX prompt, or if I type something in an application running under DOSBOX, the right-shift doesn't work. The DOSBOX keymapper isn't a solution because the keymapper doesn't even "see" the right-shift key.

Bummer, I can't tell if the 'Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys' driver is the problem. I uninstalled it and tried DOSBOX but the right-shift still isn't working. I figured maybe I need to re-boot, but then the driver gets re-installed automatically upon re-boot, without any prompt.

Weird thing I noticed though, that driver doesn't have the option to disable it. I can only uninstall. I poked around through some of the other drivers and a few of them also do not have the option to disable. Hmm, I wonder if that's a Windows 7 thing. I don't remember encountering that in XP.

try what Qbix said

Bummer, I can't tell if the 'Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys' driver is the problem.

I'm quite sure this is the problem (there was even some directx posting
on some other forum/program that the 109-style keyboards change a
subset of the scancodes).

This was the solution and it looks "109-keyboard" ≠ "remote control"

hexaae wrote:

I've found a flawlessly solution to solve the problem without drawbacks! :-) […]
Show full quote

I've found a flawlessly solution to solve the problem without drawbacks! 😀

My system had 4 keyboard drivers installed:
- Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard with HP QLB
- Tasti di tastiera controllo remoto Microsfot eHome (=remote control)
- Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR (?)
- Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109 (????????????)

Since I noticed WUAE showed 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109' when using -rawkeyboard I had the idea to remove it from Device manager. To be exact I manually changed (=forced installation) the driver for it to be generic 'HID compatible device' (this left just the first 3 keyboards and created another generic HID device in the HID node list) and.... it worked!!
Now all emulators give me back the correct keys, and WUAE also works without -rawkeyboard (now shows 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR') with all keys available, also <, ì, è, + etc. correctly mapped as I see on the keyboard!

All in all it seems it was a wrong driver device detection adding an unexistant keyboard to the list, that merged in the whole virtual keyboard used by DirectInput and caused all the troubles!
Phew... I couldn't find a better solution, and the system runs fine, including the 2 remote controller and HP Quicklaunh buttons so it's all right!

Thank you again Toni for your infinte patience that has driven me in the right direction!
And thank you for WUAE that in this strange case geve me the clue to solve a HW/driver problem as well

PS
Simply uninstalling 'Tastiera Microsoft eHome MCIR 109' was not enough as Vista automatically would have found and reinstalled this keyboard!

BTW is there any way to tell dosbox/sdl which keyboard to use?

Afaik those ehome keyboards have 109 keys (same as japanese or so) and
the drivers swap around scancodes for some reason.

Tried the 'sdl_videodriver=windib' thing but it didn't work. The problem was what you said, the remote keyboard driver. I just couldn't get it to stay uninstalled. It kept re-installing the next time I booted up so I couldn't tell if it was the problem. The hexaae post you pointed out was the solution. Rather than trying to uninstall it, I just updated the 'remote keyboard keys' driver and chose the HID compatible driver instead, and it worked! It even fixed some of the other keys that weren't working properly (such as the backslash).

Awesome, thank you all so much!!!

If you have a bit time, maybe you can do 2 things:
a) write in details how the problematic setup looked like, and how you
fixed it (funny screenshots if you dare)
b) try to repdoduce the problem on another PC that currently works fine
(ie. "breaking" dosbox on a system where it formerly was fine, this would
help debugging/finding some in-program solution)

Thanks for reporting back btw.!

Right-Shift / Backslash Keyboard Problems (SOLVED!)
I would guess the issue has been reported to MS, but it seems it hasn't been straightened out between Vista and Win7 release...

Hey, I didn't have to give up the remote control buttons on the keyboard. Even though I had to get rid of the 'Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys' driver and replace it with HID compatible device, ALL the keyboard remote buttons still work. The only thing left under keyboard hardware is 'HID Keyboard Device' and yet everything seems to be working fine.

🙁 Scratch that. I just tested out my IR remote with Microsoft Media Center and the arrow buttons and 'OK' button don't work. Too good to be true I guess. All the other keys on the remote work, like volume, channel, media shortcuts, play, rewind, back, etc., but I can't navigate any menus since the arrow keys and 'OK' button don't work. Dammit!

Just to be sure. When you tried this sdl_videodriver=windib you set it outside dosbox?
For example run cmd.exe while being in dosbox folder, type "set sdl_videodriver=windib" enter, type "dosbox" enter.

When you check your device manager you have to check not only "keyboards" but also "hid devices". Try experimenting with other drivers.

I managed to get everything to work.

- Uninstalled all the keyboard drivers
- Uninstalled DOSBOX (had to manually delete the mapper configuration file, which might have been part of the problem)
- Rebooted and allowed Windows to install all the original keyboard drivers again
- Replaced the 109 keyboard driver with HID compatible driver. So the keyboard drivers there now are:
* HID Keyboard Device
* Microsoft eHome MCIR Keyboard
* Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys
- Rebooted

And everything works fine now, all keys in DOSBOX, all remote buttons on the keyboard, and all buttons on the IR remote.

robertmo - no, I stuck 'sdl_videodriver=windib' in the .conf file. But as it turns out, I didn't need it.

My guess is that all the tweaking I did before changing the 109 driver to HID compatible device might have caused the problem. I had already been messing around with the .conf file and the mapper config file, so possibly if I had gone right to just changing the 109 driver from the start, I would have been done.

There is a bug in the mapper - if you save mapper without any key (right-shift in your case) it won't appear again untill you delete the mapper. And mapper is in hidden folder so you are lucky you found it as even windows' "find files" won't find it and uninstalling dosbox won't delete it too 😉