Change of focus from RDP session inserts a character

Question

This is a pretty obscure issue that started a couple of weeks ago, it is really interfering with my work, and so far I'm unable to come up with a solution. When I have an RDP session open, and am working on something text-based on the remote host, i.e. a powershell script, when I change focus from that session by clicking on something like a browser on my local desktop, a character is inserted in the RDP session, specifically, a "5". Every time I click on the RDP session, then away from it, another "5" is inserted. As you can imagine this causes havoc with the script I was editing on the RDP session. This happens when my session originates on either my Windows 10 or 11 desktops, and happens regardless of whether I use the standard mstsc client or another RDC manager. I've run a full AV scan on both hosts and nothing came up. I'm willing to format these systems and start clean if necessary, but I don't like the idea of not knowing the cause, so any thoughts on where to look or what to try next would be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I am having the exact same issue, and based on you posting in July, it sounds like it started about the same time. Every time I am in an RDP session and click out, so the RDP session loses focus, the number 5 gets typed into the RDP session. This happens on two different computers - domain joined work desktop running Windows 10 and a workgroup laptop at home running Windows 11.

I have tried a different wireless mouse (I have not tried wired) and it did not help.

Were you able to find anything on this?

Answer 2

This is so weird. Got the exact same problem! Following this thread.

Answer 3

Same issue here with French environment : French W10, French softwares (Edge, Chrome and BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access for RDP) plus French keyboard. I confirm that if you 1) turn off Num Lock BEFORE connecting to a RDP session ; 2) try to reproduce the issue (that is, switching focus from RDP session to Chromium-based app) ; 3) enable again Num Lock ; the issue won't occur, at least until you reconnect to the session. Maybe a better solution that resetting your Windows profile.

Answer 4

I'm suspicious of Mouse without Borders (v 2.2.1.327). I was able to replicate the issue a bunch, then powered on my laptop connected through Mouse without Borders (no clipboard sharing), not thinking anything of it. At at point I could no longer replicate the issue. Then I disabled MwB on both devices, restarted the computers and now I don't have the phantom keypresses, regardless of whether MwB is on or off. Edit: never mind, I took my eye off the Num Lock. Still a problem. Every time I re-enable Num Lock the issue returns. Went the nuclear route and rebuilt the profile, problem solved for now.