Suddenly keys do not work in game mode

[Cliffy]

suddenly NO keys work in game mode (desktop only) in any version of vpx- 10.7.4 32 or 64 bit nor 10.8 betas. It all worked fine until today and I don't see where any windows updates happened overnight. Can't escape or Q, no F2 or any F keys. Can't insert coins or start a game, nothing. Only alt F4 to exit completely. weird. Tried reboot, different keyboard, nada.  Turned antivirus off, checked keys in prefs and no changes have happened there. Keyboard works in pinmame and everything else. its like vpx lost communication with the direct input api. Strange!

 I discovered that if I run a game by double clicking the table all keys work as expected. If I launch a table from Launchbox the keys all work as expected. However, if I open vpx and then load a table and run it NO KEYS WORK. What the hell!?

Running Windows 10 22H2 Home

Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB (hmmmmm... video drivers? nah)

VPinMame 3.6 -sc x86 and 64

[Cliffy]

Grabbed a little program that monitors processes to see where Windows focus is going to. It's called Jocys Focus Logger. I ran rocky and bullwinkle and alt tabbed to see what the focus logger showed. Uh oh. dwm shows access denied, run as admin! Now to look into dwm to find out why it's saying this

 

[Cliffy]

so then I ran the table by double clicking on it, which does allow the keyboard to work and heres the focus log. a couple noticeable differences here!

I see the dwm (desktop or dynamic windows manager doesn't get called up and I see the vbsscript keyboard settings DOES get loaded! The question is why when double clicking the table to start it versus opening vpx first and then loading the table? What changed overnight? 

[Cliffy]

Sooooo.... after searching ways to disable dwm (NOT recommended on windows 10 or 11!!!) I came across a guy on github who wrote a temporary disabler but still not recommended for windows 10. His page led me to a guy on youtube and while watching his "how-to" he said the first thing to do is change the properties of your program to disable windows fullscreen optimizations. His focus is on true fullscreen games but explained it helps in borderless windowed mode too. His reasoning "let the game program and  video card drivers work without windows interference" (paraphrased) 

Can't be as easy as that can it? YES! I right clicked my shortcut to vpx and went to compatibility tab and check disable fullscreen optimizations. Opened vpx, ran a table and by golly I got my keyboard back! 

What happened in the first place? Lord only knows. Nvidia driver update? Windows update? I don't know but now it's working correctly again and I'm a happy camper. Hopefully this can help someone else in the future