Hot Key Support fix for Screen Brightness Fn F5 F6 Not Working

[exFatigue]

It seems that every time my system receives a driver update the Hot Key Support for screen brightness using Fn F5/F6 stops working whilst all other Hot Keys are okay.

I followed the solutions here > https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Video-Display-and-Touch/Screen-Brightness-fn-keys-not-working... but none of them worked for me.

But running C:\ProgramData\Hewlett-Packard\MsiCache\HP Hotkey Support\{CDD16082-8331-4C16-A223-F5970F96CFF7}\HP Hotkey Support.msi followed by a system restart does re-enable it 🙂

[Elsa_Paris]

Model: HP EliteBook 1040 G3 Laptop (Base Model)

Hi,

None of the solutions recommended on different sites worked, namely deactivating the “HP Hotkey Service” and “HP Hotkey UWP Service” in “Services”, then installing from HP online support, in “Driver-Keyboard, mouse and input devices (5)", "HP Keyboard Shortcuts Support - UWP System Software Manager 8.0.9.1 Rev.A 63.3 MB Apr 23, 2020", because this driver fails to run correctly.

https://support.hp.com/en-us/drivers/hp-elitebook-1040-g3-notebook-pc/model/8654825?sku=M5R98AV&seri...

The only solution for me was to restore the Windows 10 system to a stable state before the problem encountered using restore points.

https://www.commentcamarche.net/informatique/windows/147-restaurer-windows-avec-les-points-de-restau...

I regained brightness control but an empty "HP Hotkey Service" window still opened so I only deactivated the "HP Hotkey Service" and "HP Hotkey UWP Service" in the "Services". No more empty windows.

During my trial/error, I went into my computer's BIOS to try to play with the operation of the fn key in case the problem came from there.

For my computer model, the “Turn Fn (function) mode or Action keys (HP ProBook 440 G4, 450 G4, 470 G4 and HP EliteBook Folio G1)” method works:

https://support.hp.com/en-us/document/ish_5878392-5912090-16

I swapped the functions (i.e. checked the box “trigger the shortcut keys without having to press Fn”) so now no need to press the fn key to play on the brightness or the volume (or others). Now it's to perform keyboard shortcuts that I have to press fn before f1, f2, etc. But not serious. This is the only change I had made that was retained when restoring the Windows system to a previous stable state and I'm fine with it.

https://support.hp.com/ch-fr/document/ish_4429759-4533085-16

Good luck everyone and thanks for the advice!