Remote desktop pressing Windows key randomly

There's a question about a similar problem on technet (subject: Windows Key "stuck"). Details below:

If you are using Win Key + L to lock your desktop, this is a known issue. We have completed work on a fix that should prevent the problem in the future; to my knowledge it is due to be released with Vista SP1.

The bug arises most frequently when you use Win+L to lock your desktop while the Remote Desktop window has focus. It is caused by a synchronization issue between client and server that only arises on a subset of machines, possibly due to a driver or 3rd party software conflict that messes up the timing of the Remote Desktop client. There are a few ways to avoid this:

1. Don't use Win+L to lock your local desktop. Either lock your machine through the start menu or, if your machine is configured for it, Ctrl-Alt-Del and select Lock Desktop.

2. Make sure a different window has focus before locking your desktop.

If you have already encountered the problem, the "workaround" is much as you described:

1. Remove focus from the Remote Desktop window, by selecting another window on your machine, or minimizing and clicking the desktop of the local machine

2. Strike the Ctrl key 6-12 times. You mentioned the win key which probably works as well, but if you have somehow encountered this error on a machine that doesn't have a Win key, Ctrl should work as well.

3. Go back to the Remote Desktop window; the problem should be resolved.

Apparently there is a fix in Windows XP Sp3.

Try this workaround:

1. Open 'On Screen' keyboard from the Accessories/Accessibility menu
2. Press the 'On Screen' Windows Key

I think I found this happened to me if I locked my computer (using Flag+L) whilst the RDP session had focus. I think RDP stopped the remote computer locking as well in response to this key combination, but "remembered" that the Flag key was pressed, almost as though the key was being held down.

I found a really quick fix was to ensure the RDP session had focus and just hit the Flag key on my keyboard when things started going crazy. This usually fixed it for me.

There is a common issue when using RDP connections and pressing key combinations that invoke special functionality in Windows.

For example, if you press Win+E to open a new Windows Explorer window. The event of pressing down your Win key will be sent through the RDP tunnel. But when you also hit the E, the event is captured by your own desktop and processed accordingly.

That means that the up or release event is never sent through the tunnel, so it will behave as if the key is stuck.

To avoid this from happening, it can be beneficial to simply send all key combinations through to the other computer.

The same flag can also be found in various wrapper applications, like mRemoteNG: