I can no longer use the ESC key on my keyboards to access the Control menues

User Support Hub Hardware & Peripherals
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1

This problem started after I tried to install the TOBII Eyetracker 5.

It is not a mechanical failure. The ESC key works in all other applications.

Without the ability to access the Control and the other menues, my flight sim is TOAST.

I have reinstalled MSFS and still no joy.

Asking for help.

2

Hello @Kaptajnen1583,

Thank you for your post! Your topic has been moved to Tech Talk a subcategory of General Discussion & Community Support. The General Discussion category is meant for discussions that fall outside our other sub-categories.

Please check out these other categories for your future posts:

  • Aircraft
    is where you discuss current or future planes coming to MSFS as well as assistance with liveries.
  • World
    is where you discuss scenery, airports, and weather.
  • Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
    is where you ask for help with flying.
  • Tech Talk
    is where you discuss installation, graphics, drivers, performance, CTDs, peripherals, and hardware.
  • Menus & Activities
    is where you discuss activities (landing challenges, bush trips, etc), plus anything accessed by the menus including the Marketplace, settings, logbook, cameras, etc.
3

Have you tried deleting the Tobii control profile, then making sure the Esc works, then reinstalling per Tobii instructions? The profiles are stored in the cloud, so a reinstall of MSFS won’t change anything related to the profiles. You likely need to work with just the profiles.

4

I am a total tech ignoramus. How do I find the Tobii control profile in the cloud?

5

You can also reading the key that brings up the menu to something else. That’s what I had to do because on my 60% keyboard, ESC is only functioning if I hold Function key at same time so not convenient. I just remapped all the ESC to whatever was the press of the top left key without 4 (backslash I think).

6

This topic explains the controller profiles: Configuring Controller Profiles
Click on each subtopic to get the details. At first this may look complicated but it really is pretty straightforward. You don’t have to “find” the profiles in the cloud. It is enough just to know MSFS handles that aspect of the controller profiles.

Here’s another link that might help you: Set up Tobii Eye Tracker

You may need to do the Clean Uninstall described here to get to the Options again.

Update: Perhaps it’s as simple as mapping “Toggle Pause” and “Set Pause Off” to ESC as discussed here.

7

Reinstalling MSFS would make no difference because your control profile are stored in the cloud and tied to your account. Microsoft will automatically restores your settings in an event of uninstalling or reinstalling it.

Have you checked your Keyboard Profile in the control bindings. Make sure you search for Pause keyword and have it bound to your ESC key.

8

Kind of got into the complex right off the bat by assuming that you could not get to Options no matter what you did. But if you can get there after launching MSFS (and you likely can), the simplest and first thing you should check is whether “Toggle Pause” is mapped to the ESC key. To do this:

  1. Go to Options, Controls Options.
  2. Click on Keyboard
  3. In the “Search by Name” box, enter “Toggle Pause”.
    a. If the “Toggle Pause” is assigned, you will see any key to which it is assigned in the larger area to the right of the Search box. By default this should be under the Menu functions and assigned to the ESC key.
    b. If it is NOT assigned to ESC, you need to assign it by doing the following.
    1) Click one of the arrows under “FILTER” repeatedly until you get to “NEW”.
    2) In the area to the right, scroll to the MENU section, then scroll until you find “Toggle Pause”.
    3) There are two gray boxes to the right of “Toggle Pause”. Double click on the first box to the right. The “TOGGLE PAUSE” dialog box should pop up.
    4) Double click inside the “Start Scanning” box. This should change the box so it flashes white inside.
    5) Press the “ESC” key on your keyboard. You should see ESC with a white border in the top most box.
    6) Click “VALIDATE”. This will return you to the top of the list of Controls Options areas.
    7) Change the FILTER to “ASSIGNED”.
    8) Enter “Toggle Pause” in the “Search by Name” box. You should now see that “Toggle Pause” has been assigned to the ESC key.
  4. Now, in the same manner, search for “Set Pause Off”. It should appear under the “MISCELLANEOUS” section. It should also be assigned to the ESC key. If not, repeat steps 1 thru 8 but replace “Toggle Pause” with “Set Pause Off”.

If you have any questions or run into problems, please let us know. I hope this helps you without having to get into the more complex things I laid out previously.

9

I can NOT get into options no matter what I do.

And I have uninstalled/reinstalled MSFS 2020 to try do that. No Joy.

Any suggestions?

10

I have now completely uninstalled the TOBII software and user Revo Unistaller to remove all traces of this software.
I have also uninstalled and re-installed MSFS 2020 to get a clean copy.
All Windows drivers have been updated.
But I am still unable to use my flight simulator because I am unable to get to the options menu by using the ESC key.

11

You can still get into the options menus from the setup screen BEFORE you click on Fly.

12

But, as @mdapol suggests, you can get into Options when MSFS first loads, can’t you? You need to get into Options before you do anything else so you can assign the Toggle Pause to the ESC key. IMMEDIATELY after MSFS loads, you should be able to click on Options with your mouse and go through the procedure I detailed above.

If not, would you make and post here a screen print of MSFS immediately after loading so we can get a better idea of what prevents you from getting to Options immediately after loading? A short video would be even better.

It is good you have removed Tobii (for now) as that is one less variable.

13

ESC Key
ESC Key2870Ă—1766 304 KB

I sent you the wrong picture (by mistake).

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14

No that’s not the main screen. Haven’t you ever changed your graphics options? It’s the screen that you start at where you can go to the Marketplace or plan a flight.

The picture you’re showing is MSFS updating itself. You must have seen this before.

After it’s done updating, it’ll go to the main screen and you can use the escape button to find the options

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15
  1. Wait for the sim to load into the main screen

image
image1920Ă—1064 220 KB

  1. Click “Options” at the Top

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image1920Ă—998 175 KB

  1. Click “Controls Options”

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image1920Ă—1009 84.1 KB

  1. Follow what @CurrentFoil3744 said above to check your mapping of ESC key!

Cheers.

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16

Got it! Thank you for all your patient help!

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