This was more a case of something not working rather than the physical Esc key disappearing. I noticed this a few days ago – specifically in Outlook 2019 where ESC used to close the current open email and other menus. Then one day it didn’t. Ran a repair of outlook and rebooted the workstation. Still no change.
After googling but not finding a lot about this issue – a test with another known working keyboard from a similar machine showed the same problem. When I found the esc key not working in a second application HCL Notes – my suspicion was raised.
Removing the keyboard drivers and rebooting got no further. So thinking laterally I wondered when had it last worked and had anything happened since then. I identified a number of applications that I had added since then and planned to remove them to see if the problem remained.
The first application was one related to time recording called Tockler which I was testing for a client. This app monitors the application windows you have open and their titles. This allows you to check what you may have been working on at a specific time. Just before removing it I noticed that the task tray icon – when clicked on – gave an option to quit and stop the app.
Quitting the app I did a quick test and lo – the Escape key is back to full strength in all the affected apps. I guess that the app is watching for the ESC key but not passing it to the application which is active. In order to keep using the app – which I find useful – I sent an email to the developer in the hope the mystery can be resolved.
So in this case the Great (non) Escape is Over for now!