Every once in a while when working on a computer, you will find that something happens and the keyboard stops working. Now, under normal circumstances they usually do not stop working unless one of two things happens. 1, you unplug it without realizing it, and 2, you break the damn thing.(Stop eating and drinking at your desk!). But every once in a while something does happen and your SOL. On windows, you can bring up a utility with the “Windows Key + U” and start an on screen keyboard. Well, that does nothing to help you if your keyboard is already borked or you want to save/name a file you were currently working on.
A quick fix is to set up a “Keyboard Rescue Bat Script” ahead of time. Open notepad and type in utilman.exe and then save the file to your desktop as keyboard.bat. Now, next time your pc’s keyboard stops working, minimize the windows and double click your bat script. You can then start the on screen keyboard utility and finish your work, save, name the open file, etc. Not the prettiest of solutions, but it gets the job done quickly and gives you the chance to shut down the machine without losing any open files. You can then replace the keyboard. (Sometimes windows won’t recognize a newly plugged in keyboard unless its a USB keyboard – For older PS2 and KVM Switch users, this can save you in a quick fix)