Virtual keyboards defeat most keyloggers, who often concentrate solely on the computer keyboard, and not other means of text input.

The UserScript Virtual Keyboard Interface makes it a lot easier to work with virtual keyboards in supported web browsers.

virtual keyboard

Using a UserScript offers advantages over software based virtual keyboards. Two of the biggest advantages are better and faster accessibility of the keyboard on the screen.

Virtual Keyboard Interface supports text fields, password fields and text areas at the moment, which means that it cannot be used in the web browser’s address bar or search form.

The keyboard is displayed on the screen by double-clicking into the text field on the website. We actually had to triple-click to get it working, but that’s a minor problem.

The virtual keyboard is then displayed beneath the text field. It offers different keyboard layouts, for instance for US, Germany, Russian or Japanese users.

Keys are entered by left-clicking with the mouse on them. It is furthermore possible to change the size of the keyboard, which unfortunately does not stick after the page has been closed.

Virtual Keyboard Interface is compatible with Firefox and Google Chrome. Users of those web browsers can download and install the script from the official UserScripts website. Firefox users need the Greasemonkey extension before they can install the script.

The only option in this case other than switching to the default programs that the keyboard manufacturer has mapped the keys to is to use a program like SKeys to remap the special keys.

SKeys displays a small window upon startup that displays 18 different keys that all read Use this key. Each special key on the computer keyboard corresponds to one of those key buttons in the window and pressing a key on the keyboard will be indicated in the window as well.

There are two main reasons for this approach. Some users might want to map only a few of the special keys to other functions which can be done with this method. The Use this key name was chosen because of no standard naming conventions for those special keys.

A click with the mouse on any of the key buttons in the application window will add that button to the list of special keys that can be remapped in the next window. The autocheck option will perform that automatically for the user.

The next window is displayed after clicking on the Done button. Key identification is problematic as all keys are using cryptic identifiers. The only way around this is to map one key after the other to be always sure to map the right key.

Skeys offers several functions that can be mapped to the individual keys:

• Open File/Program
• Power Function
  Logoff
  Switch User
  Standby
  Hibernate
  Hibernate/Standby [uses Standby as a backup if Hibernation is turned off]
  Shutdown
  Restart
• Send keystrokes
  Send
  Paste
• Volume Function
  Mute
  Unmute
  Toggle mute
  Up
  Down
• Popup
  Center
  Bottom right
  Bottom left
  Top right
  Top left
• Skeys
  Show Skeys
  Show Skeys setup
  Disable Skeys
  Disable this hotkey
  Exit Skeys
• Wait

All functions are explained in the post of the developer announcing the release of SKeys. Skeys is a portable Open Source program for the Windows operating system

The application’s interface offers all the controls necessary to set the sounds for the computer keyboard. A slider is available that can change the volume of the sounds. Pressing buttons from a to z will change the sound that will be generated whenever a key on the computer keyboard is used.

Available sounds are the classic typewriter sound and some very annoying ones that could come straight out of a video game (think Space Invaders when shooting the gun). The program will display the selected volume and sound scheme. A click on the Set button will activate the sound scheme for the computer and every key pressed from then on will also play the selected sound.

The remove button will remove the sound scheme again so that no sound is being played while typing on the computer keyboard. ClicKey can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows.

What the developer of the software program Capswitch did not know is that the Windows operating system comes with options to switch keyboard locales with keyboard shortcuts. The Windows XP operating system for example provides this option in the Regional and Language options module of the Control Panel. A click on the Details button under the Languages tab will open all installed input languages.

A click on the Key Settings button will open another menu with the option to define keyboard shortcuts to switch instantly to the input language.

Only the keyboard shortcut to switch between all installed keyboard layouts is configured by default. It is however possible to define shortcuts for specific switches, e.g. From English to German and vice verse.

These keyboard shortcuts provide the easiest way to quickly switch between keyboard locales. The additional benefit is that no extra software needs to be running in the background for the functionality.

Killkeys is a portable software program that can be configured by filling out the ini file of the same name. The ini file contains two important lines that define which computer keyboard keys are disabled. The first line is called Keys and will disable the key all the time while the name of the second is Keys_Fullscreen which will only disable keys when the computer is running a fullscreen application.

The hex values of the keys have to be entered in the ini file. These hex values can be extracted from a Microsoft MSDN page easily.

Killkeys will use about five Megabytes of computer memory while running in the background. It will automatically place its icon in the Windows system tray with the possibility to hide that icon from there. The only way to kill the process then would be to kill it in the task manager or a similar computer program capable of displaying and killing processes.

The theory that keyloggers can be defeated with onscreen keyboards is unfortunately a computer security myth. It is definitely true that some keyloggers, especially those that only record the keys that the user enters on the computer computer keyboard, can be defeated with onscreen keyboards.

There are however advanced keyloggers which make a screenshot of the onscreen keyboard while it visible on the computer screen and which record the mouse movements on the system. It is then a matter of simply reconstructing the mouse movement to know exactly what a user typed on a computer system.

There is only one 100% way of defeating keyloggers and that is to not use computer systems for sensitive information. That’s not always practicable and it is possible to reduce the chance that keyloggers are installed by running good antivirus programs.

Keyboard Layouts differ depending on the country they are sold in. A basic example is the differences between a German and English computer keyboard. The German keyboard swapped the Y and Z key for instance which can be really annoying when playing web games that use the YXC keys in the game.

Tablang is an add-on for the Firefox web browser that allows the user to use different keyboard layouts in Firefox. Each tab can be launched with a different keyboard layout which is preserved from there meaning that links that are originating from that tab will also use the keyboard layout.

The user needs to have at least two different keyboard layouts installed on the computer system for the Firefox add-on to be of use. The add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla homepage. It is available for the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating system.

The typing course is divided into different courses from beginner to advanced and specialty courses and even problem key courses at the end of all typing courses. The online service keeps track of the progress of registered users which is important as the typing courses can take quite some time to finish.

Each typing course consists of several separate lessons. The typing tutor will display various statistics after each separate lesson and each typing course. The first courses show the computer keyboard and fingers that should be used to type the requested key. This is helpful for users who need some visual guidance in their first lessons.

The beginning courses for example target the different computer keyboard rows. They start with a single line of different computer keys that need to be typed in by the user. The typing courses become more difficulty with time. Advanced courses for example ask the user to type in multiple key rows without the visual aid provided in the beginner’s courses.

TypingWeb’s Online Typing Tutor is a helpful typing course for beginners but also advanced users who want to work on their typing speed and decrease their typing error ratio.

The interface displays the list of preconfigured keyboard shortcuts upon startup. It is possible to delete those to begin with a blank set of keyboard shortcuts. A shortcut consists of a computer keyboard combination, an execute command and an icon. The combinations that are offered by the software are to combine Alt, Control and Shift with a key on the computer keyboard.

The combinations can be tested and become available after hitting the apply button. Most interesting are probably the options to launch a website, program or location.

The main advantage of the computer keyboard tweaker is its low resource usage. The program asks to register an account but there were not any obvious disadvantageous in skipping that step. Keyboard Tweaker is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems starting with Windows 9x.

In which situations might this come in handy? In all were mouse and computer keyboard usage might interfere with another process, be it statistical analysis or programs that react immediately on mouse or keyboard input and where this is unwanted.

The time that the computer mouse and keyboard are blocked can be defined in the program’s options. There is also an option to change the hotkey that starts the blocking from CTRL Q to another hotkey.

The program will display a tooltip next to the mouse cursor that is counting down the remaining seconds that all input devices are blocked on the computer system. The software program adds itself automatically to the Windows System Tray. A right-click will open a context menu that provides links to the program’s options. It uses roughly 4 Megabytes of computer memory while running and should be compatible to most versions of the Windows operating system.