Compose sequences not entering correctly in Chrome/Firefox

[dbecker801]

Running Windows 10 Pro 20H2 (OS Build 19042.928)

Condition: Give a text field in either Chrome or Firefox focus. Press compose key (Right Alt), followed by ^, followed by 2
Expected behavior: WinCompose will enter a superscript 2 ("²")
Result: WinCompose fails to recognize "^" or "2" correctly and parses a random invalid sequence ("#v")

Entering text in other native Windows apps or Electron apps (Notepad and Slack have been tested) provides the expected behavior.

Judging by the debug window, the keystrokes aren't being correctly recognized if I type in Firefox (looking at it right now), but if I switch to Notepad the debug window sees the expected keystrokes.

[dbecker801]

This issue is still present as of v0.9.10.

[samhocevar]

Mmmh. Do you use a standard qwerty layout or something more unusual? Oh and are you maybe using some kind of anti-keylogger / security plugin for Firefox?

[dbecker801]

Mmmh. Do you use a standard qwerty layout or something more unusual? Oh and are you maybe using some kind of anti-keylogger / security plugin for Firefox?

Apologies that I've only seen this just now, Sam. Standard US QWERTY layout on a Kinesis keyboard, and to the best of my knowledge I am not using any such plugins in Firefox or Chrome.

[dedalo]

same errors here, cant make it work, using QMK with wincompose, everything works great but chrome, dont know what else to do.

[SquareScreamYT]

I have the same issue as well. QWERTY keyboard, English(Singapore).

I can't type anything, it appears in the following order: `1234567890-=qwertyuiop[]\asdfghjkl;'zxcvbnm,./ (repeat)
I don't have any extensions in Chrome either, and certain apps work though

edit: I can't type anything in the emoji bar either

[AlxndrJhnBayer]

after updating to
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621

I cannot use winCompose 0.9.11 in Chrome anymore, firefox still works

Update: 2023-12-19: after some restart or software update it worked for me fine

[bannmann]

I have the same problem. In the vague hope it helps the developer or other users to narrow down the cause, I'm posting a bunch of miscellaneous info.

I use WinCompose on three different Windows 10 computers, and on only one of the three, the problem appears in Firefox. However, any other app on that computer is fine, and on the other two computers, things also work in Firefox!

• The problem seems to be independent of the keyboard layout set in Windows (besides the en-US that matches my keyboard, I also tried de-DE and en-GB).
• The problem also appears when running Firefox in safe mode (without any add-ons) and when running an independent instance of Firefox portable.

For a certain key combination, my keyboard (the same one for all three computers) is programmed on firmware level to produce F24, a, keydown shift, ", keyup shift. WinCompose is configured to use F24 as the compose key, and with the default sequences, the above would produce an "ä" character.

Similarly to @SquareScreamYT, when I press the key combination repeatedly, weird characters appear in Firefox. There's some pattern to them:
dFgHjKl:'~a"cVbNm<.?1@3$5^7*9)∓qWeRtYuIoP[}\AsDfGhJkL;"`ZxCvBnM

The weird intermittent capitalization probably comes from my sequence involving shift. But a simpler sequence such as a, u, m, l (modelled after the HTML character entity for "ä") produces similar garbage (just not the capitalization).

WinCompose's debug window (from the tray icon's Help menu) displays the weird characters as if they came from my keyboard ("Adding to Sequence: ...", "Invalid sequence!"). But when I switch to another application and press the same key, the debug output is correct and identical to the one I see on other computers.

What's interesting: on that computer, an AutoHotkey script that I use as a fallback for entering umlauts also does not work in Firefox, but works elsewhere. It seems it cannot grab the characters correctly, or is not able to insert the desired ones.

The most obvious difference between the affected computer and the others is that the affected one, a company laptop, is running ESET Endpoint Security which seems to include "intrusion prevention" functionality and other stuff which is supposed to prevent malicious behavior of applications. I guess that thing might mislabel the WinCompose/Firefox interaction as malicious, but I have no evidence to support that theory (ESET logs do not indicate that it did interfere here), and I can't easily test that because I cannot disable ESET myself.