How to Fix Keyboard Not Working in Windows 11 Terminal

Microsoft Windows 11 comes with many updated features such as Windows Terminal which is a new and modern multi-tabbed terminal console for command line applications. It loads Windows PowerShell by default and accepts all the usual commands for both PowerShell and the old command shell.

We can launch Windows Terminal by right-clicking inside any folder and choosing Windows Terminal from the context-menu. The same method works for launching the Terminal from Windows Desktop. In addition, we can launch it using the power user menu (Win+X).

But sometimes when you launch Terminal and try to use it, you notice that it does not accept any keystrokes. No matter what you type, using physical keyboard or virtual keyboard, using internal laptop keyboard or externally connected keyboard, it does nothing. While the keyboard works elsewhere, it does not work in Windows Terminal.

So what is the solution? The problem is that a Windows system service “Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service” has stopped working. Because of this, Windows Terminal does not accept any keystrokes at all. We can fix this problem just by re-enabling this service and making it to run automatically. Here is how:

1. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog. Type services.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter.
2. In the service management console, find a service named “Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service” and right-click on it. Select Properties from the right-click menu.
3. In the service properties window, make the startup type to be Automatic. Then click on the OK button to save the settings.
4. Close all the windows opened in these steps and restart Windows. When Windows has restarted, your Windows Terminal will start receiving keyboard input just like before.

Even though Windows Terminal is mainly designed keeping Windows 11 in mind, users of older versions of Windows can also install it from its open-source GitHub webpage at https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.