You might have seen the dreaded error codes of 10 ( "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" ) and 39 ( "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)" ) messages. The solution is elaborated really nicely here: http://hateadub.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/code-10-device-manager-keyboard-and-mouse-not-working/ In my case, the issue was with the mouse and the keyboard which made it extra infuriating since I needed to use the On-Screen Keyboard and Mouse Keys (true nightmare). In particular, the issue was with the "upper filters" in the bowels of the registry where you just needed to keep 1 value ( HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} mouclass and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} kbdclass) Once I retire, I will get back and take a look at windows documentation, in particular, h