Why is the zoom feature on my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 not working?

Question

This may be an odd question, I apologize.

I just got the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 and was curious about how the zoom feature was to work. I'm using Windows 7 and in Word, Internet Explorer, or when viewing an image the zoom doesn't seem to do anything.

Device Manager says that the drivers are updated. Is there a special key combination that is used to make it work? I am not sure what I'm missing with this.

Solution 1

According to this Microsoft Support Article The Zoom slider key on the a Microsoft keyboard may not work correctly:

This problem may occur if the speed in the IntelliType Pro software for the Zoom slider key is not set to Fast.

Follow these steps to adjust that:

1. Open the Keyboard control panel:

   

2. Open the Zooming panel and set the zooming speed to Fast:

   

Also make sure that Enable zooming is enabled:

Solution 2

F Lock Key disables Zoom Slider as well the above mentioned software. The newest version is in the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center software download at support page for keyboard.

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/natural-ergonomic-keyboard-4000#support

Solution 3

The zoom lever on this keyboard is supposed to act something like control-mouse-wheel does in a Web browser or Microsoft Office products. You can flick the lever one way or the other and the text or picture zooms in or out.

The functionality was implemented by Microsoft's IntelliType driver. The final driver release was August 2011. Nevertheless, Microsoft still provides downloads for drivers which could work for older products such as the Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. Microsoft has an Accessories Support site with a page “Which devices are supported by Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center?” It discusses older products which rely on IntelliType. The advice there recommends not installing the latest Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center software release. Instead, it recommends either:

• installing version 2.3 of the same software
• installing the plain IntelliType driver

Download links are provided for each recommendation. For what it's worth, I followed the recommendation on a Windows 10 system with a different vintage 2011 keyboard—Microsoft Digital Media Pro—and its zoom feature now works as it did originally.