Microsoft Pen Shortcut stops working

Question

Hello,

I have a Microsoft Surface pen I got a while ago, back with Windows 10. It was great on Windows 10, but now on Windows 11 it seems to randomly stop listening to the top/erasure button (specifically snipping tool for me, but it won't open anything I set the button to after a few minutes being connected).

I was wondering if there were any fixes or known issues about this. Some notes:

1. The button will initially work whenever I disconnect/reconnect the pen, but after a few minutes I will lose its functionality.
2. Yes, I have tried changing the app the button is set to open, no it does not change this behavior, as it will not open any app I set it to once it stops working.
3. I have "allow apps to override the shortcut button" disabled
4. This has been happening through multiple updates, my laptop is up to date.
5. I do notice strange behavior in the windows pen settings, it's pairing status will randomly go between "connected" and "not connected" even though the pen always writes just fine. The button does not work even when it does say "connected".

I would love any insight into this issue, as it is extremely frustrating for a $100 pen to have problems like this. I am using the pen on an HP Pavilion x360 touchscreen, and like I said it worked perfectly fine on Windows 10.

Thanks,

Blake

Answer 1

Open Device Manager >Expand Bluetooth > Find your pen

Right-click → Properties > Go to Power Management

Uncheck: Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power

Also do this under:

Human Interface Devices → HID-compliant pen

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Go to Settings → Bluetooth & devices > Remove the pen > Restart your PC > Re-pair the pen

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Go to HP’s official support site

Install latest Bluetooth driver

If already latest → try rollback from Device Manager