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111

I've inherited an old PC from my girlfriend's dad and when setting up the printer I got a bit of a surprise:

Toaster keyboard

Two questions spring to mind here:

  1. Why does Windows think my wireless keyboard is a toaster?
  2. Why does Windows even have an icon for a toaster in the devices menu?
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40  
Can you please add the model name of the keyboard? –  A.L 9 hours ago
2  
@A.L google suggests that an there may be several keyboard-toaster models –  Kevin L 4 hours ago

1 Answer 1

up vote 521 down vote accepted

Reason 1

Because Microsoft made a toaster driver sample. In the sample there is the line <DeviceIconFile>Toaster.ico</DeviceIconFile> and there is a chance that your keyboard manufacturer took that sample.

Reason 2

Look at the back of the keyboard for some place to insert a slice of bread…

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51  
Now that you mention it there is a bread slot! So I'm guessing they've just copy-pasted the XML and forgot to change the icon? Still pretty bizarre. –  ydaetskcoR 13 hours ago
29  
@ydaetskcoR As you can see from the icon, the toaster brand is indeed Fabrikam (i.e. a fictional company). –  and31415 12 hours ago
11  
The keyboard driver developer was probably using this toaster example as a template and forgot to replace the icon. –  Ido.Co 10 hours ago
1  
yd: Not XML, but the .INF file. (We wish they'd go to XML for INF files...) There was a case where a company got a copy of PCI System Architecture by Mindshare, which is an essential book if you're building PCI devices, and copied the manufacturer ID and product ID from the examples in the book, for their own PCI device. Makes you want to slap someone. –  Jamie Hanrahan 3 hours ago

protected by Community♦ 10 hours ago

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