Need help making a pair of keyboards work on Win10 or Linux

[dharmi]

I do a lot of typing everyday, so being able to use word processors and keyboards and keyboard shortcuts is very important to me.

I use my own keyboard layout, and to get that layout I have a pair of Access-IS keyboards that look like this
AKC080 http://www.access-is.com/pdf/AKC080_Pro ... yboard.pdf. Got them at an industrial sale while looking for discounted Aeron chairs. I didn't get my chairs, but I got these keyboards which were originally used for stock trading and currency conversion. So I am not using the original layout they were programmed with by Access-IS.

I had a setup that was good on Windows7. Never installed any driver, immediate plug and play. I downloaded Softprog from Access-IS, and was able to install and experiment right away. Because Softprog was so easy to use, even though I am not keyboard-savvy like the people on this forum, I was able to experiment with different layouts.

I never expected that this setup was actually not usable in other settings.

These keyboards do not work on Windows10 or Linux and I haven't been able to troubleshoot why at all. Access-IS refused to support their keyboards for Windows10 so they have no driver for me, but actually I have never installed any driver for my two keyboards. So surely they use some kind of generic driver for keyboards?

They seem to be called USB Multifunction Hubs by Windows, don't know if it makes any difference. Because Access-IS originally designed these keyboards to be capable of hosting trackpads or credit card readers as well, even though I am not using them with trackpads or credit card readers currently. So maybe the problem has something to do with Multifunction Hubs?

Over the past few years I have had to install many Windows 7 32 and 64 bit OS on different desktops and laptops for my office, since I am the most technically savvy young person in a geriatric workplace. I have always been able to use these Access-IS keyboards at the BIOS level without issue, so I am sure no real driver or special software is needed. Never had any problem with Windows 7 either, except one Win7 32bit computer did not recognize that my keyboards came in a pair at first. It was only willing to recognize the first keyboard plugged in. But after all Windows updates were done, it was able to accept input from both keyboards.

Please help!