After opening Adobe Photoshop for the first time in a couple of days (CC 2015 to be exact, although I believe any version >CS 2014 were affected), weird shit started to happen. For one, I could not even draw on the canvas unless I was 100% zoomed out; it seemed like pen was registering as touch instead and I just ended up scrolling and zooming to random places on the canvas.
A bit of digging suggests that this was the result of a recent Windows 10 update, where some Windows Ink functionality was "improved". Although I didn't find anything specifying Windows Ink in the release notes, this update is the most likely culprit. Some users on Reddit's /r/photoshop were reporting the same issue starting from a day or two ago, so it's likely a recent thing.
The solution that's working for most on Reddit people is to just force Photoshop to use WinTab instead of Windows Ink.
Edit: Added a second solution, for anyone who wants to revert pen behaviour across any legacy application, not just photoshop.
Solution 1 (Photoshop-specific):
1. Create a plain text file called PSUserConfig
with the lines Use WinTab
and Use SystemStylus 0
2. Save the file at [Installation Drive]:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop [Version]\Adobe Photoshop [Version] Settings
Solution 2 (Any legacy application):
1. Open elevated command prompt (i.e. find cmd.exe
and right click -> Run as Administrator
)
2. Execute the following command: reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Pen /v LegacyPenInteractionModel /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
3. Note: If you ever want to revert back to the new pen behaviour, run reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Pen /v LegacyPenInteractionModel /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
the same way as the command in step 2. Or, go into the registry and change the value to a 0 yourself.
Feel free to provide any additional insight as to the cause of this issue.