In Win 7 on Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000's quick-launch keys, Firefox & Thunderbird launch only in Taskbar, without opening program, then unfocused

Although these quick-launch keys on this keyboard worked fine on this computer when running Windows XP, when I switched to Windows 7 64-bit they started to have this problem, but only with Firefox & Thunderbird. And if I program these keys to open other programs, they don't have the problem. So it's some compatibility thing between Firefox/Thunderbird, Win7 64-bit, and this keyboard's software (latest version).
When I press one of the quick-launch keys on this keyboard programmed for Firefox/Thunderbird, they display a program rectangle in the Taskbar only, but no program opens on the screen. When I hover the mouse over this rectangle on the Taskbar, the program immediately opens, but out of focus.
I've also tried resetting Firefox, but that doesn't change the behavior at all.

The window that is focused is whatever the previous one opened was. If Firefox or Thunderbird are launched with no other windows open, nothing is focused.
After working with Microsoft's tech support on this problem over the phone, and replacing the keyboard driver & software with the one called Microsoft Mouse & Keyboard (both this and the one I had used are shown as the current drivers on Microsoft's 4000 Keyboard download page), nothing changed. Then I worked on the computer for a while, and the problem suddenly went away.
The only remaining problem is that Thunderbird doesn't search for mail right away when I open it. This is true regardless of how I open it (from the keyboard quick launch key, from the start menu, from a shortcut, etc.). Perhaps this is a totally different problem.
Thanks for your help.

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