Keyboard issues

Hi

Reinstalled Windows recently, along with graphics driver. Since doing that my (USB) keyboard doesnt show the same symbols when keys are pressed as they should - eg @ appears on the key that has " on it and vice versa; the hash key gives me \ and the 'pound' sign (I am in the UK) gives me a #.

NB if it makes any difference, the keyboard is a new microsoft USB plug and play (doesnt need a driver apparently) on a fairly old Dell Optiplex desktop. But it worked fine on the preinstalled Win XP that was on the PC when I bought it (2nd hand).

OS is now XP loaded from a disc and updated to SP2.

 

Thanks for that, I now have SP3. But have checked the regional settings and it is UK English, still have the keyboard issues. Ive noticed this before on PCs; especially " and @ being the reverse of what is written on the keys, seems to be a common issue? Must be a way to reorganise the keyboard somehow? Especially theb pound sign which I cant get at all?

 

Update - in case anyone else has this - a bizarrely simple fix - alt and shift pressed together toggles the entire keyboard setup between US and UK regardless of regional settings. You get the £ sign back and @ is in the 'right' place

 

Hi,

I'm going by Win7 but XP should be similar.

In Regional and Language the first tab is Formats (which involves date/time settings) you need to change the tab to Keyboards and Languages. Then I have to hit Change Keyboards to get to the next window which shows the keyboard language--where you will want English UK.

Yours will probably be English US with no further choices in the dropdown box. So lower in the window you will want to hit the Add button. There you will get a list of languages including the English UK you need, so choose that. Click OK and Apply. Then go back to the top dropdown box that only included English US and now English UK should be available. Choose it and Apply the change. You may have to restart for changes to take effect.

If things don't match up post back and I will try to find and XP guide. Or, perhaps, plodr can test on an XP machine to see if she can help with any differences in the windows.

Edit: Perhaps you already have both languages installed and under the Keyboard and Language tab you will have both US and UK available in the first dropdown box and can just set UK to default and Apply, if the toggling does not persist through a reboot.