Keyboard problems

[Mike88]

Since a recent Windows update (but possibly not because of it)I have noticed some strange behaviour emanating from my keyboard. If I press shift and 2 which should be the quotation symbol I get the at symbol as used for emails ; if I press shift and the pound symbol I get the hashtag symbol and if I press shift and the at symbol I get the quotation mark symbol.

Any ideas what is wrong and how the problem can be rectified?

Thanks.

[nmdhqbc]

seems like your pc thinks you have an american keyboard.

[nmdhqbc]

https://www.wikihow.tech/Change-Your-Ke ... to-English

[Mike88]

Thanks very much. Sorted. I wouldn't have had a clue without your help. Thanks again.

[stewamax]

For reasons best known to Mr Microsoft, the reversion to US keyboard after one of the major biannual Win10 updates appears quite common and almost expectable. It doesn't, however, seem to happen after the minor Patch Tuesday security updates.

[Breelander]

Since a recent Windows update (but possibly not because of it)I have noticed some strange behaviour emanating from my keyboard. If I press shift and 2 which should be the quotation symbol I get the at symbol as used for emails ; if I press shift and the pound symbol I get the hashtag symbol and if I press shift and the at symbol I get the quotation mark symbol.

nmdhqbc has told you how to change back to a UK keyboard, I can tell you the probable reason why the update changed it to US as I (used to) have this problem on my PC (I'll give my fix later).

This would have been Windows 10 and you have just been updated to version 1803. A Features Update from one version to the next is an upgrade. Unlike a cumulative update that just patches some of the system files, a features update reinstalls the whole windows system.

Windows has a base language, the underlying language of the installed system files (known as the System Locale). You can change the language that you see and use to another (the Input Locale) by installing language packs and not have any indication that your apparently UK Windows is actually US Windows under the skin.

The base language is only important when upgrading Windows. You can only upgrade using the install files of the same base language of your windows. So an en-us windows has to be upgraded with en-us install media. Unfortunately, language packs are version-specific, so after the upgrade a new en-gb language pack has to be added to return to using UK English.

To find out the System Locale and Input Locale of your Windows, open a Command Prompt and type the command SYSTEMINFO. You get a lot of other info, so to just see the relevant info try the command...
SYSTEMINFO | FIND "Locale"

Code: Select all

C:\Users\owner>SYSTEMINFO | FIND "Locale"
System Locale:             en-gb;English (United Kingdom)
Input Locale:              en-gb;English (United Kingdom)

C:\Users\owner>

Originally my PC's System Locale was en-us. I'm in the UK. My laptop was built for the UK market, but for some reason best known to Toshiba it came with the EN-US version of Windows 7 installed (even the version in the manufacturer's recovery partition was EN-US). When I got the free upgrade to 10240 it too was EN-US (you can only upgrade to the same language) so I then had to install the GB language packs. These of course were lost in the Fall Upgrade to 1511 because that too had to be an upgrade in EN-US.

However, once upgraded to 1511 EN-US I did a second upgrade install, this time using the EN-GB 1511 install media. Apparently though you have to use the same language to upgrade to a newer version if you want to keep your files and apps, you can then upgrade to the same version in another language and keep all your files and apps.

For the anniversary update (1607) and all subsequent Feature Updates I could now upgrade with the EN-GB install media and all my language settings remained as I wanted them.