Keyboard Language Problems

[Dino]

I'm having some difficulties with the language of my keyboard changing
without me wanting it to. I'm from Canada, and so is my version... if that
matters? But yeah, as an example of the problem... everytime I try to put a
question mark, I get a capital E with an accent. A lot of my punctuation is
doing this. I notice the problem whenever I'm on Windows Live Messenger.
Wow, and you know what? Right now my question marks are working fine typing
this in Internet Explorer, but when I type in my Messenger window, it's like
my language for my computer is in french.

One comment, I do not have a keyboard language shortcut on my start menu or
my toolbar. If anyone could give me either a way to quickly change my
language or identify the problem within Windows Live Messenger, I would
really really appreciate it!

Thank you.

 

[Earle Horton]

What kind of physical keyboard do you have? I type in five languages, but
in Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Keyboards and Languages,
Change keyboards... all languages use the same US International keyboard.
This is a private setup that I have done myself. Many multilingual people
switch between physical keyboard layouts. To me, this is insane because
then you have to remember that many keyboard layouts. The US International
keyboard layout is able to produce any special character that I need. In my
opinion the keyboard in the Control Panel path above should be the actual
physical keyboard that you have, or else things happen like you are
describing.

Go into Control Panel, Regional and Language Options, Keyboards and
Languages, Change keyboards... and see if you don't have more than one
physical keyboard type installed.

Cheers,

Earle

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I'm having some difficulties with the language of my keyboard changing
without me wanting it to. I'm from Canada, and so is my version... if
that
matters? But yeah, as an example of the problem... everytime I try to put
a
question mark, I get a capital E with an accent. A lot of my punctuation
is
doing this. I notice the problem whenever I'm on Windows Live Messenger.
Wow, and you know what? Right now my question marks are working fine
typing
this in Internet Explorer, but when I type in my Messenger window, it's
like
my language for my computer is in french.

One comment, I do not have a keyboard language shortcut on my start menu
or
my toolbar. If anyone could give me either a way to quickly change my
language or identify the problem within Windows Live Messenger, I would
really really appreciate it!

Thank you.

I had this problem when I first got a Vista system. As you realize, the
problem is that you identifed yourself as being in Canada (so am I).

This choice installs a French-Canadian keyboard layout, and various things
cause the keyboard mapping to change to French, even if you disable all the
hotkeys for this.

The quick and effective solution is to to into Control Panel, Regional and
Language Options, Keyboards and Languages, Change Keyboards, and then
*remove* the French keyboard. Choose Apply and OK back to the desktop, and
restart.

I found that this completely ended the problem. When I reinstalled Vista
to a larger hard disk, I did this right away, and the keyboard mapping has
not changed once.

HTH
-pk